Dirty Dancing Lyceum Sheffield: Have the time of your life as much-loved film hits the stage

I suspect I was not alone in the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield on the sold out opening night of Dirty Dancing, in that I could probably have been an understudy if there had been an emergency.

Having lost count of the number of times I have watched the film over the years, I am probably pretty much word perfect in most scenes. And as the stage adaptation of this classic played out on opening night, I found myself, at times, reciting the words in my head, anticipating what would be next.

And because I love the film so much, I was not disappointed that the musical did not veer too far away from the original. There was the odd extra scene but for the true fans of the film, all the key and memorable moments feature.

Iconic scenes and lines, plus the film’s soundtrack keep the stage production authentic.

“I carried a watermelon”, “nobody puts Baby in the corner” and “you just put your pickle on everybody’s plate, college boy, and leave the hard stuff to me” are just some of the classics that had to be in the script, and thankfully were.

Kira Malou as Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman and Michael O’Reilly as Johnny Castle must have carefully studied the film because they have the two central characters of the storyline down to perfection.

Fans of the film will think nothing can beat it, and it is true that a big screen re-make would just never come anywhere close.

But on stage there is room to experiment and for the cast to feed off the audience, which is exactly what Baby (Malou) and Johnny (O’Reilly) did to engage with the packed out auditorium.

Baby was hilarious and had the audience in stitches with her facial expressions and comical dance moves.

And Johnny played up to the audience too when he stripped off down to his pants, attracting wolf whistles and whoops from the largely female adoring audience.

The talented cast of dancers headed up by Georgia Aspinall, who played Penny, and live musicians, performing as Kellerman’s Band, brought the stage to life with scenes set to hits including Do You Love Me? Yes! She’s Like The Wind and Hungry Eyes.

But it was the final scene and ‘that lift’ which brought the house down and got the audience out of their seats dancing and singing along.

Dirty Dancing fans with tickets for the show, which runs until July 15, will have the time of their lives!