Blast from the past sizzles

and Puerto Rican gangs, a girl rejected – How deep is your love – a boy struggling for freedom, only to be trapped into marriage – What kind of a fool – and, of course, the inevitable Tragedy, emotionally rendered by Buys.

Naturally music and dance dominate in electrifying group numbers – the well-known Stayin’ Alive, Disco Inferno, You Should Be Dancing and many others lighting up the stage.

I personally had a problem with the thick American accent. I suppose it was necessary and at least it was consistent, but it was annoying and occasionally hard to understand.

Saturday Night Fever dates back 40 years to the film Saturday Night Fever which swept through the cinemas with John Travolta as an unforgettable Tony, then the stage musical in 1998 – was it really that long ago?

Much of the music was composed by the Bee Gees – a group whose music will never die – the beat is infectious, the emotional lyrics relevant to any age.

Executive producer Bernard Jay assembled a strong team for this production, some of the best in the business, from director Greg Homann, musical director Rowan Bakker with a live band, set and lighting Denis Hutchinson, costumes Sarah Roberts, choreographer Weslee Swain Lauder, to music design Trevor Peters.

This is a slick, pulsating, big time, glitzy, but human musical. Pity it’s in Pretoria (nice for the locals), but it’s worth the drive.