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 Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on StageAldwych Theatre, West End, Greater London
Synopsis
Beloved coming of age film, Dirty Dancing comes to the Westend stage to take you back to 1963... ....when everybody called me Baby and it didn’t occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy got shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldn’t wait to join the Peace Corps and I thought I’d never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the summer we went to Kellerman’s’ Experience the excitement and romance of the blockbuster film - live on stage. Featuring the hit songs from the best selling movie soundtrack of all time including; Time Of My Life, Hungry Eyes, Hey Baby and Do You Love Me? First dance. First love. The 1987 film starred Jennifer Grey as the teenaged Baby who falls in love with the camp's working class dance instructor, played by Patrick Swayze. Running time 2hrs 30mins.
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Review Round-up: Can £12m Make Dirty Critic-Proof?Date: 25 October 2006 The stage adaptation of Eighties film blockbuster Dirty Dancing, which has topped West End box office records with advance ticket sales of £12 million, received its UK premiere last night (24 October 2006, previews from 29 September) at the Aldwych Theatre (See News, 24 Feb 2006). At an upmarket American holiday camp called Kellerman’s in the summer of 1963, Baby Houseman falls in love with the camp's working class dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze in the iconic 1987 film), whose climactic line, “Nobody puts Baby in the corner”, has since become a classic. It stars Josef Brown (from the original stage production in Australia) and Georgina Rich as Johnny and Baby. Brown and Rich are joined in the London cast by David Rintoul as Baby’s father Dr Jake Houseman, Issy Van Randwyck as Baby’s mother Marjorie, Isabella Calthorpe as Baby’s sister Lisa and Nadia Coote (from the Australian production) as Penny. Dirty Dancing has been adapted for the stage by the film’s screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein, who based the story’s setting on her own childhood experiences of family holidays in America’s Catskill Mountains. In addition to recordings of period hits, the stage show includes hit songs from the film including “Hungry Eyes”, “She’s Like the Wind” and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”. The stage production is directed by James Powell and designed by Stephen Brimson-Lewis, with choreography by Kate Champion and music direction by Chris Newton. With such a recognisable title and already-unprecedented sales, Dirty Dancing is nigh on critic-proof. Nevertheless, the critics attended the first night along with a star-studded audience. While they largely enjoyed the spectacle of the dances and the complex and impressive scenery, most questioned why they didn’t stay at home with the DVD as the stage adaptation, they felt, added little to the film. So, while being drawn into the modern fairy tale-type story, critics didn’t quite have the time of their lives.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (2 stars) – “It’s admirable that the show follows the 1987 film so faithfully, because Eleanor Bergstein’s story is a good one… The ensemble dance numbers come thrillingly alive in Kate Champion’s choreography, and the central couple of Josef Brown and Georgina Rich are much more attractive than Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the movie, Brown especially taking Johnny on to a higher level of sexual intensity and technical dance ability. He also doesn’t have too annoying a hairstyle. The score is a jukebox of the Chantels, the Drifters, Tina Turner, Otis Redding, and so on, but it doesn’t have the coherent texture of a ‘proper’ musical and often seems quite arbitrary. In the end, you feel as though you’ve been cudgelled by a brand product, not gone through the genuine experience of musical theatre.” Benedict Nightingale in The Times (4 stars) – “This makes Hans Christian Andersen look like a kitchen-sink realist. But who cares when Brown is on the dance floor or (inevitably) in his bedroom…. When he and Rich’s Baby are at their sinuous best, you feel what that movie suggested. Dancing isn’t almost as good as sex. No, sex is almost as good as dancing – or, rather, both are indivisible. Maybe that’s enough to justify a show which adds so little to the original.... All this is brilliantly staged, but raises an obvious question. Why not get a DVD of the movie…? Yet I found myself warming to Bergstein’s modern fairy story and to the principals: Brown, elegant of mind and spirit as well as body, and Rich, growing in assurance, skill and beauty as she takes her life into her own hands – and, of course, her own feet.” Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail – “The best thing about Dirty Dancing is its ending. It’s not a case of ‘thank God the thing’s over’… it’s that at last, after nearly three hours of huffing and puffing, after endless scenelets, 55 tunes and more hoofing than you get in the Epson Derby, this over-plugged, under-acted, hyper-pumped commercial vehicle achieves lift-off…. The set has swivelling gizmos aplenty. Platforms keep rising and falling, to the point that any theatregoer who has dined too heavily may start to feel queasy…. Dirty Dancing is a night of good, jiggly rubbish, blameless silliness which ends with an uplifting finale. It’s hard to dislike it, but it’s also hard to call it memorable art. It’s a product, and it shows.” Lyn Gardner in the Guardian (2 stars) – “Less full-blown musical and more a play with a musical soundtrack…. When somebody does break into song, it often looks like a mistake. Even the leads appear to have been cast for their physical similarity to the original stars…. In the movie, Baby and Johnny's lessons in dance and love come across like an exceptionally sexy soap powder commercial. Here they come across like an advert for soap powder being shot on the cheap. Why spend £35 a ticket on this when you can rent a DVD for far less and leave your seat to make a cup of tea during the smoochy boring bits?... The point about Baby is that she is only learning to dance, so the routines between her and Johnny which take up an awful lot of the show have slightly less appeal than the routines on Strictly Come Dancing. It is not so much dirty dancing as mildly dishevelled dancing…. The show… is so busy serving up helpings of double cheese that it entirely neglects to incorporate any narrative drive or tension.” Paul Taylor in the Independent – “The dancing… is the delight of James Powell's attractively staged and happiness-spreading production of the nifty theatrical adaptation by Eleanor Bergstein. True, as Johnny, the chippy dance instructor at the up-market American Butlins, Josef Brown does not have the balletic dynamism of Patrick Swayze in the movie, nor does he have the latter's capacity to make you root for the little man, as he's a tall, strapping mass of muscle. But he and the well-cast Georgina Rich - who brings light physical grace and just the right kind of unconventional attractiveness to the role of doctor's daughter, ‘Baby’ Houseman - radiate an infectious pleasure in their dancing together. This is a show that will give keen pleasure to Dirty Dancing addicts and to newcomers alike…. The music is a mixture of recorded golden oldies…. in general, this is a very enjoyable evening.” - by Caroline Ansdell Dirty DancingVenue: Aldwych TheatreWhere: West End Date Reviewed: 25 October 2006 WOS Rating:  Average Reader Rating: Reader Reviews: View and add to our user reviewsDirty Dancing arrives at the Aldwych with an almost impregnable pedigree. It has taken over £12 million at the box office. It's an iconic movie for more or less every woman under the age of 35. It proposes the not very brilliant idea that good dancing means good sex, and that physical repression makes you mean-spirited. It's admirable that the show follows the 1987 film so faithfully, because Eleanor Bergstein’s story is a good one. Jewish princess “Baby” Houseman on holiday with her family in the Catskills falls in with the entertainment set – she goes backstage with a huge watermelon, remember? – and the mambo-dancing instructor Johnny Castle, played on celluloid by Patrick Swayze, sporting probably the worst mullet in the history of cinema. Standing in for his pregnant partner – whose abortion is charitably arranged by Baby dredging the dough from her doctor father – Baby scores a hit at the dance cabaret evening and eventually weaves her way into Johnny’s bed, after some enjoyable, guilty diversions in the rain and on the road. Turning her back on her background, Baby takes off and the rest of the ensemble join in. This is 1963, the same year as Caroline, Or Change, but before the death of JFK and the arrival in the US of the Beatles. This sense of a distant past is well conveyed in James Powell’s production, which arrives in London with all guns blazing, and all stars – from Ian McKellen to Barbara Windsor and Rolf Harris on opening night – gawping, and the management plying first-nighters with complimentary champagne. Unfortunately, not so much attention has been paid to the body on the slab, the show itself, which is badly microphoned, poorly acted and unimaginatively transferred from film to stage. Scenes just pile up, not flowing with any propulsion or dynamic. The film works better because of the quality of the performances, not least that of the late, great Jerry Orbach as Baby’s father. Here, David Rintoul, a fine actor on his day, is reduced to a cardboard cut-out in a terrible wig. Also dispensed with is the social upheaval implied in the movie when the days of these holiday camps is numbered in the remark that Europe is where people are now going – 22 countries in three days! Still, the ensemble dance numbers come thrillingly alive in Kate Champion’s choreography, and the central couple of Josef Brown and Georgina Rich are much more attractive than Swayze and Jennifer Grey in the movie, Brown especially taking Johnny on to a higher level of sexual intensity and technical dance ability. He also doesn’t have too annoying a hairstyle. The score is a jukebox of the Chantels, the Drifters, Tina Turner, Otis Redding, and so on, but it doesn’t have the coherent texture of a “proper” musical and