‘Dirty Dancing’: Still Having the Time of Its Life

That little big show at the National Theatre with the cumbersome title of “Dirty Dancing, the Classic Story on Stage” might just surprise you.

It’s been hanging around a number of years now, touring all over the world, tapping some wellspring of fandom that maybe the world didn’t know existed. That would be the huge following for the original movie in the 1980s, which to date has cleared close to $250 million.

Now, a freshly minted, new-cast version has started its North American tour at the National Theatre, and you know what: it’s a lot of fun.

You remember the old tale. It’s camp time in the summer of 1963—and the irrepressible “Baby,” the youngest of her clan, is at a family camp with her folks and her snooty older sister. Hormones are running wild up here, and the news is very much in the news. Baby is set to join the Peace Corps, and the son of the camp owner is going to Mississippi to join the Freedom Riders.

They’re learning dancing and acting and singing from a crew of pros, chief among them the hot stuff, very buff and cool-named Johnny Castle, a not overly educated working-class guy who’s got the moves of a catnip-for-the-ladies-of-all-ages guy but the wistful heart of dreamer who wants to move up and out. Naturally, Baby is smitten, big time, and a summer romance ensues. Baby’s dad is suspicious of the lower-class Johnny, and then there’s Penny, Johnny’s dance partner and friend, and pregnant by a summer waiter.

This is the stuff of melodrama and soap opera, but just the kind of peppery ingredients, complete with schmaltz, that made a star out of Patrick Swayze as Johnny.

This is a show all about the dancing. The music is provided like a soundtrack with two terrific singers warbling. Jenlee Shallow and Doug Carpenter belt out with big emotion, voice and heart hits, such as “I Had the Time of My Life,” “In The Still of The Night,” “Love Is Strange,” “This Magic Moment” and “Do You Love Me,” backed up by a hard-driving band.

A number of things make this show work: some inventive back projections, an energy and enthusiasm on the part of the whole cast that’s infectious and the three principals.

On that note, let’s hear it for Samuel Pergande, who has the unenviable task of dancing with the ghost of Swayze. He’s no Swayze, but he’s definitely his own Johnny Castle. Ballet-trained (the Joffrey), Pergande can act well enough, but its his own move and stage presence, something on the order of a caged cat, that counts for a lot. The guy has his very own charisma, plus he brings subtle litheness and athleticism to the part, the kind that add grace to grit.

This is a show about dancing, after all, and Jenny Winton, also ballet-trained, in her first road and Broadway-type show, knocks herself and us out with elan, high kicks and struts and blonde elegance.

As “Baby,” Jillian Mueller is by now a natural Broadway baby. She comes from the world of hundreds of auditions, starring in a similar (but not so effective) film-into-show effort, “Flashdance,” of which she was easily the standout. She has a kind of sweaty energy. She’s never going less than all out and full-tilt boogy. Small in build, she’s a giant out there.

You have to remember, too, that Mueller and Pergande—whose Johnny wants to become a legit ballet dancer—have to pretend that they can’t dance certain dances, not an easy thing to bring off.

There’s another factor, and that’s the audience, which seems to be made up of movie fans, the majority of which are women, girls, millennials mixed in with baby boomers and all points in between. Somewhere along the way, they’ve got it all covered with memory, every song, every move, every line, and most of all, they kind of go crazy with the big lift, when Johnny lifts Baby way up high, and the audience erupts. They had the time of their lives, that’s for sure.

“Dirty Dancing” runs through Sept. 14 at the National Theatre.