REVIEWED: Dirty Dancing at the Palace Theatre
| 1st October 2021
REVIEWED: Dirty Dancing at the Palace Theatre : On a rainy September evening in Manchester, we were transported back to the Summer of 1963 at the Palace Theatre on Manchester’s Oxford Road for the opening of Dirty Dancing.
Despite being set over 50 years ago and the iconic film being released in the late 1980’s, the mammoth queue outside the Manchester venue only proves that it’s still standing the test of time – nestling itself amongst the other popular films from the 80’s that have now been transformed into stage shows such as ‘Grease’, ‘Ghost’, ‘Fame’ and ‘Back to the Future’.
It was quite emotional to be back in a theatre in Manchester. My last visit was in March 2020 for the opening night of ‘Back to the Future’ just days before the UK and the city went into national lockdown, so it felt like I’d been full circle and I’m sure many others felt the same way as they gladly sat shoulder to shoulder with others in the theatre.
REVIEWED: Dirty Dancing at the Palace Theatre
As the neon emblem ‘Dirty Dancing’ sign was lifted in place of a curtain, the audience were immediately pulled into the world of 1960’s dancing.
Following in the footsteps of the enigmatic Patrick Swayze was always going to be a tough challenge, but for Michael O’ Reilly taking on the role of Johnny, it was an absolute breeze!
The moment he sauntered on stage, the audience were giggling and whistling like school girls, and that was before he took his top off! I take my hat off to O’Reilly and Kira Malou (who played Baby) because I don’t know how they kept a straight face during the sultry scenes because some of the audience members couldn’t contain themselves.
Malou was an excellent casting for Baby – her energy and chemistry with O’Reilly matched that of Swayze and Jennifer Grey – and the scriptwriters still included the iconic one-liner: ‘I carried a watermelon!’
REVIEWED: Dirty Dancing at the Palace Theatre
The standout performance of the evening though had to be from Carlie Milner (who plays Penny) who also took on the role as assistant choreographer for the production. Her agility and dancing was awe-inspiring and I was pulled into the performance she delivered with her acting… but mainly her incredible dancing.
‘Nobody puts baby in the corner’ wasn’t left out from the script either, as the audience let out an almighty cheer. It was time for the one we’d been waiting for the whole performance… THAT synonymous lift of Dirty Dancing.
It was my first time seeing Dirty Dancing on stage and I was thoroughly impressed with how versatile the cast were with the minimal set, how INCREDIBLE the dancing was, and how brilliant it was to be back in a theatre.