Kira Malou and Michael O’Reilly in Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story on Stage at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London and Touring. Picture: Alastair Muir
Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage continues at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 24 November 2018, then on tour until 17 August 2019.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
The matrons of Wimbledon squealed with delight when Michael O’Reilly in the role made famous by Patrick Swayze in the 1987 movie peeled off his shirt to reveal a well-honed six-pack and impressive broad shoulders.
The fact that O’Reilly, on his professional debut, was no great shakes as an actor didn’t bother them one bit: he could certainly dance and he was quite a hunk.
Dirty Dancing, originally a low-budget film that made millions, became a very successful stage show, on Broadway in 2004 and resided at the Aldwych in the West End for five years in 2006 before an eight-month revival at the Piccadilly Theatre in 2014.
It has toured the UK before and here it is again, heading off to 21 more towns and cities until next August and although opening night at Wimbledon was no sell-out, it has always pleased audiences more than the critics.
It is simple, undemanding fare and although it does touch on serious subjects such as the class divide and abortion, it never throws them at your face.
We are taken back to 1963 America at the Kellerman’s resort, a sort of upmarket Pontin’s, where the well-to-do clientele are lavishly catered for and even the waiters are Harvard graduates.
Johnny Castle is a professional dancer from the other side of the tracks who is employed to teach rich wives how to dance (among other things) while husbands go off to play golf or poker.
His striking girlfriend Penny is also there as a dance teacher and cabaret performer. As Penny, Australian dancer Simone Covele, once a can-can soloist at the Moulin Rouge, has legs that go on forever and knows exactly how to use them. Her high-kicks are thrilling.
Along come sweet Baby (Kira Malou, excellent) and the Houseman family as guests. She is the apple of her father’s eye. They are on a freebie because Dr Houseman (Lynden Edwards) once saved the owner’s life.
Baby is expected to go to college, join President Kennedy’s Peace Corps and marry well. She hasn’t a clue about dancing but handsome Johnny is there to teach her.
One thing leads to another, just as it seems to do regularly on Strictly Come Dancing, and by the end of Act I they end up in a relationship. Cue Johnny’s naked torso and much audience whistling.
Meanwhile, Baby’s sister Lisa (Lizzie Ottley, amusingly wobbly in a hula dance) has a crush on randy Robbie, the philandering waiter who has got Penny pregnant and is warned by Baby to steer clear as she knows he’s bad news and not her Johnny who’s been framed for it and sacked.
All’s well that ends well, as you would expect, and the young lovers win the day with her father’s blessing in a riot of colour, song and dance. It’s all rather predictable.
The music is almost incidental but 1950s pop and folk songs of the era, or snippets of them, come and go and there’s some decent singing, mostly by Sian Gentle-Green as Elizabeth and Alex Wheeler as Billy.
Lori Haley Fox is also in good voice as Dr Houseman’s wife Marjorie but this show is all about dancing. The action is split into short scenes and comes over as rather bitty.
Colin Charles, Mark Faith, Greg Fossard and Jack McKenzie, good as resort owner Max Kellerman, play the other main parts.
Eleanor Bergstein wrote the story with additional scenes not in the movie and incorporating songs she wanted for the movie but was unable to obtain.
The sets by Roberto Comotti, with clever images of trees and pool where Johnny and Baby practise their lift, deserve a mention as do the vintage outfits by costume designer Jennifer Irwin.
Gillian Bruce’s choreography is attractive and often exhilarating. Amelia Armstrong, Millie Hood, Alessia McDermott and Carlie Milner dance up a storm as the ensemble, along with Oliver Ramsdale, Ashley Rumble and Tom Bowen.
The live music is supplied by Miles Russell, Kieran Kuypers and Ben Mabberley, playing all manner of instruments. Federico Bellone has directed a pleasant enough, nostalgic evening but not a memorable one.
Jeremy Chapman
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