Georgina Rich & Josef Brown
in Dirty Dancing
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A stage version of the 1987 cult film
Dirty Dancing has boogied into the Aldwych Theatre, where it has reportedly achieved the largest advance in West End history. Eleanor Bergstein has adapted her autobiographical story, set in the summer of 1963 at a Catskills holiday resort in which a 17-year-old girl Frances “Baby” Houseman falls for dance instructor Johnny Castle. Did critics have the time of their lives watching it?
Here’s a sampling of what they had to say:
Mark Shenton in his Theatre.com Review: “A stage version of Dirty Dancing has just come to town, and even if it is rather more lumbering than agile, this musical romance replays the scenes—virtually verbatim—from the movie for audiences who want to push the replay button to the lives of the holiday makers and workers at a Catskills resort. For Dirty Dancing is that clever cultural phenomenon that summonses both the time it is set, in this case, the American summer of 1963, as refracted through the time it was released (1987), to provide a double hit of instant nostalgia… While the stage version of another popular dance film Footloose (playing on the self-same block as Dirty Dancing at the moment, though soon to bow out) promises “the hit movie live on stage,” here we have a similar catchphrase: ’the classic story on stage.’ That, at least, tells you their honest intentions; and who am I to begrudge an audience having their expectations so honestly fulfilled? Truthfully, of course, this could also be the death of the modern musical as we know it. What’s the point and price of innovation, surprise and originality if this kind of thing sells so shamelessly and successfully?”
Benedict Nightingale of The London Times: “Why transpose a successful movie from the screen to the stage? That’s the question we’ve recently been asking of Footloose, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and others, and Eleanor Bergstein’s ultra-faithful version of her original script of Dirty Dancing doesn’t wholly answer it. But tell that to the hen parties who are booking in busloads. Tell that to the thousands likely to be nostalgic for the coming-of-age movie they saw when they were young and impressionable… When [Josef Brown’s Johnny Castle and Georgina Rich’s Baby] are at their sinuous best, you feel what that movie suggested. Dancing isn’t almost as good as sex. No, sex is almost as good as dancing—or, rather, both are indivisible. Maybe that’s enough to justify a show which adds so little to the original… All this is brilliantly staged, but raises an obvious question. Why not get a DVD of the movie, where such things occur more seamlessly? Yet I found myself warming to Bergstein’s modern fairy story and to the principals: Brown, elegant of mind and spirit as well as body, and Rich, growing in assurance, skill and beauty as she takes her life into her own hands—and, of course, her own feet.”
Josef Brown and Georgina Rich
in Dirty Dancing
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Lyn Gardner of The Guardian: “The problem with attempting to recreate a facsimile of a film on stage is that, inevitably, celluloid does it far better… In the movie Baby and Johnny's lessons in dance and love come across like an exceptionally sexy soap powder commercial. Here they come across like an advert for soap powder being shot on the cheap. Why spend £35 a ticket on this when you can rent a DVD for far less and leave your seat to make a cup of tea during the smoochy boring bits? There are a lot of boring bits and not half enough dancing. Or at least not enough dirty dancing… It would take a complete rewrite for this to have any chance of being a satisfying theatrical experience, but there are clearly plenty of people who will be more than happy to throw away their money on this half-baked show. It's a pity because if you want to see really sexy dancing it's on display in Guys and Dolls just down the road, which incidentally just happens to star Patrick Swayze.”
Dominic Cavendish of The Daily Telegraph: “The secret of Dirty Dancing’s undimmed appeal lies in the female psyche. Women have been known to watch Eleanor Bergstein's simple coming of age tale about a shy virginal teenager called Baby who falls for a tough-guy dance instructor on summer camp in 1963 dozens of times. Personally I got ample taste of the film's schmaltzy Romeo and Juliet-lite fare at one sitting—but what do I know? Whatever cynical metropolitan males may think of it, the producers have taken no chances in terms of losing that army of ardent supporters: in all key respects, the stage version resembles a carbon-copy of the film… You can accuse director James Powell of a lack of imagination or just providing great customer service… With only one truly sizzling stand-out tune ‘(I've Had) The Time of My Life’ amid all the interchangeable mambos, salsa and soul, and surprisingly intermittent bouts of general hoofing, it falls to the young leads Josef Brown as Johnny and Georgina Rich as Baby to produce the vital ingredient of erotic interest. And to their credit, both succeed. There's no guarantee here that you'll have the time of your life but a decent night out for couples courting or otherwise? You bet.”
