The musical Dirty Dancing opened in Brisbane last night to wild audience applause. Traditionally, January is a slow month in the arts world, but producer Kevin Jacobsen told the first-night party that he'd already sold 85 per cent of tickets, with new seats now on sale. Jacobsen also spoke of well-advanced plans for a German-language production of the musical and a London version due to open late this year. The only problem, Jacobsen reckons, is that his UK and European partners are having trouble finding talent as good as the Australian cast, which is headed by Kym Valentine and Josef Brown.