"Dancing In the Streets" transfers to Aldwych 27 Apr

"Dancing In the Streets" transfers to Aldwych 27 Apr

Dancing in the Streets, a celebration of the greatest Motown hits, will transfer from the Cambridge Theatre to the Aldwych Theatre from 27 April to 22 July 2006, prior to "Dirty Dancing" opening at the Aldwych in Sept 2006

Producers Derek Nicol and Paul Walden for Flying Music said: "We have enjoyed a spectacular year in the West End with this production, that had been in development for the past five years. Audiences in their thousands are still dancing in the aisles each week but we always knew we had to leave the Cambridge Theatre on April 22 due to "Chicago" moving from the Adelphi to make room for "Evita". Our 12-week season at the Aldwych Theatre before "Dirty Dancing" opens allows us to search for another home with an open-ended commitment. We are determined to keep this critically acclaimed feel-good production running in the West End."

Dancing in the Streets received reasonable notices from the popular press when it opened 19 Jul 2005, following previews from 7 July: 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...