Euan Doidge and the cast of Saturday Night Fever. Photo: Heidi Victoria
With the Bee Gees’ timeless disco music to propel it along, you’d expect Saturday Night Fever to be one big, pulsating celebration of song and dance. And it is. And there is as much glitz and glitter, gold and purple as you would find in a Las Vegas cabaret. Malik Le Nost’s choreography is tight and the dancing is high-octane, often quite mesmerising – from the very beginning when the moves are expertly performed by the ensemble in thrillingly close proximity through to the solos and duets. In fact as a dance extravaganza this show is brilliant and Dave Skelton’s band does credit to all those wonderful hits – Jive Talkin’, Stayin’ Alive, You Should Be Dancing… you know the ones I mean. So, I was ready to love Saturday Night Fever.
As for the story and the acting… sorry, not so much! There’s not much depth in either.
The time is 1976, post-Vietnam, pre-mobile phone, lots of big hair and flashy clothes. The place is Brooklyn. Tony Manero (Euan Doidge) lives with his parents, has a dead-end job and wants a better life (although hasn’t formulated any kind of plan to achieve same). Annette (Angelique Cassimatis) loves Tony. Tony loves dancing (and himself) and the disco is the highlight of his mundane week. Tony sees a better dancer, a wannabee and name-dropper called Stephanie (Melanie Hawkins) who now lives in Manhattan, and ditches Annette. Stephanie doesn’t want Tony. They win the competition. To Stephanie’s surprise (and everyone’s, really, because at no point prior in the script is there any indication that he might have a social conscience), Tony gives the prize money to the Puerta Rican couple who came second, declaring the contest rigged. Stephanie runs off, Tony eventually follows.
Melanie Hawkins and Euan Doidge. Photo: Heidi Victoria
That’s about it – although there is an unsatisfactory subplot running throughout with Tony’s friend Bobby (Ryan Morgan) being very unhappy because he has made his girlfriend Pauline pregnant and he doesn’t want to marry her. We never find out what Pauline wants, we never even see her. It’s all about Bobby.
So, while Tony is supposed to represent the struggles of the Everyman, this is a very bland struggle, not helped by a wooden script and some almost comical lines. Bobby’s brother Frank (Stephen Mahy) features but to little effect (this is not Mahy’s fault) and the parents (Denise Drysdale and Mark Mitchell) don’t even get on stage – they show up on a black and white screen for some pretty standard bitching, which is easily tuned out by Tony and by the audience.
Back to the singing and dancing. Hawkins has great opportunities to showcase her talent and there’s no doubt whatsoever that Doidge can dance. As noted before, the ensemble is great to watch. Tim “Timomatic” Omaji makes a fine Monty, the MC at the Disco Odyssey 2001 nightclub.
Cassimatis shines in her solo rendition of If I Can’t Have You, and Paulini Curuenavuli, one of the four star vocalists who perform alongside as the story unfolds, is a delight. Morgan’s rendition of Tragedy is interesting: as the tragedy is all about him feeling sorry for himself it’s hard to feel anything but slightly irritated and/or amused.
Marcia Hines and Tim Omaji. Photo: Heidi Victoria
Marcia Hines is great. When she comes on stage as the Diva in Act 2, the energy levels go up and there is finally some warmth on stage. Because that, for me, is the major problem with this show. Not only has it lost its dark edge, it is strangely sterile. There’s no sexual tension between Tony and Stephanie; the characters come and go and the little story goes forward with high energy and low personality. Compared to the original, the racial tensions, the gang clashes, Annette’s vulnerability as a sexual object, the desperate boredom of unfulfilled lives, are all dumbed down – even Tony’s sacrifice at the end of the disco competition is somewhat ho-hum. It’s hard to engage with these characters.
On the plus, side got to love the dancing and those Bee Gees songs are still fabulous!
Saturday Night Fever is at the Lyric Theatre, Pyrmont until June 2.
