Blake Zelesnikar and Annalese Starzec Photo by Matthew Murphy for MurphyMade

So how is it? I can say without hesitation that it is an enormous crowd-pleaser. The Ordway's full house went wild over it. No doubt, much of the love was triggered by nostalgia for the film, with its sentimental story and use of early 1960s pop songs, most of which allude to teenage horniness in an era when such feelings were meant to stay under wraps. It also includes several songs from the movie that were new releases at the time, including the Oscar-winning song "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." Snippets of this theme are used throughout the show as underscoring, and when it is performed full throttle for the splendid finale, it had the audience in the palm of its hand. Almost forty years later, it's still a great song, used to great effect in this story.

Along with nostalgia notes, the spectacular (no hyperbole) choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie (Saturday Church, Goddess) drew equally robust ovations. Given that the show has a lot of dancing, this could be reason enough for some theatregoers to line up for tickets. The moves are performed by a cast of terrific dancers who make the demanding–and sexy–choreography look smooth and easy. In leading roles that require both great dancing and acting chops, Blake Zelesnikar as Johnny Castle, Annalese Starzec as "Baby," and Olivia Cece as Penny deliver the goods. Zelesnikar and Cece are star quality dancers, and Starzec especially impresses in her national tour debut.

The show is directed by New York theatre veteran Lonny Price, who was featured in the movie as the arrogant grandson of Max Kellerman, owner of the fictional Borsch Belt resort where Dirty Dancing is set. Price wisely treats it as a dance musical, and keeps everything in motion. The set pieces that form the indoor and outdoor locations at Kellerman's Resort shift in and out of place with choreographic flair, and the actors and ensemble move in and out of scenes with similar fluidity. The result is a show that grabs our attention with the opening notes of "Be My Baby" (sung with a bright clarion voice by Ashley LaLonde as Elizabeth, a role created for the stage show), and never lets us go.

Speaking of that song, Dirty Dancing on stage does not have any new songs. Not one. It includes many of the numerous pop songs from the early 1960s that were in the movie, along with a few first heard in the movie that went on to the Billboard charts–"Hungry Eyes," "Yes," "She's Like the Wind," and, of course, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." Some are sung live by actors on stage; along with LaLonde's strong showings, Ethan Peterson, as Johnny's cousin Billy, gives an especially gripping rendition of "In the Still of the Night." But many are heard being sung by the original recording artists, aired on the radio or on the record players that are always filling Kellerman's with music. So, we hear "Do You Love Me?" sung by The Contours, "Love Man" sung by Otis Redding, "Hey! Baby," sung by Bruce Channel, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" sung by The Shirelles, and many others.

The show also includes a number of old standards like Harry Warren's "There Will Never Be Another You" and Cole Porter's "You Do Something to Me," performed by Kellerman's house band for the pleasure of their older guests, with vocals sometimes provided by Erick Pinnick as Tito, the emcee of Kellerman's nightly entertainment. We also hear dance music (written for the movie) used in Johnny Castle's specialty numbers (mambo, merengue, and such) and for the dance lessons given lakeside to Kellerman's guests brushing up before they hit the nightclub dance floor.

There is a wealth of music here, almost all of it well chosen–only the insertion of the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" feels like a ham-fisted misstep. This eclectic mix of live and pre-recorded music works beautifully and feels altogether authentic. Credit must go, at least in part, to Joseph Joubert for music supervision and arrangements, and to music director Patrick Tice-Carroll.

Dirty Dancing is set in the summer of 1963, and the show, like the movie, points out early on that it was a pivotal year in America. It was the year a Buddhist monk in Vietnam set himself on fire as a protest that would spiral into a terrible war, Freedom Riders were stirring up "good trouble" (to quote John Lewis) in the Jim Crow south, and a few months later, America's dream of Camelot would be shattered by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The possibility of change is mirrored in the trajectory Bergstein creates for Baby and Johnny, who each change profoundly in the course of a summer dance-fueled romance.

But such quickly made, profound transformations are, after all, the stuff of fantasy. Baby transforms from an awkward Mt. Holyoke-bound high school grad, who idolizes her father and is intent on changing the world, into a sizzling hot dance partner and confident bed partner in the space of a couple of weeks. Johnny, the hot dance instructor, a cynic from the tough side of town who cashes in letting wealthy middle-aged women at the resort use him as a sex toy, gains a sense of self-worth, learns that he can love and be loved, that it is worth standing up for what he believes, and that changing the world doesn't have to be the stuff of dreams.

Seeing it live on stage–and the show's book follows the movie's script with remarkable fidelity–the incredulity of the premise is harder to swallow. But by the end of the show, damned if I hadn't fallen for it. In part, this is because of how much we come to like both Baby and Johnny, especially given the well-toned performances by Starzec and Zelesnikar. We root for them and are gratified by their characters' redemption, even if we know that it's not like that in the real world.

