This is a relatively new version of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. It’s a reworking by Ryan McBryde and Philippe Hersen with the Bee Gees soundtrack freshly engineered by Domenico Torti. The Australian adaptation has been directed by Karen Johnson Mortimer. The reworking has seen some of the script’s darker elements removed and replaced with a greater emphasis on the dancing and the show’s hypnotic soundtrack.
The retweaking works well and means that this much loved musical still has plenty of charge. From what I saw on opening night the show now has a generation of fans with the youngsters who attended. This Lyric Theatre production is a great spectacle with big production values; plenty of digitally generated imagery, set changes and a great lighting plot.
The coveted lead role of Tony Manero was played by rising star Euan Doidge. Any performer playing this role walks in the long shadow of the great John Travolta and considering this he acquitted himself very well.
Melanie Hawkins was like a dream as the ‘snobby’ Stephanie Mangano, the unrequited love interest of Tony and her dancing, as the best dancer in the nightclub, was exceptional.
There was a good chemistry between Doidge and Hawkins in the leading roles.
Australia’s original disco queen, Marcia Hines, plays the role of The Diva, who performs at Disco Odyssey 2001, the nightclub where Tony Manero dances every Saturday night. Hines comes on at the beginning of Act 2 when she sings ‘You’ which was a huge hit for her early in her career. Hines’s commanding stage presence is as strong as it ever was.
Paulini, Bobby Fox, Natalie Conway and Nana Matapule played the star vocalists who gave voice to the much-loved disco Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.
Tim “Timomatic” Omaji impressed as Monty, the colourful, energised MC at the nightclub.
Stephen Mahy was good as Tony’s troubled but good natured older brother, Frank Jnr.
Angelique Cassimatis gave a heartfelt performance as Tony’s neighbourhood friend Annette who wants a romantic relationship with Tony but is rebuffed at every turn. In the first Act she delivers a memorably gutsy solo rendition of If I Can’t Have You.
Recent NIDA graduate Ryan Morgan made a strong impression as the neurotic, troubled Bobby C who kept on popping up everywhere wanting support from anyone he can latch himself on to.
Denise Drysdale and Mark Mitchell gave nicely judged performances as Tony’s rather suffocating, conservative parents, and the scenes between them and Tony had a mainly comic touch to them.
The cast also included some of the best dancers working in Australia today – Justin Anderson, Jared Bryan, Giuliana Carniato, Lachlan Dearing, Lauren Elton, Mitchell Fistrovic, Gaynor Hicks, Elysha Manik, Kiara McGowan, Coby Njoroge, Maddie Peat, Stephen Perez, Erica Stubbs, Lola Rose Thompson, Benjamin Turland and Chris Van Doren.
The cast was backed by a great, funky band led by Dave Skelton that kept the Lyric Theatre rocking from beginning to end.
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER opened at the Lyric Theatre, Star City on Tuesday 2nd April and is playing exclusively in Sydney. The show is running until Sunday 2nd June, 2019.
http://www.saturdaynightfever.com.au
