THE brand new touring production of Dirty Dancing is an Italian job, and all because Rome's theatres weren't big enough for the American musical.

Bound for the Grand Opera House in York from October 17 to 22 in its only Yorkshire dates, the show is being presented by producers Karl Sydow and Paul Elliott with an innovative new creative team of director Federico Bellone and designer Roberto Cometti, joined by choreographer Gillian Bruce.

Bellone is artistic director of Milan's Teatro Nazionale while Cometti is a top Italian set designer, charged with re-imagining the look of Dirty Dancing, The Classic Story On Stage, with its tale of teenager Baby and Catskill Mountains dance instructor Johnny, their summer love in 1963 and a whole heap of watermelons.

Launching the show's first ever York run with a question-and-answer session and dance performance by past and present cast members Paul Michael Jones and Carlie Milner at the Opera House on Monday this week, producer Karl Sydow said: "We took the production to Milan last July, where it had an amazing run, though they said that most shows that come in don't work but this was a huge success and so everyone was a bit surprised!

"But you can't fit a big production into every Italian town, such as in Rome, where no theatre would have been big enough, though we did play a 15,00-seat arena in Verona, so Federico and Roberto said that to tour the show in Italy 'you will have to do the show our way'.

York Press:

Dirty Dancing producer Karl Sydow

"They came up with some wonderful ideas, so we said 'Why not' and it meant we could also do British theatres that we couldn't do before, like here in York, Dartford, Swansea and Reading."

The show's costumes will not veer from the iconic 1987 film's early Sixties fashions, but Cometti will bring a "completely new look" to Dirty Dancing's design. "If you saw the production at the Leeds Grand Theatre in 2014, the design was more abstract; this time it's more concrete," says Karl, who promises "a very sexy production, being from Italy".

Karl, who brought Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood to York Theatre Royal in 2014, has enjoyed a 12-year association with Dirty Dancing. "It tells a couple of great stories in parallel: Baby and her first experience of finding someone she loves who isn't her father, and Penny, whose first love turns out to be a creep," he says.

"In the end, it's the story that makes the show so popular. You have a wonderful combination of a fairytale, with Cinderella going to the ball and coming away with her Prince Charming, mixed with the grittier story of Penny having a guy who leaves her in the ****."

Such songs as Hungry Eyes, Hey! Baby,‘Do You Love Me? and the climactic (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life add to the show's appeal. "People love musicals because we all listen to music again and again, and then you have the setting, the costumes, attractive people doing sexy dances. To see that again and again is not hard work!" says Karl.

"Dirty Dancing already has intimacy because it's a play with music, and the audiences then get more scenes, more dancing and even more than they realised they wanted after seeing the film!"

Tickets for the 7.30pm evening shows and 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees can be booked on 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york