Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert at Apollo Theatre

Finally, a perfect night out for anyone who’s ever watched Dirty Dancing and wanted to scream (and shout and howl and shriek and whoop and cheer and cackle and clap) every time Patrick Swayze takes his shirt off or Jennifer Grey’s bum is on-screen.

This is an opportunity to watch the original hit on a big screen while a band, accompanied by live singers, plays every moment of the music from the movie – and it really is every moment, from the massive hits to a bit of background radio whenever Baby’s in a car.

And just when you think it’s all over, the band and singers put on a show after the movie ends, cycling through the entire soundtrack with all the flashy lighting and dirty dance moves it deserves. 

This is not like the films in concert one might see at the Royal Albert Hall, where a full philharmonic orchestra mesmerises the audience and creates sound more beautiful and magical than they would have thought possible. Dirty Dancing in Concert is a raucous affair. It’s the show that says get drunk, get rowdy, even get a little bit randy, and go absolutely mad with fellow randy, rowdy drunks.

That said, the music is still fantastic. A roughly ten-piece band consisting of trumpet, sax, cello, guitars, drums and so on, does justice to everything, and the singers are on-point throughout. The only minor criticisms might be that sometimes the band play too loudly for the audience to hear the movie, and that, for some reason, the singers speak with god-awful phoney American accents. The trumpeter and saxophonist are easily the stars of the ensemble, with the former only losing out on first place because a trumpet is decidedly less cool than a sax.

But really, it’s all about the atmosphere created by sticking hundreds of Dirty Dancing devotees in a room together. It’s loud, it’s brash, it’s more than a little bit pervy, but it’s a whole lot of fun.

Major fans of Dirty Dancing will have… the time of their lives (sorry). For everyone else, four stars may seem much too generous, but the music is excellent. No one can deny how stellar the film’s soundtrack is, and seeing all those huge hits from the 60s and 80s performed live is quite simply wonderful.

Jim Compton-Hall
Photos: Zdenko Hanout

Dirty Dancing the Movie in concert is at Apollo Theatre from 19^th May until 29^th May 2022. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.