Will you have the time of your life? Dirty Dancing returns to the Dominion Theatre

Dirty Dancing has officially returned to the West End, treating the audience’s “Hungry Eyes” with splits, dips and tricks.

The musical, based on the 1987 beloved classic, captures all the steam and heart of the movie, along with featuring many songs heard in the soundtrack. This includes “Do You Love Me”, “Hungry Eyes” and the pinnacle number “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life”.

Unlike other musicals, Dirty Dancing uses music alike the movie, as more of a background piece to the action or dancing rather than to tell a story. There are two ensemble members who sing most of the songs and a band that is constantly on stage, acting as the holiday music staff. The featuring of the band onstage is a nice touch, adding not only to the ambiance of the classic American holiday resort but also it features some nice moments where the characters can interact with them and there are many jokes in the production relating to this.

The main golden light of this production is in the title; the dirty dancing. Every member of the cast has a shining moment choreographically. The dances are choreographed superbly, with a perfect mix of feeling natural and looking amazing. The kicks are sky high, the lifts are astounding, the hips are swaying, everything you need for a stage version of the iconic movie. Charlotte Gooch as Penny Johnson, the dance instructor, is a star when she’s moving. The way she holds herself, the way her legs can hit the ceiling, she makes everything she does look easy and graceful. Her dance scenes with our resident Johnny Castle, Michael O’Reilly, are eye-catching, you cannot look anywhere else.

Michael O’Reilly gives us the classic bad boy with a heart of gold persona and is immediately the favourite of the audience. His dancing is clean and precise, yet he dances with such anger which works perfectly, the way he changes his dance style and even his breathing from when he dances with the other wives to when he dances with Baby, you can tell that O’Reilly knows the character well after being in the show for so long. The problem with Johnny in this production is his dialogue. O’Reilly’s performance is very strong but the words he is given to say are weak. He uses a lot of words but actually doesn’t say a lot. His speeches feel long-winded and complicated. This might be due to the constant whooping and hollering of the audience whenever he is on stage.