In the late seventies one film was so ground-breaking that it went on to define the whole era, the disco era. That film was, of course, Saturday Night Fever, and its soundtrack, filled with amazing disco classics and some of the Bee Gees greatest hits, sold over 22 million copies and was number one in the UK for 18 weeks and in America for over 2 years.
In 1998 the live stage show appeared at the London Palladium and, in an effort to make it a family-friendly show, many of the film’s darker elements, including references to racial conflict, drug use, and violence, were eliminated from the plot.
For the 2014 tour Director Ryan McBryde has reintroduced those grittier elements and, at the same time, deconstructed many of the show’s biggest songs so that Tragedy becomes a ballad used as a cry for help, Jive Talkin’ becomes an acoustic protest song, Stayin Alive is used to emphasise the hard times and, as a direct consequence of these musical changes, many in the audience are left disappointed.
One other shock in this production and the reason that, at the last minute, I decided to leave my young son at home is the bad language that pervades the entire show. The vast number of hastily printed warning notices around the theatre were very much “too little, too late”, resulting in many of the families in the audience taking the decision to leave during the show.
On the plus side the disco numbers that have managed to survive in this version are really good and they give Michael Stewart, who plays the Puerto Rican dancer Cesar and Noami Slights, who appears as Stephanie, a chance to show off some absolutely tremendous moves. They also give the audience a chance to see why Danny Bayne, as Tony Manero, has so many national and international dance credits to his name – he is, quite simply, mesmerising.
This production, as I have said already, is much more faithful to the original film rather than previous stage versions and, as such, has lost a lot of its appeal as a musical in favour of upping its appeal as a drama but, the most famous and appealing thing about the film was its thumping disco soundtrack and iconic dances and, with most of that gone, the remaining production is rather hollow.
*** Three Stars