Bee Gees songs, popping hips, high-waisted flares, and disco balls stirring up a blizzard of light? Saturday Night Fever is back on stage, in all its seventies splendour, with Bill Kenwright’s production jiving into the New Theatre’s spotlight.
The plot, for those unaware, centres on a 19-year-old Italian-American lad called Tony Manero (Richard Winsor, in the role that bagged John Travolta the Oscar in 1977), who works a dead-end job in a paint shop and lives with his dysfunctional catholic family in Brooklyn. Tony’s only real joy is spending Saturday nights dancing to the slick sounds at the glitzy discotheque 2001 Odyssey, where he’s seen as an object of lust and admiration. Tony knows he’s unhappy but seems paralyzed, spending his spare time slumming with his deadbeat gang of friends, numbed to the casual violence and chauvinism surrounding him.
His biggest goal is to buy a jaunty white suit he sees at the tailor’s - and an upcoming dance contest is just the ticket to get him there if he can find a partner on his level. Enter Stephanie Mangano, a Manhattanite-by-way-of-Brooklyn that’s determined to escape her own limited prospects. She (rightfully) treats the louche and sexist Tony with scepticism and reproach, but nevertheless agrees to partner with him for the contest - on a strictly professional basis, of course.
The dancing is fiercely professional - both Winsor and Fines move through their routines with a readied ease that’s dazzling to see. The show’s heart lies in its elaborate and numerous dance routines, so much so that in the first half, emotional moments feel rushed through. The scenes establishing Tony’s dad as an abusive, unemployed alcoholic feel like box-ticking, as do Tony’s exchanges with his longtime admirer and would-be dance partner Annette (a charming and comedic Jasmin Colangelo).
It’s a shame, as the material goes to several dark places - gang wars, loss of faith, rape, suicide - and a chance to linger with the characters and really feel their plights would have made a world of difference. The plot of Saturday Night Fever is already a bit of a kitchen sink drama, trying to pack in every issue a young man in the 1970s might possibly face, and not every emotional beat has a chance to really resound before we’re ushered into another flashy ensemble dance number.
Thankfully, in the second half, the production calms down a bit, and the characters are given more breathing room. Kevin O’Dwyer, in his professional debut, is a particular stand-out. As the anxious and innocent Bobby, he provides the necessary sincerity and presence. The live band and three very convincing Bee Gees impersonators (Jake Byrom, Oliver Thomson and James Hudson) are also exhilarating. By the final scenes, lessons have been learned, truths have been faced, Tony has done some necessary character growth, and we the audience are practically ready to leap up on the stage and dance right along with him, moved and jazzed up.
Ultimately, this winningly sincere and slick production may not reach the full emotional heights of its potential, but it will surely make for a fun night out.