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Streets Dances on at West End Playhouse, 1 Aug

Motown compilation musical Dancing in the Streets will move from its temporary home at the West End’s Aldwych Theatre, where it finishes on 22 July, and reopen on 1 August 2006 at the Playhouse Theatre, where it will have a more permanent home, initially booking through to 6 January 2007.

There will be subtle changes to the show and the set to fit the Playhouse stage, and several new dressing rooms are being built to accommodate the 12-strong cast and eight musicians, who make up the Funk Brothers on-stage band. Meanwhile, the UK tour of the show continues until 16 July 2006.

The musical, which celebrates its first West End anniversary on 8 July 2006, moved from its original home at the Cambridge Theatre (making way for Chicago), where it opened in July 2005 following regional dates, to the Aldwych Theatre for a limited 12-week season on 27 April 2006.

At its temporary home, Dancing in the Streets handily filled the gap between the closure of Fame on 22 April 2006 and the UK premiere of screen-to-stager Dirty Dancing, which starts performances on 29 September 2006 (See News, 24 Feb 2006).

Commenting on the latest house move, producers Derek Nicol and Paul Walden for Flying Music said: “We are delighted that the move to the Playhouse means that this critically acclaimed feel-good production will continue to run in the West End.”

Forty years after Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles first arrived in the UK in the spring of 1965 with the Tamla Motown Revue tour, Dancing in the Streets recreates what it was like to be there and to experience the energy, style and music of the greatest stars of the Motown stable.

Dancing in the Streets’ medley of hits includes classics made famous by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, the Commodores, Lionel Ritchie, Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson. It’s directed by Keith Strachan, with choreography by Carole Todd, and is produced by Flying Music, the same company behind The Rat Pack. The current West End cast of Dancing in the Streets includes 17-year-old James Bellamy (pictured) from ITV’s The X Factor .

Ahead of the Motown musical’s run at the Playhouse, The Rocky Horror Show will have a limited three-week season from 5 to 22 July 2006, taking a break from its extensive UK tour (See News, 26 May 2006)

- by Caroline Ansdell

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