Next month, the stage version of Dirty Dancing - the definitive eighties chick flick, which starred Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey - hits London (sadly, with a different cast).
Following hyper-succesful runs in Australia and Germany, the musical opens at the Aldwych Theatre next month. If you haven't already got a ticket, you'll have to wait: the first six months of the London performances have sold out, and Dirty Dancing the Musical has made more money in ticket pre-sales than any other show in the history of West End theatre.
So it's the most hotly anticipated live stage show on record. But why? What is it about Dirty Dancing - ostensibly the silliest and trashiest of outdated movies - that inspires such rampant passion?
Is it the fact that no matter how old you are, you can't (if you're female) help but identify with Baby Houseman's transformation from earnest nerd to super-hot dancer and lover? Is it because the sight of a shirtless Patrick Swayze had all of us hitting the rewind button on the video? Or is it because, in its cheesy fashion, Dirty Dancing reveals the sublime power of dance - something that cannot be put into words?
In a bid to understand a global phenomenon, Polly Vernon watched the German stage show and met Eleanor Bergstein, the film's writer and creative protector. Read her account in tomorrow's Review - and find details of how to win a pair of tickets to the West End show.
In the meantime - any other ideas about what might be DD's magic ingredient? Or is it just overrated schmaltz?
