Review: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, Peacock Theatre
Photo credit: Paul Coltas
It has been forty-five years since John Travolta donned that iconic white suit and brought us Saturday Night Fever. It is quite hard to believe that during the early days of filming for this movie, John Travolta was actually dancing to the music of Stevie Wonder and not the Bee Gee favourites which we have all come to love!
Saturday Night Fever had a tremendous effect on popular culture of the late 1970s and helped significantly to popularise disco music around the world and made Travolta a household name. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring disco songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
So let’s set the scene. It’s 1976 in New York and Tony Manero (a young man from a tough Brooklyn neighbourhood with a dead-end job and an extraordinary ability to dance) has only one ambition in life – to become the King of Disco. Every Saturday night, he puts on his flares and hits the dance floor, wowing everyone with his phenomenal moves and routines. When he meets Stephanie, who also dreams of a world beyond Brooklyn, they decide to train together for a dance competition and their lives begin to change forever. With hits including ‘Stayin’ Alive’, ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, ‘Night Fever,’ ‘Tragedy’ and ‘More Than a Woman’ as well as 70’s favourites ‘Boogie Shoes’, ‘Disco Inferno’ and many more.
Having personally first seen the musical production of Saturday Night Fever in 2005 and remembering it fondly, Bill Kenwright’s updated version had a lot to live up to. Richard Winsor (Tony Manero) is a tremendous dancer and certainly gives Travolta a run for his money - he gives a captivating performance. Olivia Fines (Stephanie Managano) is perfectly cast as Tony’s love interest and together are a tour de force. One addition to this production is the subtle homage to the Bee Gees – Jake Byrom (Barry), James Hudson (Maurice) and Oliver Thomson (Robin) sing the songs whilst the dancers dance and they certainly sound authentic and true to the iconic Bee Gees sound. However, for the majority of the show, none of the characters sing, but suddenly in ‘If I Can’t Have You’, Annette sings along with the Bee Gees which seems a little odd. Then in the second act, Bobby C sings ‘Tragedy’, which doesn’t quite work paired with the precise harmonies of the Bee Gees. But everything comes back to Tony Manero. The musical succeeds or fails with him. Richard Winsor is simply awesome. Although out of place from the disco theme in the second half of the show, Winsor performs a stunning solo dance, which is more of ballet (hence, we’re guessing, his personal link to Matthew Bourne).
Supported by an excellent ensemble, the real magic of this production is in the group numbers and every disco dance is full to the brim with all of the elements that you would expect in a Saturday Night Fever production – disco lights, flared trousers, cheesy dancing and just the best soundtrack from the disco era – which on a personal note, I am so glad this production didn’t hesitate to crank up the volume. It was We Will Rock You meets Mamma Mia – a rock concert for the disco era! With spot on choreography by Bill Deamer and superb production by Nick Richings and Dan Samson, the final product is absolute perfection.
So if you are in London and fancy a great night out (and believe me, we all need it after the last two years!), you should be dancing your way down to the Peacock Theatre and buying the hottest ticket in town.
***** Five stars
Reviewed by: Ryan Bishop
Saturday Night Fever plays at the Peacock Theatre until 26 March, with tickets available here.