WHO can forget Kyle, the hunky UPS guy delivering the mail in Legally Blonde, The Musical?

Lewis Griffiths served in that temperature-rising role in two tours of musical duty at the Grand Opera House, York, in 2011 and 2012. The same Lewis Griffiths who is playing  Johnny Castle, "one of the most iconic roles in popular culture" in Dirty Dancing on his return to the Cumberland Street theatre this week

"Kyle doesn't turn up until the second half but then steals the show," says Lewis, who first appeared at the Opera House in May 2005 in Love Shack, a disco musical full of high camp and banana innuendos.

He has since starred in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Rent and Whistle Down The Wind in the West End and Ghost, The Musical on tour and latterly he has been touring the country as Nick Massi in Jersey Boys.

Now Lewis is performing seven shows a week – Karl James Wilson takes over for the eighth one – playing opposite Katie Hartland in her professional music theatre debut as the watermelon-carrying Frances 'Baby' Houseman.

Resort dance instructor Johnny Castle is a physically demanding role in the story of Baby and Johnny, two fiercely independent young spirits from different worlds, who come together in what will be the most challenging and triumphant summer of their lives.

York Press:

Lift-off: Katie Harland's Baby and Lewis Griffiths' Johnny Castle in Dirty Dancing. Picture: Alastair Muir

Lewis had just finished a physio session when he took the phone call from What's On. How are you feeling, Lewis? "I'm aching all over, but only because we have a masochistic Swedish therapist who likes to inflict pain! He's very good," he says.

"It's a tough show but we all put 110 per cent into every performance as it's a show that literally sells itself because it's an age-old classic love story on stage. Every guy is secretly a closet Dirty Dancing fan! A lot of my mates back in Essex will secretly admit to being fans, and Johnny Castle is up there with Danny Zuko in Grease as a favourite."

The latest tour has a new director, Federico Bellone, artistic director of Milan's Teatro Nazionale, and a new choreographer, Gillian Bruce, working in tandem on an innovative revamp. "It's a new take on the show: Dirty Dancing is even Dirtier now!" says Lewis.

"It's their vision, their reimagining of the show. Like Jersey Boys is a play with a catalogue of Frankie Valli hits woven through it, this show is a play with music and dancing woven through it. It's not a musical in the sense that we don't burst into song for no apparent reason; the songs aid the show's narrative."

Dirty Dancing is associated with such songs as Hungry Eyes, Hey Baby, Do You Love Me? and the climactic (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life, and above all with the late Patrick Swayze's performance as Johnny Castle in the 1987 movie. "They're very, very big shoes to try to fill or emulate, so I've decided not to try to do that," says Lewis. "You can't improve on perfection and Patrick Swayze was the ultimate Johnny Castle.

"I'm bringing Lewis Griffiths' Johnny Castle to the stage. It's half me and half how I think Johnny would be. Just as Johnny was the character and Patrick Swayze was the actor, I'm definitely playing Johnny, not Patrick."

As ever, Dirty Dancing is doing well at the box office, and Lewis has a theory to explain the show's abiding popularity. "If you don't have a love story, you don't have life," he says. "What's your purpose in life? It's love, and love is the cornerstone of Dirty Dancing."

Dirty Dancing runs at Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday; tonight to Thursday, 7.30pm; Friday, 5.30pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york