Dirty Dancing stage star speaks of landing dream role

Nicky Griffiths

Stoke of Genius:

The beautiful and joyous Nicky Griffiths spoke to Stoke of Genius about the delight of playing Penny Johnson in Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story on Stage.

A record-breaking national musical, the show has received much acclaim across the UK and now treats the crowds at Stoke-on-Trent's Regent Theatre.

The talented and experienced stage actress joined the cast, along with Jill Winternitz, who plays Frances 'Baby' Houseman, in July last year.

Nicky was previously the understudy to Penny and Lisa Houseman and part of the ensemble cast until July last year when she earned her dream role.

She said: "This is amazing. I adored doing things like Grease and Mamma Mia because they were wonderful shows, and Hairspray as well, but I think this is the most exciting for me though because of the role I get to play.

"I grew up watching the movie and I always adored Penny. Cynthia Rhodes, who plays her in the movie, is insane, so it was kind of a dream role for me."

The 32-year-old has previously worked with Paul-Michael Jones, who plays leading man Johnny Castle in the show.

"We have been working together for about three years now. We did Mamma Mia in London together and I played Lisa in that."

The performance of the relationship between the dance partners is faultless and a history of working together surely contributed to the chemistry on stage.

Having watched the movie 'hundreds' of times when a young girl, Nicky was ecstatic to land her childhood dream role.

"This feels a bit like the ultimate really, to actually get to play it every night, also having understudied it for a year always thinking I would love to have a chance and now I get to do it every day!

"I still have the text messages that I sent to the family! I've kept them to remind me. It's a lot of exclamation marks and a lot of kisses and a lot of me saying that I'm crying!

Nicky Griffiths and Paul-Michael Jones

Although she adores playing Penny, she has her hopeful sights set on portraying the magnificent feisty character in one of the most successful musicals of all time.
"I'd love to be Velma in Chicago, that would be amazing. But Penny was one of the dreams, definitely."

Nicky gave an insight into life in musical theatre: "As long as you're enjoying it and you feel that the work that you're doing is good for you then you keep going with it.

"It's a difficult industry because obviously dance is a youthful industry, but I would enjoy going into a bit more of the acting side of things with a bit more acting and singing and less dancing if that was something possible for me to do.

"We'll see what the future holds! It's exciting just to see what's going to come your way!"
Don't miss out on an inspirational evening with Nicky and the entire cast throughout March.

To book tickets for Dirty Dancing you can visit The Regent Theatre Box Office or call 0844 871 7649.

Photography courtesy of Jovi Mullen