Saturday Night Fever review | The Athenaeum Theatre

Saturday Night Fever follows Tony Manero, a young man from Brooklyn trying to escape the grind of his working-class life through disco, ambition, and the hope of love. The musical immerses the audience into the glittering, pulsating world of 1970s disco, but beneath the sequins and platform shoes, it touches on darker realities of family conflict, personal trauma, and the pressures of growing up. While the show’s set, costumes, and music vividly capture the era and energy of the dance floor, the tension between its flashy, celebratory style and the weight of its serious themes creates a complex, sometimes uneasy viewing experience.

The set design is striking, with projected images rendered so realistically they feel almost touchable. From the rumble of a train passing during street scenes to a flickering lights inside a train carriage, the design elements combine to make the actors feel truly immersed in the space. Dani Paxton’s costumes sit perfectly within these backdrops, with plenty of platform shoes, flared trousers, and buttoned-down shirts for the men, and bold, shimmering dresses for the women, including some gorgeous outfits for the Nightclub Singers - Clara Harrison, Bianca Baykara and Thalia Oseguda-Santos - who also provide exceptional vocals throughout the show. Great care has gone into every design element, including Drew Anthony and Jason Bovaird's lighting, with disco ball reflections bouncing around the venue and rich, saturated colours flooding the dance floor during musical moments.

Had Saturday Night Fever been a fun, uplifting disco dance treat, this would have been great. But the plot tackles some serious issues - rape, family violence, and suicide - that feel jarringly out of step with the musical’s otherwise vibrant tone. The rape, for example, is handled in a brief, almost fleeting moment on stage, lasting barely thirty seconds, which leaves it feeling rushed and underdeveloped, and undermines the gravity of what’s being depicted. Meanwhile, the family scenes, which should carry real tension and threat, (unintentionally) lean too much into comedy, with exaggerated arguments and slapstick timing that make is seem more cartoonish than menacing. The result is a tonal mismatch: the musical numbers and disco energy celebrate joy and exuberance, while these darker moments are either fleeting or unintentionally softened, leaving the audience unsure how to feel.

Trying to cram so much plot into this production means many actors aren’t given much to do, and several are forced into playing one-note characters, particularly evident with the actors portraying the Manero family. Similarly, Dimitri Raptis as Double J and Ewan Herdman as Joey are reduced to basic sidekicks, largely existing to support Tony rather than to develop their own personalities. But even Tony’s journey gets lost amidst the disco spectacle, with Ethan Churchill's performance failing to fully land. The one actor / character who gets the chance to display some depth is Sam Hamilton as Bobby C, who delivers the evening’s show-stopping number with charisma and skill, giving a glimpse of real humanity amidst otherwise flat supporting roles.

The music in Saturday Night Fever is pure Bee Gees jukebox magic, pulsing with disco energy and instantly recognisable hooks - from the falsetto drive of Stayin’ Alive to the smooth romance of How Deep Is Your Love. The songs are undeniably fun and infectious, but when they’re inserted into the musical’s more serious moments, they undercut the drama rather than enhancing it. While the soundtrack perfectly evokes the disco era and keeps the dance sequences fun, Anthony's direction delivers an uneven pacing means the familiarity and upbeat energy of these hits sometimes sit awkwardly against the darker material.

Saturday Night Fever presents a vivid mix of energy and tension. The spectacle, music, and movement draw the audience in, yet the darker elements of the story remain striking and unresolved, creating a sense of imbalance that is impossible to ignore. The show attempts to explore how ambition, desire, and personal struggles collide, but it never fully reconciles its glittering surface with its serious themes, leaving the audience caught between spectacle and story in a way that feels uneasy and disappointing. 

SHOW DETAILS

Venue: The Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins St, Melbourne
Season: until 25 January | Tues 6:30pm, Wed - Sat 7:30pm, Sat 2pm, Sun 1pm
Duration: 130 minutes
Tickets: $59 - $149
Bookings: The Athenaeum Theatre

Image credit: Ben Fon