'Dirty Dancing,' the mega-hit musical

LONDON — As an original cast member of "Dirty Dancing -- The Classic Story on Stage," Josef Brown is no stranger to receiving what he calls an "ecstatic reaction" from theatergoers. Even if that reaction is, in effect, a borderline hysterical outpouring of audience adulation more in line with a Jonas Brothers gig than a musical theater production that has been running on London's West End since 2006.

Brown has performed the role of Johnny Castle -- the macho yet balletic vacation-camp mambo instructor immortalized by Patrick Swayze in 1987's coming-of-age movie musical "Dirty Dancing" -- on three continents. And he's seen the way the stage show can trigger wild abandon in "Dirty Dancing's" core constituency. That is, dedicated fans of the movie who memorize its dialogue, who cherish its saucy dance sequences and class-conscious love story -- not to mention smash hits from the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack such as "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" and "Hungry Eyes" -- as personal touchstones.

"I had a couple of women jump on stage and koala-bear me in Australia," Brown said. "In London, it's more of a 'good-time' crowd. While in Chicago, I had two women sitting front-row center delivering almost every line. That was actually really frustrating. A bachelorette party got kicked out at the top of the second act in Boston -- 22 people -- for being too rowdy. A security guard there got hit with a handbag and had to get stitches."

He paused to consider the powerful mojo that the stage show exerts, having sold nearly 5 million tickets in seven countries since its 2004 debut. It opens today at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre. "On some nights it's relatively quiet," said Brown. "But then you get X number of women sitting together, and you've got this critical mass. The intensity of the excitement in a small patch of people sweeps through the audience like a brush fire. And everybody goes crazy!"

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Bringing up Baby

Although "Dirty Dancing" is hardly the first big-screen hit to be adapted for the stage -- musical versions of "Footloose," "Saturday Night Fever," "The Producers" and many others came earlier -- there has never been a theatrically staged cultural mash-up quite like it. As with the movie, the production follows Frances "Baby" Houseman, who grows up fast over the course of a few hot-and-heavy weeks in a dance-crazy Catskills resort in 1963. Against the wishes of her family, she discovers love, political consciousness and her rich interior life as a "dirty dancer." The narrative unspools against a high-tech, two-story electronic backdrop, with dancers who alternately slink and preen, hot-step and high-kick, lambada and tumble through the air like Texas cheerleaders to a backbeat of some 50 midcentury pop hits.