Katie Simmons-Barth Photography
The year was 1977 and disco was ruling the radio airwaves and people were jiving on the dance floors, often dressing to the nines, learning — and creating — new dances moves the likes of which no one had seen before. To cash in on this musical fad, Paramount Pictures released disco movie Saturday Night Fever, which was inspired by a New York magazine article focusing on working class Italian-Americans in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and the lives of the young men who worked dead-end jobs by day and set the discotheque dance floors on fire by night. Add in a soundtrack with songs by the Bee Gees, and cast a relative newcomer to the film world, mainly known for his role on a TV sitcom where he plays a high school student — that would be John Travolta — and audiences flocked to theaters to see a movie grounded in real life after a Summer of Star Wars. The R-rated film made a bit of a splash when it hit television for the first time, with much of the vulgar language cleaned up and some of the more questionable plot points softened, becoming such a ratings bonanza that Paramount put this newly rated PG version in cinemas to rake in even more money.
In 1998, the film’s producer brought the movie to life in London’s West End for a two year run, followed by a Broadway run in 1999 with 501 performances. The show toured the UK, got a West End revival in 2004, with another two year run, and has had multiple international productions. Now the show is making its debut at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, MD, and the big question is does the movie translate to the stage, and should you get you boogie shoes on and do the Brooklyn Strut all the way to the theatre?
If you’re familiar with the movie, the show follows the main plot line pretty faithfully. 19-year-old paint store clerk Tony Manero lives for the discotheque because the nightlife gives him a few hours away from work and his overbearing family. He hangs with his juvenile delinquent friends Bobby, Gus, Double-J and Joey, and he has to fend off the advances of Annette, who seems to think just because they ‘made it’ once that they’re in love. Despite Tony’s adamant refusal to go on another date with her, she persists. But one night at the 2001 Odyssey disco, Tony spies a woman he’s never seen before and is immediately attracted to her because she can dance. The club is also about to hold its very first dance contest, and Annette feels she and Tony have the best chance of winning so Tony reluctantly agrees. But no dating or anything else. He learns that the mysterious woman from the disco is also rehearsing her own dancing at the local studio where he and Annette are to rehearse, so he shuffles Annette off and tries to put the moves on the woman, who he learns is Stephanie Mangano. Stephanie seems to think she is above Tony because she works across the bridge in New York City, but she is just a neighborhood girl in Bay Ridge. Tony turns on his charms to convince her that they can win if they dance together and she finally agrees, which makes Annette jealous to the point that she thinks ‘doing it’ with all of Tony’s friends will make him jealous. Tony and Stephanie have their ups and downs before the big night and she is unsure if he will even show up. The show also has the subplots featuring Bobby and his girlfriend Pauline, whom he is trying to avoid to avoid breaking up with her in person. But she has some news of her own that will change their lives forever. Tony’s brother, a priest revered by the very Catholic Manero family, returns home and drops a bomb on them … which his parents blame Tony for. It all ends with tragedy and a disco dance-off … but does the right couple win?
I had my concerns about how the movie would translate to the stage, especially after revisiting it last Summer, realizing it is a relic of its time with some very problematic themes that just would not play well today, especially some of the racist and homophobic content, the misogyny, and the date rape scene. Luckily, the stage version is more of the PG version of the film, so the worst of the worst is not included … although there is still a current of misogyny running through it, but it’s 1977 so we have to view it in that context. Despite the milder subject matter, Saturday Night Fever is still not a show for all ages so leave the kiddies with a sitter if you’re planning to come. The show, for some reason, omits two key scenes from the movie: the scene in which Tony and his guys make Annette believe one of them has fallen off the Brooklyn Bridge to his death (there is a bridge scene but as written it makes little sense), and Tony’s big solo dance at the disco. That really is a key moment for the audience to see how talented and dedicated Tony is to the dancing. Here Tony dances but almost always with someone or in a group. The show’s story also feels a bit empty, but the classic songs are actually integrated pretty well into the plot as part of the narrative (although the use of ‘Jive Talkin” was a little cringey). Whatever the faults are with the structure and plotting of the show itself are, none of the creatives at Toby’s are to blame. The original film screenplay wasn’t that strong to begin with, and the book by Nan Knighton, Arlene Phillips, Paul Nicholas and Robert Stigwood didn’t go to any great lengths to improve upon it, spending more time in deciding where the Bee Gees songs would fit into the story. Saturday Night Fever, as a show in general, is not one of my favorites.
Katie Simmons-Barth Photography
However … the production by the talents at Toby’s makes it at least enjoyable enough to make it worth a night out. Director Mark Minnick draws some wonderful performances from his talented cast, who do their best to make the characters more than stereotypes, and Choreographer Christen Svingos really puts everyone through their paces with the disco dancing numbers, quite thrilling especially when the whole cast hits the floor. The costumes by Heather C. Jackson do evoke the era, but I don’t know why Tony’s pants were so baggy in the rear. The hair and wigs by Jayson Kueberth were a mixed bag. Some had that 1977 vibe with the Farrah Fawcett flip for some of the girls, but Stephanie’s hair was too big compared to the style of the era, and Tony’s hair was more Danny Zuko from Grease than Tony Manero at the disco. Having lived through that era, the hair was blown out to the gods and shellacked into place, not greased down and slicked back. Minor quibbles but just naggingly distracting enough to not feel of the era.
