Saturday Night Fever

Matt Byrne is never afraid to bring big musicals to the Adelaide Community Theatre scene. Aware of the success of Matt Byrne Media’s past musicals, such as Mary Poppins and Wicked, I expected Saturday Night Fever to be a feast of energy, fantastic singing and dancing, a strong storyline, memorable performances and the disco beat of the iconic Bee Gees’ songs.

On the show’s opening night some of my expectations were realised, namely in key performances, but various elements outside the cast’s control let the production down.

Adelaide’s own Robert Stigwood created the stage adaptation of the 1977 movie, which is the story of Tony Manero, a directionless young working class man from the Bay Ridge Italian area of Brooklyn, New York. He hangs about and drinks with a group of lads at a local club and takes part in dance competitions to escape his loveless home life. When he meets a beautiful young dancer at the club he begins to question his footloose ways.

Everyone recalls John Travolta’s performance in the movie, but the star of the Matt Byrne Media stage production has deliberately avoided any attempt to copy Travolta’s portrayal. An exciting new face on the local scene, Sebastian Cooper creates a sweet, vulnerable Tony and gives a very good performance, particularly in terms of acting. He has a natural and compelling stage presence. Although he performs his numbers quite well, his vocal range should improve with experience.

Amber Platten is excellent as Tony’s love interest, the dancer Stephanie Mangano and combines very fine characterisation with terrific dancing skills.

The developing relationship between Tony and Stephanie is nuanced and touching and is a highlight of the show.

Generally, the remaining ensemble do well with characterisation, particularly those portraying Tony’s friends and those playing family members. However, there is mixed success with the difficult musical numbers.

The Bee Gees songs in Saturday Night Fever are what sets this particular musical apart. I expected a toe-tapping, love-to- get-up-and-dance-with-them sort of night, but was disappointed. At musicals, I usually find myself wishing the musicians weren’t so loud because lyrics can’t be heard over the music, but in this instance I longed for more volume from them; a thumping disco beat that didn’t come.

The Arts Theatre venue undoubtedly contributes to this problem, being ideally suited to conventional theatre, but not, perhaps, to the presentation of this type of musical in a large, half-full auditorium with musicians essentially tucked away under the stage.

There is great lighting in this production, an illuminated dance floor, fine use of projection and colourful costuming (Afro hair and all), however frequent energy-depleting, drab moments of silence unfortunately suck pace and life from the spectacle.  This begins at the very start of the show when the cast wordlessly observe a soundless backdrop of video about the times. That there was no sound at the show’s start on opening night may have been a technical glitch, but there remain other sudden moments of silence due to loss of impetus, contributed to by many rather long scene changes.

Saturday Night Fever has a fairly extended season, playing as it is in both Adelaide and Elizabeth and with the tireless Matt Byrne at the helm, will no doubt iron out any issues. This, along with support from loyal SA audiences, should make the show another successful Matt Byrne Media musical, even if not reaching the dizzy heights of Mary Poppins and Wicked.

Lesley Reed