Most eighties babies never looked at pottery wheels quite the same after seeing the 1990 film Ghost, starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze as young lovers. The movie's iconic, romantic scene where Moore, as Molly, is haunted by the ghost of her murdered husband Sam (Swayze), while molding a clay vase, and listening to "Unchained Melody," is forever cemented as one of this writer's cues to cry. Now, after a successful run on the West End, Ghost the Musical is coming to Broadway this spring. We saw a preview last week with a staunch chip on our shoulders in allegiance with our beloved movie version, but it turns out there's more romance to be milked out of Ghost's story than we thought. Here are five reasons we'll be binging on the Baskin-Robbins after seeing the full production in March.1. At the presentation, Ghost's screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin who also wrote the musical's book, revealed that Sam and Molly's infamous "I love you," "ditto" exchange was inspired by his inability to say "I love you. too" to an ex-girlfriend. Instead, he would simply reply, "ditto." When he met his now-wife he was finally able to say "I love you" back and ditched the "ditto," but it stayed in the movie as Sam and Molly's term on endearment.
2. Rubin also informed the audience that his choice to make Molly a sculptor was inspired by his wife's sculptural skills. He wanted to convey that Molly was a strong woman who cold mold large amounts of clay, find Sam's murderer and move on with her life.
3. Ghost's songwriters, Glen Ballard and the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, are two of the most successful pop music songwriters in the business, so they, of course, know a thing or two about an epic love ballad. (Ballard worked on Wilson Phillips' debut album. Need we say more?) It makes sense, then, that songs like "Here I Am," and "With You" had just the right amount of sap without melting into a puddle of overdone schmaltz.
4. Sam, played by Richard Fleeshman, has Patrick Swayze-style-swoon-worthy pecs. What a relief.
5. Although part of us would like nothing more than to see a '90s Demi Moore clone playing Molly, we do think Broadway actress Caissie Levy's wavy, blonde locks look hotter than Moore's boyish pixie cut which always kind of irked us in the film.
Pictured is Levy and Fleeshman recreating the pottery sex scene in Ghost the Musical which opens on March 15th at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.