Dirty Dancing is back on tour in 2016. Pictured are members of the 2014–15 touring cast. Picture: Tristram Kenton
A brand new production of Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage will tour the UK from August 2016. The classic story of Baby and Johnny, featuring the hit songs ‘Hungry Eyes’, ‘Hey! Baby’, ‘Do You Love Me?’ and ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’, will return next summer, following two West End runs and two hit UK tours.
This new production will be created by director by Federico Bellone, artistic director of Milan’s Teatro Nazionale, choreographer Gillian Bruce and top Italian set designer Roberto Cometti. The production premiered in Milan in July 2015, subsequently packing out the 15,000 seat Roman Arena in Verona, and will play a season in Rome this autumn before embarking on a major Italian tour. To mark the tenth anniversary of the original stage show, a new Australian tour was launched last year, and to date has sold a record 416,000 tickets since October 2014.
After a series of dates in China, Belgium and Korea, the new UK production will open at the Blackpool Opera House on 11 August 2016 and will play the following venues: Orchard Theatre, Dartford (1–10 September), Opera House, Swansea (12–17 September), Aylesbury Waterside (19–24 September), New Theatre, Wimbledon (26 September–1 October), Palace Theatre, Manchester (10–15 October), Grand Opera House, York (17–22 October), Carlisle Sands Centre (24–29 October), Northampton Derngate (31 October–5 November), Regent Theatre, Stoke (7–12 November), Kings Theatre, Southsea (14–19 November) and Reading Hexagon (21–26 November), with further dates and casting to be announced.
Since its Australian debut in 2004, Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage, has become a worldwide phenomenon, with productions staged in New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore and throughout Europe. After sell-out seasons in Paris and Vienna the show continues to tour in France and German speaking territories. It’s also currently playing in Italy, with each individual production using local French, German, and Italian speaking companies; the French tour alone has played to 500,000 people since it launched in January.
Dirty Dancing –The Classic Story On Stage originally opened at London’s Aldwych Theatre in 2006 with a record-breaking advance of £15 million, making it the fastest ever selling show in West End theatre history. The production became the longest running show in the history of the Aldwych Theatre and played to more than two million people during its triumphant five-year run.
The first ever UK tour of Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage, which launched in 2011, took an unprecedented £42,000,000 at theatres across the country. In 2013, Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage returned to the West End and played at the Piccadilly Theatre in London until 23 February 2014, prior to launching a second UK and Ireland tour.
Produced by Karl Sydow, Joye Entertainment and Paul Elliott, in association with Lionsgate and Magic Hour Productions, and written by Eleanor Bergstein, script writer of the phenomenally successful 1987 film, the production features the much-loved characters and original dialogue from the iconic film, with extra scenes added in.
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.