"Dancing In the Streets" to transfer to Playhouse

"Dancing In the Streets" to transfer to Playhouse

Dancing in the Streets, a celebration of the greatest Motown hits, will transfer from the Aldwych Theatre to the Playhouse Theatre from 1 Aug 2006 - booking to 6 Jan 2007

There will be subtle changes to the show and the set to fit the Playhouse stage and several new dressing rooms are having to be built to accomodate the 12-strong cast and eight musicians, who make up the Funk Brothers on-stage band.

Producers Derek Nicol and Paul Walden for Flying Music said: 'We always knew we had to leave the Cambridge Theatre due to 'Chicago' moving from the Adelphi to make room for 'Evita'. Our latest 12-week season at the Aldwych Theatre allowed us to time to search for another home with an open-ended commitment. 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.'

The musical originally opened at Cambridge Theatre 7 July 2006, before transferring to Aldwych 27 April 2006, where it runs until 22 July 2006, before its transfer to the Playhouse Theatre on 1 Aug 2006.

Dancing in the Streets received reasonable notices from the popular press when it opened 19 Jul 2005, following previews from 8 July 2005: DOMINIC CAVINDISH for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "The company sing not just with hark-at-us virtuosity but with unbridled soulfulness." CAROLINE SULLIVAN for THE GUARDIAN says, "There's no history or attempt at social contextualisation, which is scandalous given Motown's critical role in bringing black music into the mainstream." CLIVE DAVIS for THE TIMES says, "YES, it's only a juke-box musical...But when the juke-box is as potent as this, the usual reservations can be laid to one side. As a celebration of the Motown era, Dancing in the Streets has enough verve and unabashed high spirits to win over all but the most curmudgeonly audiences."

Dancing in the Streets, is directed by Keith Strachan, designed by Sean Cavanagh, with choreography by Carole Todd. It is presented by Paul Walden & Derek Nicol for Flying Music.

Forty years after Diana Ross and the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson & 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.

In the early 1960s, in a town called Detroit, local kids were looking for a form of expression they they could call their own. They found it at the Motown Hitsville studio. In 1959, Berry Gordy, a successful songwriter with his first big hit, 'Reet Petite' with Detroit born Jackie Wilson under his belt, decided to form his own record company and so, in a timber frame bungalow at 2648 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, Tamla Motown Records was born. During the years that followed, black soul music started to reach a white audience and the rest, as they say, is history...