Dirty Dancing
Produced by Jacobsen Entertainment

Cast: Kym Valentine, Josef Brown, Ronnie Arnold, Ernie Bourne, Andrew Broadbent, Helen Buday, Tony Cogin, Nadia Coote, Judy Feldman, Lelda Kapsis, Ben Mingay, Russell Newman, Leonie Page, Lance Strauss, Jeremiah Tickell, Dean Vince, Deone Zanotto, Blake Bowden, Sarah Bowden, Clare Chihambakwe, Philip Darley, Rod Dunbar, Sara Highlands, Joshua Horner, Luke Joslin, Emma Langreidge, Shelley McShane, Lana Nesnas, Warwick Reid, Fabio Robles, David Scotchford, Melissa Tamraz, Ben Veitch.

Music & Lyrics: Various
Book: Eleanor Bergstein
Director: Mark Wing-Davey

Publicist: Judith Johnson (Judith Johnson Publicity)

Australian Premiere: Theatre Royal, Sydney. Thursday, November 18 2004.


The Lowdown:
One of the many pre-packed musicals Sydney experienced during 2003/2004. This one featured Kym Valentine and Josef Brown and while it experienced mixed reviews, at the time of this writing it is still playing. This was the first of a new "futurised" musical in which sets were projected onto screens. The concept has been used in the West End.

The show was virtually an exact replica of the 1987 cult movie and Eleanor Bergstein had a creative input.


AussieTheatre.com Review:
The movie-cum-musical has hit an all-time low. Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on Stage is the most ridiculous, pointless and embarrassing musical of the year. It tarnishes the cult 1987 movie and it’s hard to believe that Eleanor Bergstein had a creative input into this show, considering how bad it is.

Kicking the problems off, and there are many, is the fact that the lead actors don’t sing. The creative team was so desperate to make the stage version of this classic story a mirror image of the movie that they were clearly too afraid to play with the content. It’s like watching a group of friends act out scenes to the movie with the soundtrack playing in the background. Of course, perhaps this has more to do with the "we must cast an ex soap star" rule than the wants of the creators. And just on that, the casting of Kym Valentine was a decision that has backfired. Her acting is lack-lustre, her accent is all over the place and she just doesn’t look right in the role of Baby.

The producers should have searched the country for two true singer, actor, dancers and re-worked the storyline so that the leads could have sung some of the numbers. As it is, Valentine and Josef Brown act out the script on stage while two extremely talented singers, credited only as "featured vocalists" sing the numbers, either backstage or in front of the audience, depending on the song.

While the female "featured vocalist", Deone Zanotto, was not performing on the Gala Preview evening, her replacement Lana Nesnas was superb and was the real highlight in a bunch of sour points.

From this moment, we’ll class Nesnas and her male partner, Ben Mingay as the leads in this show. They deserve to be credited that way, and at least from us, they will be. The fact that they take their bows and audience applause third is an absolute outrage. They are the true stars of the show, they are what makes this show a musical and they don’t deserve to be hidden away, nor classed as a "featured vocalist".

Right, onto problem number two: the set. This is, without doubt, the most tacky and cheap set any team could have come up with. Featuring a variety of large screens, much of the set is simply graphics work expelled onto the screens. For example, a crucial dining room scene sees only one real table on stage, with the rest on the screen, supposedly symbolising a complete dining room. It goes on: the screen symbolises a golf course, half of a car and a host of other things throughout the show. It looks awful and poses the question: why would you go and see this show? You’d be much better suited sitting at home watching the DVD of the film instead of watching two competent dancers who can’t act and don’t sing strut whatever it is they have on stage.

Yes, the pair can dance - there’s no doubt about that - but there’s more to a musical than dancing, even when it is Dirty Dancing. It’s clear Kym Valentine is there to sell tickets - there is no way she would have been cast in the role if she wasn’t a name actor. The casting of Spencer McLaren in Footloose and Dieter Brummer in Leader of the Pack proved that a television name doesn’t sell tickets - so why these producers decided to go with it is beyond me.

The musical, by the end, has become a circus act. It loses all credibility by the end of the first act and reminds me of the Broadway flop Movin’ Out, which is an awful musical in which the actors don’t even speak (in this case, it might have been better if they didn’t).

All of the classic elements of this story are there: the great one-liners, the excellent songs and the emotional storyline. But it just doesn’t work on the stage. No matter what perception about this movie making a great musical may have been, there’s no doubt that it was wrong. Secretly, I think the producers know that. This was one movie that should never have made it to the stage and this show proves it.

If you’re a fan of the film, as I am, then don’t put yourself through this. It’ll scar you for life to see what these people are doing to one of the greatest films of all-time.

Are we being too hard? I don’t think so. The musical deserved everything we’ve said here. The show is flawed, primarily because of the tacky and laughable set, but also because of the lack of vision in casting and the decision not to change the storyline around when adapting it to the stage. Footloose may not have worked, but it is the prime example of what this show needed to do to give it even a fighting chance.

If this show is to survive, perhaps it will do so on the back of a paying audience that seemed to enjoy the content. Why some of them gave it a standing ovation is beyond me. Perhaps I’m out of touch.


Production Shots:



Further Information:
At the time of printing, the website of this production is still online: www.dirtydancing.com.au