You should be dancing!

Saturday Night Fever (Peacock Theatre, London and touring) Verdict: Disco fever ★★★★✩

SATURDAY Night Fever is surely the greatest soundtrack of all time, but the seeming innocence of the Bee Gees, with their falsetto voices, makes it easy to recall the film as a sort of glitterball dream.

In fact, set among often sexist, racist, working-class Italian-Americans from the depressed Bay Area of New York in the 1970s, the picture was rough and real.

I loved its grittiness, but few audiences today can see past the offensive attitudes.

So it’s wise that Bill Kenwright’s handsome new revival of the stage musical keeps a lid on those darker themes. Besides, audiences are less interested in the domestic travails of our hero Tony Manero than they are in the Bee Gees’ music, and in reliving memories of John Travolta as the paint shop salesman who comes alive at weekends, as a dance floor legend.

The best scene is when Tony strips off his working clothes . . . and pulls on the famous white suit, to become a disco god — to the tune of Too Much Heaven.

Few performers would be brave enough to follow in Travolta’s strutting footsteps, so full credit to dancer and former Casualty star Richard Winsor (right), for having a go. His accent is less agile than his toes, and at nearly twice the age Travolta was when he took the role, he doesn’t so much explode on the dance floor, as stomp and spin with verve. Among Tony’s gang, Kevin O’Dwyer stands out as the troubled Bobby, who’s got a girl pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. O’Dwyer is a natural — and he can hold a tune, too, in his rendition of Tragedy. But it’s leggy Olivia Fines who really pops the eyeballs, as Tony’s reluctant dance partner Stephanie, who dismisses him with a snarl of ‘You ain’t got no class!’ Three Bee Gees impersonators with the band at the back of the stage are squeak perfect — one bald, one fuzzy, one wavy; all wearing gold lamé. But the show’s other great feature is Gary McCann’s spectacular staging, which silhouettes fire-escape platforms against breathtaking projections of the Manhattan skyline. Maybe the story could be snappier, but the music and moves will make you feel you should be dancing — yeah!