Where the show shines is in the performances. Patrick Gover has led three movie-to-stage productions at Toby’s (Rocky, Ghost, Beauty and the Beast), as well as Grease, with several other credits on his resume including an outstanding performance in Jersey Boys. Gover has had to step into the shoes of characters played on screen by Sylvester Stallone, Patrick Swayze and John Travolta, and he just gets better and better with every show. The Maryland native nails the Brooklyn accent and the strut, putting his wonderful voice to good use in classic songs like ‘Staying Alive’, ‘More Than a Woman’ and ‘How Deep is Your Love’, even giving us a little of that Bee Gees falsetto at one point (oddly, for a show centered around Tony, the character only has four songs, and only one of them is in Act II). Gover also nails the disco choreography so well that it make you yearn to see that big dance scene from the movie on stage. He makes the character his own, skillfully avoiding doing an impression of Travolta’s performance, giving the character depth and emotion, managing to overcome the weaknesses in the script. It’s been a little more than a year since Gover grace the Toby’s stage, and his performance in Saturday Night Fever marks a welcome return.
Matching Gover’s performance is Rachel Cahoon as Stephanie, a strong woman who suffers no fools, a woman who knows how to not let men walk all over her. Cahoon has also done some fantastic work in The Sound of Music and 9 to 5: The Musical, always making her characters confident yet vulnerable and her Stephanie is no different. And what a powerhouse of a voice she has as part of the ‘Staying Alive’ ensemble that opens the show, and in her Act II numbers ‘What Kind of Fool’ and ‘How Deep is Your Love’ (like Tony, she only has two main songs and the ensemble part). She also hits all the choreo with expertise. Tori Weaver has the thankless role of Annette, a character who could have just been a victim, but she brings a bit more confidence to Annette. Where she really shines though is in her interpretation of the classic ‘If I Can’t Have You’, which was simply stunning as the number is rearranged more as a dramatic ballad than a disco dance song, and Weaver just puts some much power and emotion into her vocals that it almost brings tears to your eyes. Brava! And speaking of a powerhouse vocalist — Kadejah Oné brings the house down as Candy, the hostess at the disco, with her renditions of ‘Disco Inferno’ and ‘Night Fever’, and then stops the show barely before Act II even gets started with a performance of ‘Nights on Broadway’, which was breathtaking.
Katie Simmons-Barth Photography
Ben Ribler, Benjamin Campion, Nicky Kaider and Joey Ellinghaus are Tony’s affable goons, and Alan Hoffman, Jane C. Boyle, Margaret Kelly and Noah Mutterperl make Tony’s family feel authentic. Mutterperl has nice brotherly chemistry with Gover, although this version of the story really doesn’t delve much into why he’s decided to leave the priesthood aside from the fact that he just wants to live his life (and his parents practically manifested him being a priest). The rest of the ensemble is as hard working as usual, some taking on multiple characters as well as just being part of the background or in the middle of the ground dance numbers. None of them ever phones in a performance on the Toby’s stage.
And of course, in addition to the show you have to be sure to arrive at Toby’s with an appetite because the food is outstanding. The salad bar is fully stocked, and the buffet includes the usual salads and cheeses, along with Green Beans Italiano, Italian Roasted Cauliflower, Trio Vegetables, ‘Brooklyn Baby’ Potatoes, the signature Spinach Phunque, Stephanie’s Stuffed Shells, Disco Chicken Parmesan, Sweet Italian Sausage with Peppers and Onion, Baked Tilapia, Steamed Shrimp, and the Carving Board with Steamship Round, Baked Virginia Ham and Roasted Breast of Turkey (and on your table, the best dinner rolls in town). Dessert is a choice of cake and an ice cream bar in the lobby. As with every show, Saturday Night Fever comes with its own specialty drink, The Boogie Shoes, a frozen strawberry-banana daiquiri (with or without alcohol) that is a dessert in an of itself (I prefer to have it at intermission), and you get to keep the show souvenir glass. All for the price of your ticket!
The talented folks behind the scenes and on the stage always manage to bring something special to each and every show, something that sets it apart from any number of well-known musicals, making the show unique to Toby’s and the in-the-round space, and Mark Minnick and company can take even the most lackluster script and breathe new life into it, finding ways to enhance the plot and humanize the characters, and they have done just that with Saturday Night Fever. It is certainly not the greatest musical that was ever written, but it has the songs we all know, and Toby’s has a cast and crew that makes this production something special.
Saturday Night Fever runs through November 2, 2025. Toby’s next production is the musical stage adaptation of the classic holiday film Elf, on stage November 7-January 4, 2026.
Saturday Night Fever Toby’s Dinner Theatre
Toby’s Dinner Theatre
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