Saturday Night Fever - Drew Anthony Creative (10 May 2024)

If you were going to devise a jukebox musical one could do far worse than basing it on the second biggest soundtrack album of all time. Indeed, before a certain moonwalking superstar started singing about Billie Jean, Saturday Night Fever was the highest selling album of all time, period. But the John Travolta starring movie (1977) and subsequent musical (1998) have far more things on their mind than simply celebrating that quintessentially seventies phenomenon of disco and the songwriting genius of the Gibb brothers. 

There is an exploration of what would now be called toxic masculinity, disaffected youth, the impact of religion on shaping social norms at the time, unsettling attitudes towards sex and women, and breaking free of stifling domestic and economic situations. It's pretty heady content for a 'greatest hits' package of songs. There's a level of tonal friction between all those elements that accentuates music and dancing as an escape from the realities of life in New York. 

The "pre-show entertainment" sets this up brilliantly. Projected on a large screen at the rear of the stage with amazing clarity, an old-fashioned television shows a mix of news clips juxtaposed with ads circa 1978. The news is all about the decay of America from a Son of Sam (serial killer David Berkowitz) segment to infrastructure literally falling apart. The ads are late-70s kitsch featuring supermodels such as Farrah Fawcett hawking all kinds of fare from fast food to beauty products. To modern eyes it's a bemusing time capsule of Americana but it sets up the time period, a sense of place, and the fissures within society to great effect.

Into which struts one Tony Manero (Ethan Churchill), a 19 year old who escapes the drudgery of his job at a paint store and the demands of the family home by tearing up the dancefloor at the local clubs. Tony becomes infatuated with Stephanie Mangano (Tory Kendrick) to the despair of lovelorn Annette (Izzi Green) and sets out to win a dance competition with her. Meanwhile, family and friends provide all manner of complications that he must navigate to escape the dead end life his father's alcoholism or, even worse, his friend Bobby's suicide, portend. 

Churchill is rarely off the stage in a committed and passionate performance that presents a warts and all depiction of Tony. We sense Tony's frustration, his yearning for more, his ego, his darker impulses, and yet, ultimately, his discontent with who he is and the ability to change if given a chance. All this with a broad Nu Yawk accent and, yes, strut throughout. Churchill, star of a previous Drew Anthony production, Strictly Ballroom, also handles the dancing requirements of the role with style and embraces the iconic look that Travolta burned into popular culture's psyche. It's in perhaps the quieter moments that he is most potent - the solo Immortality where Churchill is bathed in light and sings beautifully; the monologue where he stands up to his father; and the delight of How Deep Is Your Love as he duets with Kendrick, all artifice stripped away.

Kendrick commands attention the moment she hits the stage in a dance number that draws all eyes; Tony's and the audience. Her Stephanie is sassy and confident on the surface but we sense her own longing for much better, represented in crossing the Brooklyn Bridge and moving to Manhattan. Kendrick soars in the best individual vocal performance of the show with What Kind of Fool and has genuine moments of connection with Churchill as they dance. 

Izzi Green does well with the unforgiving role of Annette whose fate is hard to watch as she descends into a self-pity that allows her to be abused in the most egregious of ways. Green's solo If I Can't Have You is another highlight with a stripped back arrangement that accentuates the underlying pain of that song.

The production is blessed to have Noel O'Neill and Lucy Williamson play Tony's parents in non-singing roles. O'Neill brings the New York having studied there under Lee Strasberg no less and Williamson gives an intense turn as the religious woman who fears for her son in this life and the next. Christopher Tierney plays the favoured son Frank Jr who couldn't be more different from Tony. His monologue about why he's leaving the priesthood is a lowkey highlight as an unexpected wrinkle in such a musical. Thirteen year old Aaleyah Chater rounds out the family unit. 

Tony's friends - Bobby (Kade Sweeney), Double J (Ethan Battle), and Joey (Zak Rolton) - all work well together with the four of them (along with the nightclub singers) providing an early highlight with Jive Talkin. Sweeney has the more interesting throughline and plays Bobby with an earnestness that counterpoints the more opportunistic and base nature of the other two. His fate is tragic but the musical doesn't really have time to let the implications truly sink in for either the audience or the other characters. Sweeney's solo of Tragedy is heartbreaking. 

The aforementioned nightclub singers - Abby Stevenson, Tahlia Loren, and Carrie Pereira - add vocal punch and panache to, especially, the more famous songs and I liked that they were almost omnipresent in the wings to give the nightclub scenes a realistic feel. Alex Graciano, Noah Skape and Sophie Psaila-Savona portray various characters with the latter, in particular, impressing with her expressive dancing, while the ensemble adds energy and colour to the bigger dance numbers.

The production looks spectacular with the Lighting Design by Drew Anthony and Richard Timms providing a colourful backdrop for the action using everything from lights in the patterned stage floor to lamps; strobe lights for a fight scene; a halo of spotlights for solo numbers; and the vibrant video projections were quite astonishing to establish scene settings even though it was a little glitchy for the first half.  

There was no band but the music playback and sound balance with the vocalists was superb (Audio Design Jordan Gibbs) with even the whoosh of the elevated train on the video projection audible in quieter moments. Production Design (Anthony) wisely allowed plenty of space for the dance action with lounges and tables set up on either side of the main space to represent the club. 

Costume Design by Dani Paxton recreates memorable outfits from the movie while also representing the colour and glamour of the disco scene with plenty of sequined dresses and silk shirts. Kendrick looked fabulous in her featured dress that was both glamorous and practical for dancing.

Finally, the show rests heavily on its dance numbers as the reaction of the row of ladies sitting next to me who were doing all the hand movements can attest. Choreographers Jamie & Suzi Rolton have to meet expectations with legendary dance moves while bringing their own creativity to the fore with highlights such as the first half closer You Should Be Dancing and the megamix of songs at closing bows. 

In all, director Drew Anthony has presented a tricky production that is part musical, part social drama by infusing it with colour and movement for the former and gritty realism in the latter. The tonal shifts don't always work - the humour which sometimes verges on slapstick feels out of place, for example. But as a well-performed piece of entertainment it certainly had them dancing in the aisles and I was happily humming along with a smile to solid gold classics from the era.

Saturday Night Fever is on at Theatre Royale in Northbridge until 26 May.