Review: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER at Arvada Center

The year is 1977 and Disco is the name of the game. Brooklyn is overrun with small gangs and poverty, but club 2001 Odyssey is the oasis that all the well-dressed dancing youths flock to. Inside the doors of the club, the rules change, and dreams are made and broken on the glowing dance floor. Arvada Center has taken on this regional-premier musical based on the cult classic film, and with its many challenges, Saturday Night Fever is a high-energy show that dazzles the audience with is spectacle and glam.

The show's plot revolves around Tony Manero (Ian Campayno), and his group of Italian teen buddies, who rule the streets of Brooklyn. Tony is pursued by Annette (Emma Martin), who is in love with Tony, but whose love is not returned. Tony instead falls for Stephanie (McKayla Marso), who thinks she is too high-class for Tony, but agrees to enter a dance competition with him anyway, in hopes of winning the cash prize. The show has a few sidebar plots that never get resolved, and make for some misplaced drama, but basically the show is about the lead-up to the big competition.

The first thing I will point out is that the choreography and dance spectacle is incredible. The cast wows the audience with huge dance scenes throughout the show, and that alone is worth the price of admission. Throw in flashy costumes designed by Mondo Guerra, and lighting by Shannon McKinney, and you have one superb scene. But that is basically where the flash begins and ends for me. The set design for the show, by Brian Mallgrave, was beautiful, but the lengthy set changes in the dark killed the flow and magic of the show. The music that was taken from the film version features hits by the BeeGees, but the musical theatre versions of these songs were awkward and badly arranged. The writers of the score definitely destroyed some classic songs. And the difficulty of the score was clear in the production, with pitchy solos and non-balanced harmonies throughout. Really the only musical saving grace during the show was disco-queen singer Sarah Rex, who wailed out some incredible hits in the club.

In all, the show is a prime example of why jukebox musicals get a bad name in the theatre world: the plots are weak at best, and they rely on flashy dance sequences to cover up the sub-par arrangements of radio hits. Was Saturday Night Fever entertaining? Definitely. The costumes and dance sections alone could get me to see it again. Should the film have been converted to a stage musical? Perhaps not. The Arvada Center team has put together a wonderful production of a not-so-good musical, and by doing so, shined up a disco ball that maybe should have stayed in the box.

Saturday Night Fever plays the Arvada Center Mainstage Theatre September 15 through October 4. 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, Arvada, CO 80003. For tickets and information go to www.arvadacenter.org or call 720-898-7200.