Thirty years have gone by since
the release of the movie Dirty Dancing, and to celebrate the
milestone a new stage production is going on an Italian tour
with a premiere at Milan's Arcimboldi Theatre on Wednesday.
The tour will cross Italy from February to May 2018.
The 1986 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey
marked its generation with memorable scenes and music, including
lines such as "no one puts Baby in a corner" and the song "I've
Had The Time of My Life".
The film's soundtrack sold 40 million copies.
This version of the stage production is directed by Federico
Bellone under the supervision of Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote
the screenplay for both the original film as well as the stage
production.
Bellone first directed the stage production of Dirty Dancing
in 2015, and it went on to become the official international
version of the show.
For the tour's premiere performance, Milan's Arcimboldi
Theatre will transform its front rows into the main room at the
Kellerman Resort, with a series of tables set up near the stage
to watch the show.
Baby is played by Sara Santostasi and Johnny is played by
Giuseppe Verzicco, along with 30 students from Milan's Musical
School.
Bellone said the stage production of Dirty Dancing is "much
more important than it seems".
"It represents one of the few shows that's able to bring to
the stage people who have never been to the theatre, and it's
the only Anglo-Saxon production for which the Italian version
has been exported around the world, including the famed West End
in London," he said.
This version of the show has already been staged in England,
Germany, Spain, Austria, Monte Carlo, Mexico, Belgium and
Luxembourg.
Bellone said it is "faithful to the original 1986 film" with
costumes, choreography, lights and sets reflecting the period of
1963 when the story takes place.
The production debuted in Italy in 2014 at Milan's Teatro
Nazionale with more than 115,000 tickets sold in the show's
first three months.
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