Dirty dance the night away
By Dino Scatena
November 6, 2004
Tonight, the much-hyped Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on Stage quietly begins its two-week preview season at the Theatre Royal in King Street, city, before its official world premiere on November 18.
If first impressions and showbiz cliches are anything to go by, then golly-gee, it looks as if the producers have a hit on their hands. Tickets to the previews are gone and, according to co-producer Kevin Jacobsen, the show is selling, on average, a theatre's worth daily. There was a bump in those numbers last weekend after the release of 20,000 new tickets, with 8000 of those gone by last Monday. Overall, Dirty Dancing has sold more than 60,000 tickets ($55.99-$89.99, bookings 9266 4800) since going on sale in September.
Obviously, no one is happier than Jacobsen, considering some of the theatrical hardships his company has endured in recent times.
He and his partners invested $6.5 million to develop and stage Dirty Dancing, with plans for it to be packaged for theatres all over the world.
"Normally, I would not go over $4 million for an Australian production," Jacobsen says. "But we're not doing just an Australian production. After Australia, we go to Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Then we open in Germany and London. It's all under way."
