Dirty Dancing Edinburgh Playhouse Review
Dirty Dancing:
The Classic Story on Stage
Edinburgh Playhouse, Edinburgh
Showing until 12 January 2013
Reviewed by Louise Howard
“It was the summer of 1963, when everybody called me Baby…” From those first words, I was hooked. Although the film Dirty Dancing had never been a massive favourite of mine, Dirty Dancing – the classic story on stage at the Edinburgh Playhouse, now very firmly is!
It has a much lighter feel to the overall performance than the film and takes itself less seriously, without descending into a cheesy, comic-fuelled farce. Unlike the film, where the focus is much more on the social class divide and overcoming it, the stage production centres on right and wrong, loyalty and giving people a chance, no matter where they are from. Having said that, I think that fans of the film would not be disappointed either. From the acting, to the set, the costume design to the direction, the whole performance shone with feel-good vibes and high spirit.
The individual performances were also truly impressive. The dancing was amazing, especially when you consider the energy and talent that it must take to keep up and do it night after night, especially ‘that lift’. Paul-Michael Jones really was mesmerising as Jonny Castle, possibly a little too much so, given the reaction of half the theatre when he first swaggers on stage in leather jacket and shades! It was obvious he is an incredibly talented dancer (evident in that he’s represented England in Latin American and ballroom dancing) but it was refreshing to see that he was a very accomplished actor too. However, he wasn’t the only talent to shine. Jill Winternitz was also superb as Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, particularly during one set piece showing her training ‘week’ where she visibly goes from a pretty rubbish dancer to fairly good in the space of about 10 minutes – which takes a lot of skill on the actors’ part to make it seem realistic. There were also knock-out performances from Nicky Griffiths as Penny Johnson, whose dancing was incredible and the lifts were outstanding, much more impressive when seeing them live than on film or TV, Stefan Menaul who was a wonderful comic relief as Neil Kellerman, with impeccable timing, and Emilia Williams who played Lisa Houseman, and performed a hilarious version of Lisa’s Hula.
Not only were the performances brilliant, but the set design and direction was impressive too. The set design really brought the world of Kellerman’s to life, with the use of video backdrops and moving set pieces. The training for ‘the lift’ was done to particular effect using a gauze front screen to resemble the iconic scenes from the film of Johnny and Baby practising in a corn field and in the lake. A clever piece of directing had the ensemble cast as the onstage singers – giving the performance the feel of a live musical, without detracting from the original story and having the leads bursting into song all the time, which was very effective.
I have been to a fair number of stage shows at the Edinburgh Playhouse, but this was one of the best, and really had you leaving in high spirits with a feel-good mentality (not to mention humming away to half the soundtrack!). Whether you’re a fan of the film or not, I would definitely recommend going to see Dirty Dancing this Christmas (if you can still get tickets!) as I guarantee you’ll have the time of your life!!
Rating: 5/5 
For more information or to book tickets click here.
We also had the chance to interview Jill Winternitz who plays the part of Baby Houseman, read the interview here.