The ‘Dirty Dancing’ cast talk Patrick Swayze, the West End and doing the infamous lift 

Seen by millions across the globe, the musical sticks very closely to the plot of the original movie and tells the story of Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman and Johnny Castle; two fiercely independent young spirits from very different worlds, who come together in what will be the most challenging and triumphant summer of their lives. 

Sarah Finnan caught up with Michael O’Reilly and Kira Malou who play the lead roles in this show-stopping production. 

Michael O’Reilly as Johnny Castle 

Dirty Dancing is such an iconic film and Johnny Castle is such an iconic character; how did you make this role your own? 
I think I was very fortunate when I first got this part that I didn’t know much about the film, I didn’t know much about the fan base. I actually worked with an amazing coach called Jeff Coleman on the script, and one of his first pieces of advice to me, which changed my whole outlook was, ‘people know that Patrick Swayze isn’t going to walk out that door, they know it’s not Patrick stepping on that stage. You’re not playing Patrick Swayze. You’re playing Johnny Castle. So forget Patrick. The audience will be on your side unless you give them a reason not to be. So, you just have to do the work and make it truthful and they’ll believe it, they’ll buy into it.’ I think that advice really saved me. What I’ve been able to do as I continue playing this role is find the balance of my version of Johnny. Because I love Swayze so much – I think he’s an absolute icon – I really try and draw on his essence as an actor and how he did Johnny and kind of merge that with my own interpretation. So I use his voice and mannerisms and body language and merge that into the truth that I’ve always found in the character.

That’s so interesting, your point about not playing Patrick Swayze…
Yeah. There’s a great interview with Swayze where he’s talking about his career. I’m not sure if you knew this but he was the first ever Danny Zuko in Greece on Broadway and then he did this huge ice skating role in a television series. After that, he got offered loads of movie contracts for teen movies and he turned them all down because he wanted to be seen as a serious actor. So when he moved to Hollywood, he was really struggling which was surprising for someone who’s actually been quite successful. He was doing parts in TV series and things like that and then he got offered Dirty Dancing, and his whole team was like, ‘Don’t do it.’ Because it was kind of the teenage thing, it’s a bit of a ‘chick flick’ or whatever. But Swayze read the script and in the interview he gets asked, ‘Well, why did you do it?’ And he said, ‘I just felt something for Johnny. I just thought I could relate to Johnny.’ What happened was, he just read the words on the page and he connected to that character, and he put all of himself into it.  So, if there’s one thing that I’ve learned or been inspired by from Patrick’s performance, it’s that that’s all I have to do. I don’t have to be Patrick, I don’t have to do what he did. I just need to do the same process. I just need to read the words on the paper and let it inspire me, and that takes me forward in my craft. That’s really what I’ve tried to do with it.

Why do you think the show continues to be so popular?
I just think it was the right story at the right time with the right people. It’s timeless, it’s about love, it’s about music, it’s about dance – those things have been around since you know, the dawn of human civilisation, really. They’ve been around forever and will be around forever, so those themes are timeless. I think it was a beautiful storm. The film was produced with very little money and it was all done with a lot of passion. So much of the footage in the film actually wasn’t even in the script, it was just them improvising. The director kept the camera rolling and was just capturing moments. Like the iconic tickling scene, that actually wasn’t scripted – they were filming late at night and Jennifer Gray kept laughing and Patrick was getting frustrated with her so he tickled her. That wasn’t even scripted, you can’t script something natural like that. So, I don’t know, I think it just came down to people throwing loads of ingredients in a bowl and what came out, was what everyone wanted. I think it also encapsulates the era really well, so that’s why it kind of stands the test of time, you know?

Have you ever had any moments on stage where things don’t go to plan? Has the lift ever gone wrong!?
I mean, touch wood, the lift has never gone wrong! I come from a sports background – I used to play semi-professional rugby when I was younger – so when I got this role, I just went into athlete mode. I train a lot in the gym and I would do this thing where I would grab dumbbells and do as many shoulder presses as I could. On the last rep, I would hold them over my head, and I would just walk around the gym. I would walk around the gym until I had to drop them, and then I would rest and I would do it again. I just thought to myself, ‘I can’t do this show unless I can do that.’ Because if every night, I’m anxious about the lift, my mental health wouldn’t survive that. So knowing that even if it goes horribly wrong I’ve got the strength to save it is reassuring. Also because you don’t know who you’re going to be working with partner-wise. I always want to be solid for my partner – whatever routine you’re doing, a dance partnership is only as strong as the union so I never want to be the weak link in that chain. I always want to be prepared to do it.

