Dancing Out of Aldwych, Who Will Find a London Home???

Five years and almost two million theatregoers after opening its doors at the West End’s Aldwych Theatre, Dirty Dancing has announced that the show will end its London run on 9 July, kicking off a national tour at the Bristol Hippodrome on 1 September 2011. With constant rumblings about congestion in the capital’s theatres – and a frequent complaint that long-running musicals are clogging up the larger houses – speculation is already rife over what could follow the screen-to-stage musical into the Aldwych.

With a large West End theatre having become available sooner than the previously rumoured November date, it is possible we could see the RSC’s hit musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda transfer. Although rumoured for a West End run, there is still no sign of the musical adaptation of Lend Me A Tenor – premiered at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in 2007 – which played the Theatre Royal Plymouth directed by Ian Talbot last year. Perhaps an outside contender, Canadian impresario David Mirvish recently announced that Craig Revel Horwood‘s revival of Chess – which has been touring the UK since August last year – will play Toronto’s Princess of Wales Theatre from September to October “just prior to its West End debut”. Following much noise being made about the musical adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca coming the Shaftesbury, only to be stymied by mysterious technical issues, perhaps the Aldwych could be a better fit for the musical – producers having previously complained suitable theatres such as the Adelphi were occupied.