often seems quite arbitrary. In the end, you feel as though you’ve been cudgelled by a brand product, not gone through the genuine experience of musical theatre. The most enjoyable performances, apart from that of Brown and Rich, are those of the gloriously exotic Rae Baker as the married woman with an eye on the resident gigolo, the stunning Nadia Coote as the exemplary dancer and Billy Boyle as a sex-switching hotel resident. Stephen Brimson Lewis’ designs follow the film without finding a new stage language. - Michael Coveney | Score | Comment | Date |  | Caught up with this Thursday last week. What a complete mess. Show's can run too long and this was definately one of them. The performances were lack lustre and there is some of the worst acting seen on the West End stage for years. It really was a masterclass on poor production and execution. Even the die-hard fans of this show had great difficulty summoning any excitement and not until the last 5 minutes of a very long evening was there any real effort from the performers. This was really DIRE! Such a shame when such good shows are closing left right and centre that this can survive and also charging top whack for the tickets. - Stuart | 08 Jun 09 | | When They Get The Rampant Rabbits Out And Throw Them Into The Crowd Was The Best Part. However the Singing Was Awful. The Sex Scene Impressed Me. Where There Was A 69er Occuring On On Toip Of A Car. - Ryan | 08 Dec 08 | | The Bit Where She Gets Her Rat Out Is The Best - Ryan | 08 Dec 08 | | Wonderful evening, the cast were fantastic and the dancing was amazing. - Heidi | 25 Jul 08 | | Anyone know who played the father Dr Houseman on Monday 16th June 2008?
Watch the movie - it is FAR better.
- Mary Crampton | 17 Jun 08 | | Brilliantly staged with excellent use of projections, platforms and the revolve, Sarah Manton is charming as Baby Houseman and, given the demographic of the audience, a really short queue for the Gents, but that's about the extent of the good news. The show plods through countless short scenes with snippets of largely irrelevant pre-recorded songs and the story runs the gamut of emotions from A to A-. Richard Lawrence, the alternate Johnny, has the charisma and acting ability of a limp lettuce and some of the supporting performances aren't even that good. Critically, compared to Strictly Come Dancing (and even more to the American counterpart), the dancing is surprisingly unexciting. After two and a half long hours the show finally bursts into life with a closing sequence that at last features real musical theatre: great vocals and a killer brass section. There is clearly a huge audience for this formulaic, joyless product, as there probably will be for Never Forget. Jersey Boys demonstrates how to tell a story and use great songs from this period but is unlikely to match the success of this limp cash-in. - David Baxter | 25 May 08 | | As a massive fan of the film, I was looking forward to seeing it played out live but boy was I in for a shock! If you love the film but also have a love of theatre then do not waste your money on this. Me and my friends could have done a better job in high school! The acting was wooden and it felt like the cast were going through the "motions". The only good thing to come out of it was the actress who played Penny and the final dance routine. Very disappointing and I can't help feeling cheated! - Nina | 05 May 08 | | Been to a couple of west end shows now and only went to this to keep the wife happy. I have to admit it was fantastic. The girl who played baby looked remarkably like her and she played the part to perfection. The atmosphere was electric and i would recommend this to anyone looking for a memorable night. - Jimmy Lyons | 26 Nov 07 | | The audience spoilt this for me - both by cheering and whistling throughout, and also by getting up and leaving during the finale. Possibly because it was the 2nd showing on a Friday and getting late. Also don't be conned by theatre staff into being allowed into the stalls bar rather than queuing outside. You will be penned into a crowded sauna and not allowed into the cooler corridor for health and safety reasons. One way of making you buy a drink. I was however entertained throughout by the mouse running round the aisles. Loved the movie, but can take or leave this show. - Jennifer | 16 Oct 07 | | I agree with some of the comments about unnecessary cheering and wolf-whistling. It really ruined the show for me.
Other than that though, I really enjoyed it. Thought it was quite true to the film with some new bits added to and some songs missed out.
I agree that there wasnt really enough live singing but as the title suggests it's mostly based around Dancing!
I did think that the first half dragged a bit but the second half was brilliant. The woman who plays Baby was really good.
The only other thing was that I couldnt hear the two main leads very well. They were quite quiet but everyone else was okay to hear.
I would possibly go again although the crowds of screaming women put me off. It was like being at a Chippendales concert! - Sophie | 16 Oct 07 | | | Click here for more user reviews and to post your own |
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