Dirty Dancing Comes To London

Adapted from the film Dirty Dancing in 1987 the Musical has become very successful. Since the movie had such a hard hitting soundtrack the creator of the film, Eleanor Bergstein developed the screen play into a Broadway musical type production.

Eleanor Bergstein wrote the original film and story which became a hit movie in 1987. The story revolves around two people, Johnny Castle and Frances houseman a teenager on holiday with her family during the summer in the Catskill Mountains. The story is a coming of age story between the two teens. Johnny, a teen from the other side of the tracks and Frances a daughter of a doctor gradually falls in love during the family the summer vacation at a well to do summer resort. Frances or Baby, gets bored of the resort activities but discovers dancing and Johnny while at a late night resort staff party. The musical keeps all the magical moments of the film and expands on the relationship of the main characters. In addition, the musical adds more dance numbers and songs to the story.

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James Powell director in London and Kate Champion the choreographer recently brought the hit production to the United States after a record showing in London. The production of Dirty Dancing currently plays at the Aldwych Theatre. It has played at the Aldwych Theatre in London on the West End since 2006 to record breaking audiences.

Eleanor Bergstein loves to dance. In truth she based the movie on her own life. She is the character "Baby/Frances" in the story. As a teen she actually did participate in "Dirty Dance" competitions in the Catskills. Her father really was a doctor in real life. She wrote the film because of her passion for dancing. After the success of the movie she made plans to expand her vision by writing the stage musical too. She felt that she could feel the dancing from the film and imagined the dancing coming into the theatres through the screen so she felt that live theatre would be the perfect vehicle to accomplish this.

Since 2008 over 350,000 viewers have viewed the London hit. The show has broken records in London and Germany for having the highest advance ticket sales in history. Before it even opened in London, the show sold out for six months, Dirty Dancing theatre tickets were impossible to get!

The cast of 35 sing 55 songs and do 73 scene changes during the production. Baby herself makes 22 costume changes.

In the movie the lead roles are played by Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. The current Baby is being played by Hannah Vassallo with Johnny Wright playing Johnny Castle.

Dirty Dancing Comes To London

Roo Sadegi is an online critic that spends much of his time reviewing up and coming West End shows.