Paul Taylor of The Independent: “Dancing [is] the delight of James Powell's attractively staged and happiness-spreading production of the nifty theatrical adaptation by Eleanor Bergstein. True, as Johnny, the chippy dance instructor at the upmarket American Butlins, Josef Brown does not have the balletic dynamism of Patrick Swayze in the movie, nor does he have the latter's capacity to make you root for the little man, as he's a tall, strapping mass of muscle. But he and the well-cast Georgina Rich—who brings light physical grace and just the right kind of unconventional attractiveness to the role of doctor's daughter, ‘Baby’ Houseman—radiate an infectious pleasure in their dancing together. All the trademark movements of their mamboing—the erotically arched backs, the showy lifts, the fingers trailing down the arm that is sexily cupping a face etc—are executed with a raunchy, amused sensuousness. This is a show that will give keen pleasure to Dirty Dancing addicts and to newcomers alike… In general, this is a very enjoyable evening.”
Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard: "Anyone wanting to discover how a musical oozes sex appeal without doing anything too near the knuckle ought to make for the Aldwych.
Dirty Dancing, adapted by Eleanor Bergstein from her fairytale script for the madly popular American movie, proves a virtual replica of the original, even if it offers little of the film's pelvic-thrust dancing. Yet this stage version offers something distinct and more intimate than the celluloid experience. Artfully designed to titillate hearts and minds of teenage girls, not to mention mature ladies pining for their lost youth, a role here amply filled by muscle-flaunting Josef Brown, the musical's game of mutual seduction comes into close, breathless focus... The light-hearted, frivolous young will have a ball with
Dirty Dancing."
Sheridan Morley of The Daily Express: “If your idea of a new musical is a 1987 movie made into a kind of three-dimensional DVD, then this is the one for you. It looks like a very extended edition of Strictly Come Dancing, but lovers of the film will find it all here—the swimming scene, the log across the river. All is carefully brought to life with the help of back-projection screens to reassure you that you haven’t wandered too far from a cinema after all… Though [Josef Brown is] no John Travolta, he does have a virile dancing style. Meanwhile Georgina Rich is amiable as the poor little rich girl who falls for the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. References to President Kennedy, Martin Luther Jr and the birth of the Peace Corps attempt to give the show some historical context but Dirty Dancing is locked in a time-warp all of its own—anywhere and anytime you can go dance your troubles away, be they sexual or social or even racial.”
Quentin Letts of The Daily Mail: “This going to sound meaner than intended but the best thing about Dirty Dancing is its ending. It’s not a case of ‘thank God the thing’s over’, although there may be some who take that view. It’s that at last, after nearly three hours of huffing and puffing, after endless scenelets, 55 tunes, and more hoofing than you get in the Epsom Derby, this overplugged, underacted, hyper-pumped commercial vehicle achieves lift-off. There’s a screech of car tyres and dashing Johnny Castle arrives dramatically through a side door. He pushes his way to the front, throws down his kitbag, and shouts: ‘Nobody puts Baby in the corner!’ With which supremely corny line, plus a wiggle of hips to distant stage left, he hauls said Baby (his mousey belle) out centre to give her a right good tangoing-to. Cue big band noise, brass paring, vibrato voices from hired belters, and the hit song ‘(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.’ Terrific! Sadly, the same cannot be said of the rest of the show… The pace at the start is dismal and the script seldom pauses long enough to allow the characters to flower… Dirty Dancing is a night of good, jiggly rubbish, blameless silliness which ends with an uplifting finale. It’s hard to dislike it, but it’s also hard to call it memorable art. It’s a product, and it shows.”