“Dirty Dancing” is eyeing Broadway. A new stage musical adapted from the 1988 film is newly in development by Lionsgate, the movie’s producer. The stage show, titled “Dirty Dancing: The Musical,” is aiming to arrive onstage in late 2025. Tony Award nominee and two-time Emmy Award winner Lonny Price, who played the role of Neil Kellerman in the “Dirty Dancing” film, will direct the stage show, which will feature a book by the film’s screenwriter, Eleanor Bergstein.
While an exact trajectory for “Dirty Dancing: The Musical” is being determined, the musical expected to debut in late 2025 with mountings on Broadway, across North America, in Asia, Australia and Latin America.
Set against the backdrop of the summer of 1963 at the Catskills resort Kellerman’s, the story follows Frances “Baby” Houseman and dance instructor Johnny Castle as they navigate love, passion and personal growth. The original film was directed by Emile Ardolino and starred Jennifer Grey as the naive “Baby” opposite Patrick Swayze as troubled Johnny.
The movie grossed over $200 million at the worldwide box office and won the 1989 Academy Award as Best Original Song for the sweeping “(I’ve Had) the Time of My Life.” It also spawned a first iteration of a stage musical: the international touring show “Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story on Stage.”
While a full creative team is still being assembled for “Dirty Dancing: The Musical,” the show is expected to feature many of the songs and dance sequences the film is known for, in addition to new music and choreography. Bergstein’s book promises to take into account modern sensibilities.
“In the years after I wrote and co-produced the original film ‘Dirty Dancing,’ I was grateful and astonished by the generations of audiences who responded with open hearts to the themes of honor and courage beneath the surface,” said Bergstein in a statement. “Years later, sensing our audiences wanted to ‘be there’ while the story was happening, I wrote and co-produced a stage show. Its reception all over the world exceeded my sweetest dreams. Now we’ve come full circle, and with my old friend Lonny Price by my side I’m returning to the stage with a reimagined version. Its hope is to be equal to the new world swirling around us while revisiting more fully and precisely the story I’d wanted to tell when I wrote my first lines. It’s my way of saying thank you to you all.”
“I am beyond excited be reunited with Eleanor and to join her in bringing this expanded ‘Dirty Dancing’ to the stage,” added Price. “For the people who already love the movie, they will get a deeper, more nuanced version of the characters they fell in love with. Having played Neil in the movie, I know full well the scores of people who have been touched by this story, and for me to return to Kellerman’s and direct this new musical iteration truly is a thrill.”
Price’s Broadway directing credits include the 2017 revival of “Sunset Boulevard” as well as Main Stem stagings of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” “110 in the Shade,” “Master Harold…and the Boys” and “A Class Act”; he earned a 2001 Tony nomination for his book of the latter, in which also starred. A veteran performer, Price most famously originated the role of Charley Kringas in the first staging of the musical “Merrily We Roll Along.” Price’s screenwork includes Primetime Emmy wins for co-producing 2001’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert” and directing 2011’s “Great Performances: Sondheim! The Birthday Concert.”
Announcements regarding additional creative team members, casting and production dates for “Dirty Dancing: The Musical” are expected follow in the coming months.
