It is these women who predominate in the audience of the West End’s Aldwych Theatre, where the atmosphere resembles a (civilised) hen party. Re-creating old favourites like this on stage must be tricky, even with the same writer, Eleanor Bergstein, involved. Do you put a new stamp on it or remain faithful to the original? Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story On Stage, in its fourth year with a new cast freshly in place, follows the latter path.
Some of the set adaptations from screen to stage work better than others – the bridge on which Baby practises her steps is perfect, the lift scene in the lake isn’t – and the stage show explores in more depth the political background of “that summer” in 1963 when Daddy’s girl Frances “Baby” Houseman meets rebellious dance teacher Johnny Castle on a family holiday at Kellerman’s resort.
As in the film, the dancing outshines the acting – there are some dubious American accents and moments of unwarranted melodrama. Johnny Wright stood out as (the other) Johnny, echoing Patrick Swayze even in his gestures; while classically trained Hannah Vassallo as Baby does her best at dancing someone who can’t dance learning to dance. There are some nice crowd set pieces too – “clean” cha cha chas and mambos – as well as the more risqué choreographies danced by the staff at the resort, featuring the familiar face and endless legs of “So You Think You Can Dance” winner Charlie Bruce.
By the end of the show, anticipation of the big moment has become too much for some members of the audience and when Johnny comes to claim his Baby someone behind me actually emits a little yelp, then the wolf-whistling and shrieking starts in earnest. The “dirty dancing”, in truth, is as innocent as most adolescent summers, but they’re always the summers we long to relive, and Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story On Stage offers more than ample opportunity to do that.
Photographs © Tristam Kenton
