Saturday Night Fever At Milton Keynes Theatre Review

Reviewed by Hilz

What a show!  Excellent ‘feel-good factor’!  The story is set in Brooklyn, New York in the 1970’s and centres around Tony Manero, and his family and friends.  Tony’s family are Italian immigrants and staunchly catholic. His father is out of work and a drunkard and a bully and his older brother is a priest living away. His older brother’s vocation has bought honour to the family, but Tony is seen as the black sheep and feels it keenly.

He has a steady job in a paint shop, but his passion is dancing. And every Saturday night he gets to strut his stuff..
From the first notes it’s obvious that the musicians are amazing. Note perfect, played with passion and musically excellent.

For most of the performance the actors playing the Bee Gees are on stage on a raised platform.  They sing from there, sometimes illuminated and sometimes in the background.  They did really well imitating the look and sound of the originals.  The whole soundtrack is amazing with all the hits you want to hear including Night fever, More than a woman, You should be dancing, If I can’t have you and Staying alive.

The leads Tony and Stephanie were both outstanding. Incredible dancers and putting their heart and soul into every step.  Tony has all the moves and the looks and knows it! Stephanie is just perfect altogether – incredible looking, marvellous dancing and wonderful singing and acting too.  Bobby was just great – apparently this is his debut but you would never know it – a rising star.  Annette was also excellent and when she sang ‘If I can’t have you’ she caught the room up in her emotion and the DJ can certainly sing too -wow!

The story incorporate the fast songs, the slow songs and everything in between. For a couple of the upbeat songs we had some disco lights streaming over the audience which felt fantastic! A real celebration atmosphere that made you want to dance.

The story continues – money is very tight at home, Tony’s brother Frank comes home and has left the priesthood bringing shame on the family. And there is a competition announced at the club – with a $1000 prize, – so Tony is on the lookout for a dance partner that he can win with.  Annette is very keen because she’s in love with him, but she’s not the best dancer. And Tony’s eyes are taking by the talented new girl Stephanie.

The only negative thing that we found with the performance was that the ‘F’ word was pretty prolific. We felt that it was unnecessary and didn’t add anything and that some folks would find that offensive.

Back to the good stuff though.. The feel-good factor at the end of the show was tremendous.  Having given a standing ovation to Tony the audience stayed on their feet and danced along to the final songs.  After the cast left the stage and the band were still playing lots of people started leaving – I don’t understand that at all – I was dancing until the last note!

People were buzzing as they left the performance – there was lots of happy cackling going on and then even in the car park a man just came up to us and said ‘that was excellent!’ – so there we are – a fitting overall judgement here – ‘Excellent!’

Saturday Night Fever? – Well for us it was Wednesday Night Fever! – It’s fabulous on any night!
Go and see the show if you can – you will leave on a high!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Saturday Night Fever is on at Milton Keynes Theatre from Wednesday 7th to Saturday 10th September

Ticket prices start from £13.00 and can be purchased here:
https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/saturday-night-fever/milton-keynes-theatre
Or call the Box Office on 0844 871 7615

500 Marlborough Gate, Milton Keynes MK9 3NZ