Dirty Dancing

Unless you’ve recently emigrated here from Mars, you will know Dirty Dancing; you’ll know the storyline, you’ll be able to quote lines and, although you won’t admit it, you can probably do that dance routine as well. But one thing is for sure, you’ve never seen the story told quite like this.

Before the show even opened in the UK, it had sold out for the first six months of its run, smashing box office records and proving that the message of the musical is still as strong as ever. What the stage version gives that perhaps you 1000th watching of the worn-out DVD won’t is a chance to experience the story in a much more personal and intimate way. Baby’s infatuation with sultry and sexy dance teacher Johnny Castle seems all the more intense seen up-close on stage; and the wonderfully raunchy dance moves and rhythms of the all-night dance parties in New York’s Catskill Mountains seem all the more alluring.

Die-hard fans who are worried that perhaps the film will be tinkered with on stage and thus spoiled needn’t be worried, every last bit of speech and action has been faithfully recreated and, just in case you forget that you’re watching the stage version of a film, video projections are also used throughout the performance.

Ultimately the aim of Eleanor Bergstein, the author of the stage version, was to welcome the audience into the theatre as if they were visitors to Kellerman’s resort itself. The audience will actually, as many have wished many times before, feel like they are there in the midst of the action rather than being-far removed from it as a film-viewing dictates.

There is something new for the purists as well though, new scenes have been added which take place before, after, or indeed at the same time as many of the scenes from the film. This allows the play to branch out beyond the areas touched on the cinematic version of Dirty Dancing, and allows more stories to be told. Whether you consider this altering and adding to the story to be innovative and exciting or practically sacrilegious however will all depend on how protective you are of the original film.

What this show must be applauded for though is adding something new, and something exciting, to a story everybody thought they knew. Go along to the Aldwhych Theatre and see for yourself.