In a plot point added to the stage show, a couple of busboys leave their jobs to join the Freedom Riders. While that is tenable, having the hotel owner not upbraid them for jumping ship mid-season, but actually take up a collection for them, does not gel with the history. Neither does an off-handed statement that Kellerman's was the first Catskill resort to be racially integrated. Political activism wasn't among the amenities offered by those Borscht Belt resorts, which I visited several times as a child with my family (in fact, once in 1963, the year of Dirty Dancing). When the hotels, all owned and operated by Jewish families, did begin to desegregate, it was in response to changing vacation habits that required the owners to reach out to markets beyond their traditional Jewish base, not as a sign of support for the civil rights struggle.

The design elements for this production are first rate. Brett J. Banakis's sets create the right blend of rustic and classy that was the tone of those old hotels, with David Bengali's video designs working in sync with the sets to create a golf course, a pristine lake, and other locations. Emily Rebholz's costumes capture the styles and the mood of era, with costumes designed for Baby that reenforce her persona as a budding rebel. Japhy Weideman's lighting design and Kai Harada's sound design add vivid sensory qualities to the production.

In addition to the excellent performances already mentioned, credit goes to Bryan Fenkart as Baby's father, Jake Houseman, whose liberal pronouncements are undermined by a double standard; Lily Kren as Baby's sister Lisa, whose shallowness is a marked contrast to Baby's idealism; and Dan Klimko as obnoxious Neil Kellerman, the role Lonny Price had in the film. Gina Lamparella is fine as Marjorie, Baby's mother, but the part is sorely underwritten. Antony Sanchez scores well as a caddish hotel waiter, Robbie, and Loren Lester ably conveys the jovial host as hotel owner Max Kellerman.

Will this iteration of Dirty Dancing finally get to New York? A 2004 Australian production was a huge commercial success, followed by sold-out runs in London and Germany. Over a million people saw the show in London's West End, where it ran for five years and has returned twice since then. There was a North American tour starting in 2007, with successful stops in major markets like Toronto, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. A second North American tour launched in 2014, but the show never quite stuck the landing–that is, made it to Broadway.

Not having seen the prior stage versions, all I can say is that this one has the right stuff. The music and dancing are there in spades, the staging is slick, and the performances are strong. Perhaps losing the attempt to add relevance with the expansion of the movie's casual mention of freedom riders would remove what is a distraction, rather than enhancement, to the thrust of the story.

And what is its thrust? By this man's reckoning, it is Baby's emergence into adulthood and accepting the responsibility that comes with it, and the awakening in Johnny of his potential for doing what is right, rather than what is expedient. Two people, each help the other become a better person. A tale as old as time, as they say, but still worth telling. That's the thrust of the story; as for the thrust of the show, it's fabulous dancing to great music, with a whiff of nostalgia and a dollop of optimism. Surely there's an audience for that.

Dirty Dancing runs through September 6, 2026, at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, 345 Washington Street, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please call 651-224-4222 or visit www.ordway.org. For information about the tour, visit www.ddmusical.com.

Book: Eleanor Bergstein, based on her screenplay for the Lionsgate film; Direction: Lonny Price; Choreography: Darrell Grand Moultrie; Music Supervision and Arrangements: Joseph Joubert; Scenic Design: Brett J. Banakis; Costume Design: Emily Rebholz; Lighting Design: Japhy Weideman; Sound Design: Kai Harada; Video Design: David Bengali; Hair and Wig Design: Robert Pickens; Makeup Design: Studio Pickens; Orchestrator: Charlie Rosen; Music Director: Patrick Tice-Carroll; Music Coordinator: Michael Aarons, M2 Music; Casting: The TRC Company, Claire Burke, CSA, Perter Van Dam, CSA; Associate Director: Matt Cowart; Associate Choreographer: Abdur-Rahim Jackson; Dance Arrangements: Michael Thurber; Production Stage Manager: Alan D. Knight.

Cast: Emma Jade Branson (Swing), Marcus Byers Jr. (swing), Olivia Cece (Penny Johnson), Jonas Cohen (Mr. Schumacher/ensemble), Sarah Ellis (Vivian/ensemble), Aria Christina Evans (swing), Bryan Fenkart (Jake Houseman), Anthony J. Gasbarre, III (swing), Dan Klimko (Neil Kellerman), Lily Kren (Lisa Houseman/ensemble), Ashley LaLonde (Elizabeth), Gina Lamparella (Marjorie Houseman), Zoe Edan Lemelman (ensemble), Loren Lester (Max Kellerman), Francesca Mancuso (ensemble), Ethan Peterson (Billy Kostecki), Erick Pinnick (Tito Suarez), Brett Rawlings (ensemble), Jason Richards (Moe/ensemble), Antony Sanchez (Robbie/ensemble), Grace Sautter (ensemble), Neil Starkenberg (ensemble), Annalese Starzec (Frances "Baby" Houseman), Fisher Lane Stewart (ensemble) John Swapshire (ensemble), Carmella Taitt (ensemble), Blake Zelesnikar (Johnny Castle).