There are few things more challenging than bringing a film — where the action can stop and start, scene changes are easy and characters can be up close and personal — to life as a stage musical. But when Tony Manero (played by Jeremy Sartin) — carrying a can of paint, no less — comes strutting onto the stage in rhythm to “Stayin’ Alive,” he so totally recreates the iconic opening scene from “Saturday Night Fever” the movie, we know we are in for a romp through the disco 70s.
“Saturday Night Fever,” plays now through March 29 at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, 9301 Michigan Road. The plot, an anemic conglomeration of directionless despair, is based on a 1976 article in New York magazine. It tells the story of Tony Manero, one of a generation of young adults who works hourly wages jobs through the week in order to splurge on clothing and shoes for weekends at “the club” in New York City.
Although the show is wrapped in the nostalgic and enduring music of the disco era, it was difficult to know which of the several narrative threads to pin our attention to: the strife between father and son; the brother priest renouncing his vows to the priesthood; the pregnant teenager; the “West Side Story” style turf war between rival gangs; the tug-of-war among the females vying for Tony Manero’s attention; or the “I’m-goin’-nowhere” theme of the show. But these are problems with the script and not the fault of actor or director.
As with most Beef & Boards performances, the staging was excellent, the production values were above par and what they are able to do within the confines of that small performance space always amazes me.
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The dancers boogied through all the quintessential disco moves — pointing to the ceiling and floor, the hustle, the bump and the funky chicken — but many of the moves came off as somewhat robotic. Given that it was disco, maybe they were suppose to be, but it wasn’t hard to imagine the dancers counting out the beats in their heads.
Most of the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack can be attributed to the BeeGees, who composed and performed “Stayin’ Alive,” “How Deep is Your Love?” and “You Should Be Dancing,” among others. Included in the show’s musical numbers are “Boogie Shoes,” made famous by K.C. and the Sunshine Band, “More Than a Woman” from the Tavares and “If I Can’t Have You” originally sung by Yvonne Elliman.
The vocal highlight of the evening, however, was show-stealing Megan Flynn as Candy, inexplicably the last cast member listed on the roster. When the scene cut to the night club, her rhythm and bluesy “Disco Inferno” captured the essence of the era. She returned later in the first act to purr through “Night Fever,” which cemented my attention when she reappeared for “Nights on Broadway” and “More Than a Woman” in act two.
I got a kick out of the male characters’ multicolored polyester shirts and pants, and I especially enjoyed director Jeff Stockberger’s cameo appearance as the mullet-headed dance teacher teaching his class dance moves based on “Star Wars” characters. (Yes, “Star Wars” preceded “Saturday Night Fever” by seven months.)
Finally, this reviewer waited and waited for the disco ball hanging from the ceiling to drop and fill the Beef & Boards theater and dining area with sparkling lights. It never happened. But the celebratory curtain call, with Sartin in the prerequisite white suit, reminds us all that we’re “Stayin’ Alive” and, if nothing else, “We Should Be Dancing.”
