Don’t blame the performers in “Saturday Night Fever: The Musical” at the Arvada Center. Their singing and dancing are accomplished and entertaining, conveying oldies by the Bee Gees and others. It’s the show itself that is not particularly stageworthy, beginning life as a , transitioning to film with John Travolta and adapted for the stage with a very thin story.
* * ½ stars | Musical
While it has been produced all over the world, nothing could feel less culturally relevant. Still, the crowd seemed to love this jukebox musical as much for the ’70s wardrobe (by ) as the tunes.
How deep is their love? Fans of the brothers Gibb grooved in their seats to “Stayin’ Alive,” “Jive Talkin’,” “You Should Be Dancing” and additional songs such as “Disco Inferno,” as platform shoes and bad wigs twirled onstage.
The lavish set depicts 1977 Brooklyn, looking across the Verrazano Bridge toward the sparkling, unattainable Manhattan skyline. Tony Manero, played to strutting, heavily accented effect by Ian Campayno, works a dead-end job at a paint store. He lives for Saturday night at the disco, where he and his guy pals don tight pants and open polyester shirts and transcend their reality.
The colored flashing lights of the dance floor conjure the movie. But is it Manero or whom the star is impersonating?
Depicting the pre-feminist era when men were men and women were girls, the story charts a love triangle: Tony’s ex-girlfriend Annette (Emma Martin) from the neighborhood longs for him, but he meets someone new, Stephanie Mangano (McKayla Marso), who practices ballet and picks up a pretense of sophistication at her job in Manhattan.
The original subplot of violence between Latino and Italian gangs is downplayed; the dynamics of Tony’s Italian Catholic family are accentuated but not fully explored.
It’s all about the beat. The impact is toe-tapping but not theatrically transporting.
The gang rivalries, broken hearts and youthful disillusionments are timeless. The disco point move and gleaming white three-piece suit, not so much.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp
“SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER: THE MUSICAL”
Based on the Paramount/RSO Film and the story by Nik Cross, adapted for the stage by Richard Stigwood and Bill Oakes. Directed by Rod A. Lansberry. With Ian Campayno, McKayla Marso, Emma Martin. At the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., through Oct. 4. Tues.-Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Wed. at 1 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $53. Online at arvadacenter.org/ on-stage/saturday-night-fever-2015 or call 720-898-7200.