Was there a lot of training involved beforehand?
So much! There was so much training, so many rehearsals. As a performer, you’re always training to give it your best, but if you want to be someone like Patrick – one of the cool things about how he dances in that movie is it’s so effortless. But that’s the really hard part, you’ve got to get so good at what you’re doing, that you can do it without trying. That was the hardest thing for me, learning these moves so well, that I could throw it away and try and get that effortless Swayze cool going on.

You came from a sports background – were you more drawn to the singing or the dancing? Or were they both out of your comfort zone?
I was actually always an actor, so alongside everything I’d always acted and that was always something that eventually I thought I wanted to get into but I had never danced before. I did a little bit of breakdancing because I thought I was cool and I’d watched Step Up and I wanted to be Channing Tatum. I’ve also done a little bit of martial arts, and I was very sporty, so it just kind of went from there. I ended up auditioning for Matthew Bourne’s Lord of the Flies. I remember being in that audition and thinking, ‘What am I doing here? I don’t belong here.’ I ended up getting that part and working with Matthew and the New Adventures company and that just changed my life. So I’d say dance was really my route into the industry. My love of the craft of acting, singing and music is really where I’m kind of drawn to now. Especially after playing Johnny, there aren’t many roles that I can think of that are that dance-heavy that I want to do, you know, unless it’s like going into a dance company, or working with something like New Adventures again. I don’t think there’s really something out there for me now in that vein, so I’m really grateful I was able to do this and I’m really grateful that I get to move on and do other roles. And I get to just explore my whole skill set.

What do you love most about being on stage?
I love that art imitates life. People can escape their life, they can be inspired for their life, they can grieve from their life through the play, through our work. I think that is the greatest gift we have as actors. You know, we can challenge, we can inspire, we can educate. Ethan Hawke has this amazing quote where talks about how people think that poetry and music and art is is superfluous and it’s not needed. But what’s the first thing that you turn to when you lose a loved one, or you break up with someone? It’s art, it’s music, it’s poetry – because there’s nothing else that seems to be able to reflect what you’re feeling inside other than those things. And I think that’s what we as actors are. We’re always a reflection of those things and people come and go to the theatre and they have that moment where they get whatever it is they need. Whatever it is they’re looking for, they generally can find in a show whether they just want to have a great time or escapism, they leave the theatre feeling amazing with a big smile on their face, or maybe they’re struggling with the grief of losing someone and they go to a play to help them process that. It’s connection, isn’t it? Art has this beautiful power that we actually don’t really fully understand but there’s something really innate to the human condition that we feel when we watch theatre. So, in a very convoluted way, it’s that relationship that I love about being on stage. 

I think you’re right; you get what you want from it…
When you read a book, you take from the book what you need and then you might read the same book a year later and you’ll get something completely different from that book. You’ll always get what you need because that’s what you’re looking for. I think that’s amazing. With theatre, you lift the lid off and go, ‘Wow, what a show’, but the show is just like a vessel for something else to come through to the audience. People will watch our show it becomes a reciprocal relationship where they then get back what they need. 

Any plans while in Dublin? Have you been to Ireland before?
Well, I have lots of family in Ireland – my name is Michael Patrick O’Reilly so I’m basically Irish. I don’t have the passport yet though, I need to do that but yeah my plans are definitely to see family while I’m here. They’re going to be coming to watch the show, they’re based in Longford. Other than that, Dublin is probably the city I will get to explore the least I think.  I’ve been here quite a few times so I do know it pretty well, but for me, it’s about establishing a routine because the theatre is huge and it’s always sold out. It’s a really tough gig in Dublin because it’s a big ask every night, so the days are about doing some craft work, training in the gym, that kind of thing. We’ll be here for about two weeks but it’s really just about creating a good routine. And then hopefully I’ll find time in between that to go to my favourite restaurants too!

Kira Malou as Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman 

Was it intimidating taking on such a well-known character like Baby?
I was very, very, very excited to take on such a demanding role and such an iconic character. I grew up watching the film with my mum – my mum was a huge, huge fan. I remember she’d cover my eyes on the more raunchy parts when I was younger, but then I kind of rediscovered the film when I was 17 and I had a videotape and I would just watch it over and over and over again. I was just so engrossed in this life, and this world of Baby and how ahead of her time is. She’s really strong as well and stands up for what she believes in.  I think that’s why a lot of women love it as well as because it’s such a feminist piece, really. Especially for 1963, when women didn’t have as much as say as they do now – and here’s this 17-year-old girl going after this man that she likes, and, you know, fighting for loads of other causes, in the meantime, like freedom riding. I was overwhelmed but I was so excited to get the part. 

