On a balmy Tuesday evening a crowd descended upon The Palace Theatre on Oxford Road for the opening night of Dirty Dancing. Mainly women wearing summer dresses and even one in a bride’s veil (an excellent choice of hen do activity - more on that later) took to their seats to watch one of the most famous stories unfold on stage.
The 1987 original film of Dirty Dancing has a cult following and is beloved by generations. It’s a classic and we all know these need to be handled with care. But this production, arriving fresh from the West End, sets to bring ‘the classic story on stage’ - and it does just that.
It’s not a traditional musical as such; the main characters don’t burst into song and instead there’s a band which performs on stage alongside them. Imagine if Baby and Johnny actually did sing along to (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life instead of just mouthing along to it, now that could be very cringe-inducing. Thankfully, this is avoided.
