Martin Harvey

It’s not everyday that the West End hosts a former Royal Ballet principal dancer in a popular musical, but that’s the case currently at the Aldwych Theatre, home to Dirty Dancing, which in September welcomed Englishman Martin Harvey to its ranks. Harvey plays that archetypal American bad boy, Johnny Castle—Patrick Swayze’s screen role from two decades ago. In fact, Harvey has played the Aldwych before—as the young Michael in a 1984 production of Peter Pan, with Bonnie Langford as Peter and Joss Ackland as Capt. Hook. (To square the circle further, Langford’s niece, Zizi Strallen, is now in the ensemble of Dirty Dancing.) It was soon after that youthful gig that the Royal Ballet School beckoned and Harvey embarked upon a career that ended in July on tour to Hong Kong when he danced the role of Eros in the full-length ballet Sylvia for one last time. Now, Harvey is having to speak—not a task often given to dancers—and show up eight times a week for work, a regimen that is also unknown in the dance world. Broadway.com caught up with the newly challenged leading man late one afternoon in his dressing room as the enthusiastically chatty and open Harvey talked about a change in career that is still in its infancy. Oh, and about putting Baby in a corner.

Here you back on stage at the Aldwych, a theater you last played as a kid, in one of the most popular shows in town. Does this feel like a homecoming of sorts?
It’s been 20 years between then and now, so I guess you could think of it as taking a little bit of a sabbatical—no, a very heavy sabbatical. I had a wonderful career with the Royal Ballet, and I got to do all of the roles I ever wanted to do, and, actually, some others, as well. But it was very, very strange: I always felt like an outsider to that world looking in. I know that in this world I don’t have obvious gifts but I have an instinct and my instinct feels most natural here. People may watch me and go, “He’s got it completely wrong; he’s terrible,” but for me it feels much more natural.

Even eight times a week?
I haven’t missed any shows yet, and I’m contracted for 10 months through to the end of July. I was always robust as a dancer; I didn’t miss a lot of shows. I have some strange energy thing, so for me eight shows a week is absolutely fine. This rhythm suits me quite well. It’s definitely in me to do it. Obviously it’s going to get hard to keep it fresh as we get more into this new year, but for me it’s such an education and a transition anyway that I don’t ever do the same thing twice.

Martin Harvey and Leanne Rowe in Dirty Dancing

But what’s amazing is that a hefty run of a part in the Royal Ballet wouldn’t even be a week’s worth of performances at the Aldwych.
I did Mayerling three times, and that’s a huge, huge role and three shows was considered good. In ballet, there are always going to be lots of casts and then you might have to wait three years before doing it again, so in terms of getting your teeth into a character [in ballet] it happens less and less now at a time when they’re churning out lots of new stuff. So this is something I’ve been missing for a long time—the chance to get into one character.

And, of course, Dirty Dancing is an international franchise, so you could hypothetically continue in the role somewhere else.
They’re popping up everywhere, aren’t they? These parts are really hard to cast. Obviously they have to find people who can do the dancing and also get up there and do the acting and find the voice, and they’re very fussy about it. It’s definitely something I would certainly like to do somewhere else, I know that for sure, and obviously I would love to go work in the States. I have so many friends over there and a girlfriend [Michigan-born dancer Maria Kowroski] who lives in New York, though that’s very early days [laughs]. I’ve actually had the pleasure of dancing with her, which was a wonderful thing to do.

Martin Harvey and Nadia Coote in Dirty Dancing

A trans-Atlantic relationship can be tough.
Obviously there is that Atlantic Ocean in the way but she’s absolutely fine with it and, anyway, it’s a new thing. It’s funny because the whole of my life seems to have changed for me in any case.

Like playing to audiences of hen parties that want to rip off your clothes.
I have my clothes off quite a lot anyway [laughs]. Johnny does spend quite a few scenes with quite a lot of flesh on show, so to speak. Yes, the audience at the show is completely different [from a ballet crowd] but the audience could be the best thing about Dirty Dancing. It never ceases to amaze me what they’re like at the end of the show, every single night. It’s just party time every single show, and that never fails. That’s something I will never grow out of. Some of the vocal participation at certain matinees has been an amazing education for me. You have to keep very straight and not be taken off track and learn how to guide the scenes through. Otherwise, they’ll have you for breakfast, basically.

That’s built into the material, I would imagine.
The thing with this show is because the film’s so famous, friends and family all have preconceptions. They want to do “dirty dancing” with you and they want you to say, “Nobody puts baby in a corner.” Obviously with me being English, it s also about, “Talk to me American,” which was another thing I didn’t know. When I went to my first audition, I thought, this part is an American so I’ll just go and do whatever approximation I could manage at the time, which probably amounted to imitating Patrick Swayze. But they say getting an accent is about having a musical ear, and apparently I have a good ear.

Have you had many interesting stage door antics or presents?
Oh my God, I’ve had some very interesting stuff—really interesting stuff—including some incredibly funny letters, and I did have a pair of knickers through the post that was done in very good humor: all very different from the ballet world [laughs]. People do shout things out and they get very involved, but Eleanor [Bergstein, the writer and mastermind behind the film and stage show] has shaped the show so that the audience feels absolutely involved the whole time. You have to deal with whatever comes at you. It takes a certain type, but I have to say I really enjoy it.

So, an actual singing role for you next, as your former Royal Ballet colleague Adam Cooper has had in several musicals by now?
I don’t think I could. I can sing, I do have a voice, but I don’t think I have that inclination. But if you’d said a year ago I would be in a West End musical, I would have said, “No way!” The thing is, I’m absolutely fine being a vessel for somebody else, so if I can be directed well, then I can do well, if that makes any sense at all. I will give myself over into whoever’s hands it is.