“Dirty Dancing ”Stage Musical Is Coming to Broadway for the First Time Ahead of Film’s 40th Anniversary

Dave QuinnTue, October 6, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Annalese Starzec and Blake Zelesnikar in ‘Dirty Dancing: The Musical’Credit: Matthew Murphy -

Dirty Dancing: The Musical will make its Broadway debut at the Lena Horne Theatre beginning Feb. 12, 2027

Original Dirty Dancing cast member Lonny Price, who played Neil Kellerman in the 1987 film, directs the new production.

The limited Broadway engagement comes ahead of the beloved film’s 40th anniversary

Broadway audiences are about to have the time of their lives.

Dirty Dancing: The Musical will make its Broadway debut next year, bringing the beloved story of Baby and Johnny to the Great White Way for the first time in celebration of the original film’s 40th anniversary.

The production will begin performances at New York City’s Lena Horne Theatre on Feb. 12, 2027, with a special gala celebration set for March 14. The strictly limited engagement will run through Sept. 5.

Annalese Starzec will make her Broadway debut as Frances “Baby” Houseman opposite fellow Broadway newcomer Blake Zelesnikar as Johnny Castle. The pair currently lead Dirty Dancing’s North American tour, which launched in Saint Paul, Minn., in August and continues across North America this fall before arriving in New York. The tour will resume its national run following the Broadway engagement.

The stage adaptation has a particularly special connection to the 1987 movie: Tony Award nominee and two-time Emmy Award winner Lonny Price, who played Neil Kellerman in the film, returns to the story four decades later as its director.

Blake Zelesnikar and Annalese Starzec in ‘Dirty Dancing: The Musical’Credit: Matthew Murphy

Choreographer Darrell Grand Moultrie, whose credits include Broadway’s Fat Ham and Beyoncé’s world tour, is handling the dancing, with a 27-member company that includes 21 performers making their Broadway debuts.

Starzec and Zelesnikar are joined by Olivia Cece as Penny Johnson, Bryan Fenkart as Jake Houseman, Dan Klimko as Neil Kellerman, Lily Kren as Lisa Houseman, Ashley LaLonde as Elizabeth, Gina Lamparella as Marjorie Houseman, Loren Lester as Max Kellerman, Ethan Peterson as Billy Kostecki and Erick Pinnick as Tito Suarez.

Rounding out the company are Emma Jade Branson, Marcus Byers, Jr., Jonas Cohen, Sarah Ellis, Aria Christina Evans, Anthony J. Gasbarre III, Zoe Edan Lemelman, Francesca Mancuso, Brett Rawlings, Jason Richards, Antony Sanchez, Grace Sautter, Neil Starkenberg, Fisher Lane Stewart, John Swapshire and Carmella Taitt.

Annalese Starzec and Blake Zelesnikar in ‘Dirty Dancing: The Musical’Credit: Matthew Murphy

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Written by Eleanor Bergstein, who also penned the original film, Dirty Dancing: The Musical follows the plot of the film, transporting audiences back to the Catskills in the summer of 1963, where Frances “Baby” Houseman falls for charismatic dance instructor Johnny Castle while vacationing with her family.

Their romance unfolds against the music that helped make Dirty Dancing a cultural phenomenon, with the stage production featuring favorites from the movie including “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” “Hungry Eyes,” “Do You Love Me?” and “She’s Like the Wind.”

Released in August 1987 and starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze as Baby and Johnny, Dirty Dancing became a global sensation, grossing more than $200 million worldwide. In the decades since, the movie has remained a pop culture staple, with Baby and Johnny’s climactic dance — and its famous lift — becoming one of the film’s most enduring images.

Its soundtrack also became a musical phenomenon, spawning multiple hit singles and two multiplatinum albums, while “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The movie’s legacy is set to continue on the big screen. Lionsgate is developing a Dirty Dancing sequel starring Grey, who will reprise her role as Baby. The Hunger Games producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson are producing.

In 2020, Grey told PEOPLE that the movie’s “appeal was that it was very genuine and simple.”

“It was about innocence and the way that innocence is lost and how people explode into a different iteration of themselves,” she said about the coming-of-age classic.

Tickets for Dirty Dancing: The Musical’s Broadway engagement go on sale Friday, Oct. 9, following a fan presale on Thursday, Oct. 8.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”