The Regent has always had fantastic musical productions and tonight’s opening of the 1998 musical Saturday Night Fever. based on the 1977 film is no different in its high calibre.
The story follows Tony Manero (Jack Wilcox) negotiating his way through 1970’s Brooklyn. Complete with dead-end job and a questionable family atmosphere at home, his true passion is waiting for the weekend at the local discotheque where he can dance. Spying his big chance when a big disco dancing competition is announced, he convinces Stephanie Mangano (Rebekah Bryant) to become his dance partner and sparks fly on and off the dancefloor.
The set was fantastic and the glitterball’s and 70s sparkles adorned the stage, with a mirror reflecting the dancefloor to the audience. This was interchanged with the shimmering set of your archetypal vision of Brooklyn. Bee-Gees lookalikes were a permanent fixture at the top of the stage singing as were the band delivering hit after hit.
The genius of The Bee Gees soundtrack combined with the magnificence of the singing and dancing numbers really were the brilliance of the show.
The dance routines were fantastically choreographed, the set used to its fullest and the whole cast never put a foot wrong all evening. The energy was through the roof at the shows penultimate numbers and every member of the audience were on their feet joining the cast to dance and sing out the show to its conclusion.
Jack Wilcox was fabulous as Tony and of course whilst a nod to the Travolta role was in the delivery, he more than made this his own rather than a shot-for-shot remake. He thrust and strut his way around and was a commanding presence on stage, his energy was fantastic.
Rebekah Bryant was marvellous as Stephanie, her vocals were amazing and choreography was flawless. Rebekah spoke to us earlier in the week about her role in the production which is well worth a listen here
Some of the subject matter from the original film has had less focus in the show, however, this still doesn’t make it any the less gritty, with issues such as depression, consent, drugs and domestic violence still tackled.
Saturday Night Fever has drama, magnificent song and dance numbers, it has the sountrack of a whole generation with a backdrop of flares and glitter. What more could you want?
The show runs until Saturday night (no pun intended) with matinees on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Click here for tickets
