DIRTY DANCING IS COMING
Robert Sanders
Director, Southern California
Dirty Dancing began as a movie produced in 1987 for a budget of $5 million and went on to gross $170 million.
According to ABC correspondent Nick Watt, writing for ABC News Nightline in November of 2006, “The video was a multimillion seller, and now the DVD has spawned a new generation of fans.”
It is now on stage. Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage was first produced in Australia in 2004. In Canada’s MacLean’s Magazine May 21, 2007, Brian Johnson wrote,
“Since opening in Australia in 2004, Dirty Dancing… has played Auckland, Hamburg and London's West End – where it broke all box office records for live theatre last fall with advance ticket sales of $33 million. Toronto hosts the show's North American premiere in November, and last month Mirvish Productions reported a record-breaking $1.9 million in single-ticket sales on the first day.”
In Playbill, Dec. 31, 2007, Kenneth Jones wrote,
“The producers reported sales of $1,347,525 (CAD) for the week of Dec. 26-30. For a relatively new show whose pedigree is a 20-year-old hit fi lm and a recent hit London production, the number is considered huge – particularly since it's playing in a 1,500-seat venue, the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Converted to U.S. dollars, the week's gross is $1,361,755 – comparable to the gross of Broadway's The Lion King (at the 1,654-seat Minskoff) in recent weeks.”
The show premiered this March in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
The above sets the stage for Dirty Dancing’s United States debut in Chicago this September and what a big deal it will be. Polly Vernon (the Observer) has been widely quoted that, “Dirty Dancing is shaping up to be the biggest live theatre sensation of all time.” This is no small potatoes show!
The show is to open in Chicago, Sept 2, 2008 and run for 19 weeks, followed by Boston and Los Angeles for 12 week each. After that, national tour and Broadway will likely follow.
This is all great news. There are, however, at least a couple of “sticky wickets.”
First, the Australian production used a tape or hard disk recording. In London, a new recording was made and is being used. And again in Toronto, a new recording was done and is in use. The Toronto recording was made under an AFM agreement and provides for annual re-use payments for the musicians on it. These recordings have a large string section, an oboe, at least some of the parts played by live musicians and various “needle-drops” of the many pop tune phonograph recordings which are integral to the show.
The second, is that some of the musicians spend varying amounts of time on stage, playing parts of differing length and complexity in a mixture of costumes – from memory. Musicians everywhere the show has played – including the substitutes – have accomplished this readily.
The AFM has been at work on the US touring production for some time now. The TMA has been heavily involved. This will impact the Rule 24 Locals, traveling musicians and will probably set some precedents. Every effort is being made to arrive at a solution that protects all theatre musicians interests equitably.