Casting and Creative Team Announced for St. Louis Premiere of DIRTY DANCING – THE CLASSIC STORY ON STAGE

The Fabulous Fox Theatre announced today that Christopher Tierney and Bronwyn Reed will star as Johnny Castle and Frances "Baby" Houseman in the St. Louis premiere of Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage.

Tierney and Reed lead a company of 26 that includes Matthew Amira as Robbie Gould (The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Ogunquit Playhouse),Jordan Edwin André as Billy Kostecki/Singer (West Side Story - Regional), Alyssa Brizzi as Lisa Houseman (Beauty and the Beast - National Tour), Jerome Harmann-Hardeman as Tito Suarez (The Full Monty), Jennifer Mealani Jones as Penny Johnson ("So You Think You Can Dance" season 10), Hannah Jane McMurray as Marjorie Houseman (Peter Pan 360), Gary Lynch as Max Kellerman (Les Misérables), Jon Powell asDr. Jake Houseman (The Rose Bowl Queens - LA), Alan Scharf as Mr. Schumacher (Take Her - National Tour) and Matt Surges as Neil Kellerman (A Funny Thing Happened... - Regional). The ensemble comprises Estee Beck, Matthew Borchers, Henry Byalikov, Chante Carmel, Jenifer Dillow, Lindsey Hailes, Michal Kolaczkowski, Kelsey Kramer, Mark Mackillop, Sophie Lee Morris, Katelyn Prominski,Michael Thomas Pugliese, John Swapshire and D. Scott Withers.

Tickets for Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage at the Fabulous Fox are on sale now online at MetroTix.com, by calling 314-534-1111 or in person at the Fabulous Fox Box Office. Ticket prices start at $25. Prices are subject to change; please refer to FabulousFox.com for current ticket prices as they are subject to change due to demand. Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage is part of the U.S. Bank Broadway Series.

Performances of Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage at the Fabulous Fox run May 12 - 14. Show times are Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m., Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

"The company that we have assembled for our North American tour is beautiful and truthful," says Eleanor Bergstein, screenwriter of the film Dirty Dancing and book writer for the musical. "I originally wrote the movie because I love to dance. And since the movie first appeared, the open-hearted audience response has made me believe that everyone has a secret dancer inside them, one they feel could connect them to the physical world in the way they dream. If that was true, then its natural form was theater - live audiences watching live bodies dancing and singing here and now. I have added 20 more new scenes, 36 numbers of live music, and an eight piece band onstage. It's been a deep pleasure for us to watch audiences around the country respond as this extraordinarily talented group of people brings Dirty Dancing home to North America."

The production's book is written by Eleanor Bergstein and the North American tour will be directed by James Powell with choreography byMichele Lynch based on the original choreography by Kate Champion. The creative team also includes Stephen Brimson Lewis (set design),Tim Mitchell (lighting design), Jennifer Irwin (costume design), Bobby Aitken (sound design), Jon Driscoll (video and projection design), Bernie Ardia (hair design), Conrad Helfrich (music supervisor and orchestrations) and Alan Plado (music director).

Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage is an unprecedented live experience, exploding with heart-pounding music played live by an eight piece onstage band, passionate romance and sensational dancing. Seen by millions across the globe, this timeless love story features the hit songs "Hungry Eyes," "Hey Baby," "Do You Love Me?" and the heart-stopping "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life." London's Sunday Express says "This crowd-pleasing stage adaptation hits the jackpot!"

It's the summer of 1963, and 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is on vacation in New York's Catskill Mountains with her older sister and parents. Mesmerized by the racy dance moves and pounding rhythms she discovers in the resort's staff quarters, Baby can't wait to be part of the scene, especially when she catches sight of Johnny Castle, the resort's sexy dance instructor. Passions ignite and Baby's life changes forever when she is thrown in to the deep end as Johnny's leading lady, both on-stage and off.

Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage began as an eight-week staged workshop in Manhattan in the fall of 2001. It was first performed at the Theatre Royal in Sydney, Australia in November 2004 before embarking upon a hugely successful tour of Australia and New Zealand. A new production opened at the Theater Neue Flora in Hamburg, Germany in March 2006 where it broke records for achieving the highest advance in European history.

The production began performances on London's West End in October 2006 with an £11 million advance and went on to become the longest running show in the history of the Aldwych Theatre. It closed in July 2011 in advance of a two-year UK national tour and then returned to London for a strictly limited season at the Piccadilly Theatre.

Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage has gone on to perform across the world in markets as diverse as Utrecht, Holland, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Most recently, it has been represented by a new UK tour (which launched March 2014 in Bristol), a German tour (which launched April 2014 in Berlin) and a French tour (which launched January 2015 in Paris). The show returned to Australia with a new tour that premiered in late 2014 in honor of the stage production's 10th anniversary. The current North American tour launched in Washington, DC in August 2014 and is currently booked through the 2015-2016 season.

The North American tour of Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage is produced by Amber Jacobsen, NETworks Presentations LLC, Grove Entertainment, and Col Joye in association with Lionsgate and Magic Hour Productions.

For more information, please visit http://us.dirtydancingontour.com/.

To post a comment, you must register and login.