Do you have a favourite moment in the show?
I always remember being very drawn to the dance scenes. I was a dancer when I was growing up but it is that style of dancing that, you almost feel like you shouldn’t be watching it it’s so intimate. These partners are dancing so sensually together, you feel like you shouldn’t be watching it but at the same time, you can’t stop watching it because it’s so different from what we usually see. 

And you’ve never had any disasters with the lift?
No, touch wood, we haven’t! From day one in rehearsals, we’ve smashed out every single night. I trust Michael wholeheartedly. And I think people are anticipating that moment as well, so you know, we can’t be playing around and just thinking, ‘Oh, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.’ No, this is the lift, it has to work.

Did you find it difficult to prep for this role? Was there a lot of technical training?
I was raised as a dancer, and I went to a dance school when I was 18 but acting wasn’t really on the cards for me. Not that I didn’t want to, it’s just I was so tunnel-visioned with dancing so acting kind of fell into my lap. When I was understudy for Baby in 2017, I had the chance to go on and a fire just sparked in me and I thought, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ From then on, I went to loads of acting classes and did lots of studying and I came back and I auditioned for the role of Baby – the acting lessons paid off, because I got the role! There was prep though, of course, there was the accent and the dancing. I’m working so intimately with Michael so we were taken off into another room where we went through scenes quite deeply together. From watching the film over and over again, I understood it.  I understood what was going on there, so I didn’t have to do lots of ripping apart – but at the same time, I’m not trying to copy Jennifer Gray, because I’m not her. I want people to have a truthful experience of it all. And if I feel that I’m being truthful, then the audience will feel that too.

Where has been your favourite show so far? I imagine performing on the West End was pretty incredible…
I mean, for me, that is going to be one of the highlights of my life – playing Baby on the West End, and on the Dominion Stage as well which is one of the most beautiful and biggest theatres in the West End. I also played Iris Kelly in Fame before and I think that was such a great role for me because Iris is this ballerina and I felt like the training I did when I was younger really built up to that moment. That was a great moment for dancing and then my acting landed on Baby, so I feel very lucky that I’ve done two very different shows.

Right now, you’re knee-deep in all things Dirty Dancing but looking ahead, any dream roles you’d love to play next?
I’ve done a role that focused on dancing and now Baby which focuses more on acting so I would love to do a singing-focused part next. I’d love to try for Sophie in Mamma Mia. Abba is just so iconic. 

What do you love most about being on stage? 
I think once the curtain comes up, and that music starts, you don’t stop for two hours, so it’s so easy to be drawn into this world. If you’re filming for TV, you can come in and out of the character and then you go back in. In theatre, you really commit to this process of living this story. It’s like when you’re a child and you’re playing make-believe; you get totally engrossed in this world, and you believe it, that you’re really there. I love being able to explore this other world every single night. The second thing is really feeling like you move the audience. I think by the end, by the time we’re doing (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, the audience is singing and dancing along and you can really feel them enjoying it. It just reminds you why you do it, you’re there to entertain people, to get people to come explore this world that you’re in too. People save up and go to the theatre, it’s a special experience so getting to witness that they’re enjoying it is really affirming. 

How do you settle into a routine while on the road?
I actually find the routine a very hard thing to do, because we are moving from venue to venue. There was one point last week when someone asked me, ‘where were you last week?’, and I just couldn’t think where we were! Having a solid team helps. We move together and having those people around you is very important, they’re your foundation,  your community. On the West End, you come into work, you do the job and you leave, whereas on tour, you’re traveling together as a unit so they help keep me grounded. I definitely try and find places with kitchens so I can cook. I think it’s very important as well to rest and get lots of sleep and just have those moments of mindfulness throughout the day as well because actually doing the shows with 1,000 or 2,000 people watching can be a lot. You give so much to the show so you can feel quite tired and drained by the end, it’s about making sure you preserve your energy as well as making sure that you are going to the gym and looking after yourself.

Dirty Dancing will play at the Bord Gáis from September 5-16. Find out more information and book your tickets here. Photography courtesy of the Bord Gáis.