Dirty Dancing Sets Dates, Leads for Chicago Premiere

The stage version of the musical hit Dirty Dancing will make its U.S. premiere at Chicago's Cadillac Palace Theatre on September 28, playing what is being billed as a "pre-Broadway" engagement through December 7. The show, which plans stops in Boston and Los Angeles after its Chicago run, features staging by original London director James Powell and choreography by Kate Champion and Craig Wilson.

Dirty Dancing will star London production veteran Josef Brown as bad boy Johnny Castle, Amanda Leigh Cobb as Frances "Baby" Houseman and Toronto cast alum Britta Lazenga as Penny Johnson. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

"Re-imagined" for the stage by the film's original screenwriter, Eleanor Bergstein, Dirty Dancing is the classic story of Baby and Johnny, two fiercely independent young people from different worlds who come together in what will be the most challenging and triumphant summer of their lives.

Dirty Dancing features a cast of 37 and a score of 35 musical hits, including "Hungry Eyes," "Hey Baby" and the Academy Award-winning "I've Had The Time of My Life." The film version, released in 1987, featured Patrick Swayze as Johnny and Jennifer Grey as Baby.

Brown comes direct to the touring company from the London and Australian productions of Dirty Dancing. Trained at the Australian Ballet School, he was previously a member of the Australian Ballet Company. In 2006, he made a guest appearance on the TV series Loose Women.

Cobb's Broadway credits include The Country Girl and The Coast of Utopia series. Other credits include the Yale Repertory Theater and the Williamstown Theater Festival.

Lazenga, a member of the Joffrey Ballet, won critical acclaim for her performance in the Toronto production of the show. She appeared as part of the performing company in the 2003 film The Company.

Dirty Dancing made its world premiere at Sydney, Australia's Theatre Royal on November 18, 2004. Following a sell-out run in Australia and successful national New Zealand tour, a new production opened at Hamburg, Germany's Theatre Neue Flora in March 2006, setting the record for highest advance sales in European history. The show soon opened yet another a record-breaking run at London's Aldwych Theatre on October 24, 2006, before moving on to Canada, where the Toronto production earned the record for highest daily sales on April 16, 2007, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Dirty Dancing… recently opened a well-received Dutch production of the show at The Netherlands' Beatrix Theater on March 9, 2008.

The U.S. tour's creative team from the London and Toronto productions include Stephen Brimson Lewis set design, Conrad Helfrich music supervision, Tim Mitchell lighting design, Bobby Aitken sound design and Jon Driscoll video and projection design.