Dirty Dancing

Dirty Dancing is a great show: highly polished, well designed and superbly cast. At the Monday night performance I attended it seemed evident that no-one in the audience had heard of the repercussions of the credit crunch; or were so determined to have a good time that economic woes were relegated to the back burner for the duration of the evening. The huge queue outside the theatre told its own story. Soundly built commercial shows are due to close all over theatreland in the coming months but this show seems impervious to the chill winds of reality. Part of the reason lies in the escapist and romantic nature of the storyline: the idealistic Frances "Baby" Houseman finds love in the arms of Johnny Castle, the streetwise hunk from the wrong side of the tracks, much to the disapproval of Baby's family. The conduit of their romance is Johnny's mambo lessons. Written by Eleanor Bergstein about real events in her life in 1963, the story was made into a hugely popular movie and later translated into its current incarnation as a very successful stage show.

Stephen Brimson-Lewis's versatile semi-circular set with it photographic projections of trees, lakes and hotel buildings creates a cinematic sense of constant movement, and matches the energy of Bergstein's script. James Powell's direction keeps the plot moving at a steady lick and scenes tend to be short and pithy. Leanne Rowe as Baby is smart, vulnerable and touching, although not yet comfortable with some of the trickier aspects of the choreography, as she is not a dancer, but she gives good value in a difficult role and is a seriously talented actress. Nadia Coote as Penny Johnson, Johnny's regular dancing partner is a tall, pretty blonde with a strong technique and bags of charm and takes the dancing honours among the women of the strong, professional cast.

The principal reason for dance lovers to see Dirty Dancing is the charismatic Martin Harvey, fresh from The Royal Ballet, who is playing Johnny Castle with a panache which suggests he has been waiting for this role all his life. He has glamour: that elusive and rare quality which denies coherent analysis: and he is the ineluctable focus of all attention when on stage. He has a remarkably strong speaking voice and his American accent convinces. However, it is when he starts to dance that the atmosphere turns electric: the sharpness of his turns, confident side to side snapping of his head and the endless rotations of his hips with their promise of erotic bliss has the punters screaming for more. At the end of the show he throws in some double assembles as a reminder of his ballet training but by this time he has already achieved a bloodless victory over his audience. To paraphrase the most famous line in the show: No one puts Martin in a corner!