Dirty Dancing giving fans the time of their lives
by SHANDELLE BATTERSBY for the New Zealand Herald

When the lights come back on they reveal Frances "Baby" Houseman lying on her bed, writing in her diary. It is the summer of 1963. And this is the faithful Australian recreation of 1987's popular teen flick Dirty Dancing as a stage show, complete with multi-media video imagery, live band and more flashy dance moves than you can shake a stick at.

published: March 25, 2006

Dirty Dancing at the Civic
by REBECCA BARRY for the New Zealand Herald

On stage, the story hasn't lost its spirit, thanks to superbly executed choreography, striking stage design and excellent performances. It also has a swaggering Josef Brown with no shirt on - and from where we were sitting, he practically was Swayze anyway.

Neighbours star Kym Valentine injected her own spark into the role of Baby, and it was a relief to see she could pull off the character's gawkiness and enthusiasm that the slightly plainer Jennifer Grey managed in the film.

published: April 1, 2006

The time of our lives - revisited
by EMMA BROCKES for the Guardian

Although they clog up auditions, it is the "amateurs" who hold the key to the success of the Dirty Dancing stage show, as the producers must know. If 1,000 women will queue for hours in the freezing cold for a chance to play Baby, then how many thousands will turn up to see the show when it opens at the Aldwych Theatre in September?

published: April 13, 2006

Stage version of 'Dirty Dancing' sells out in record time
by TERRI JUDD for the Independent

Musicals are as popular as ever in the West End: this production follows such massive hits as Billy Elliot, The Producers and the Queen show We Will Rock You.

published: April 13, 2006

The time of your life
by LUCY POWELL for the Times

Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage has clocked up more than £6 million in ticket sales, six weeks before it opens. It is the biggest, fastest advance sale of any show in West End history. Preparations are currently underway for productions in Paris, the Netherlands, Toronto, Chicago and Spain. Dirty Dancing is fast shaping up to be the biggest theatrical event not just in London but in the world.

published: September 16, 2006

'There's a secret dancer inside us all'
by VERONICA LEE for the Daily Telegraph

For Bergstein, much of it is autobiographical. "I was a teenager in 1963, we were New York Jewish, I was a doctor's daughter with one older sister and we took holidays in the Catskills." But Baby isn't the character with most of her in it; it was Johnny.

"My father practised in a poor area and charged only a dollar a consultation," she says. "So we never had much money. Johnny, who comes from the wrong side of the tracks and scratches a living as a dancing teacher, represents the 'otherness' I felt."

published: September 23, 2006

Dirty Dancing, Aldwych Theatre, London
by ALASTAIR MACAULAY for the Financial Times
published: October 25, 2006

“Dirty dancing” is a dance metaphor for, of course, sex. ...

This stage show, which opened in Australia in 2004 and has achieved a record- breaking West End advance, takes the metaphor very seriously throughout most of Act One.

The audience has been ready for years - Tickets fly for 'Dirty Dancing' on stage
....
"Dirty Dancing" is making its East Coast premiere, with the aim of going to Broadway. It's a stage adaptation of the popular 1987 film about a young 1960s tourist named Baby (Jennifer Grey) who falls for Johnny, a Catskill Mountains dance instructor (Patrick Swayze). Producers say ticket sales are tapping into a large pool of fans of the movie, including many who don't often go to the theater.

Bringing 'Dirty Dancing' to life - Eleanor Bergstein infuses stage version with political punch her film held back
....
For many "Dirty Dancing" fans, the film was a simple love story about a young woman who falls for her dance instructor at a Catskills Mountain resort. But to Bergstein, who wrote the screenplay based on her own experiences vacationing with her family (she was a "teen mambo queen"), it was always much more.

It was a film about liberals and class struggles.

’87 cult classic still moves local dancers
Some may think “Dirty Dancing” is the simple tale of a teen girl and a dance instructor who put the moves on her in more ways than one.

But for many professional dancers, the 1987 film is a landmark in the pantheon of dance movies.

Digging ‘Dirty Dancing’: Classic ’80s film mambos onto Boston stage
Love “Dirty Dancing?” Thank Michael Douglas.

The “Wall Street” star’s bump-and-grind with Jill Clayburgh was cut from an obscure ’80s flick, leading the way for the cult-classic dance movie to be made, according to creator Eleanor Bergstein.

From the first throbbing chords to the final ecstatic dance, "Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage" grabs the audience hard and holds on tight. If Disney World had a "Dirty Dancing" ride, it would feel a lot like this.

In other words, this is not so much a stage-musical adaptation of the 1987 movie as a wildly magnified, amplified, spectacularized reenactment of it.