Saturday Night Fever: Family-Friendly for Broadway?
(The Bee Gees, Anita Louise Combe, & Adam Garcia)
The lights on Broadway have seen several movies become successful musicals, including Hairspray, The Lion King, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, and The Outsiders. Not many people remember that Robert Stigwood (1934-2016) threw his proverbial hat in the ring by taking his most precious asset–the rights to Saturday Night Fever.
The 1977 film became a juggernaut as it took over pop culture worldwide. The soundtrack would be the bestselling album OF ALL TIME until Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller. It was released in an R & PG rated form (a true rarity in film), and by its 20th Anniversary–the “disco” hatred was becoming a thing of the past. That was the year the Bee Gees were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Grease had found a new life on the London stage using music from the Stigwood-produced 1978 film (released just six months after Saturday Night Fever!)
Together with actor/producer Paul Nicholas, choreographer Arlene Nichols, and playwright Nan Knighton, “Stiggy” was sure the world was ready for a more family-friendly version of the story with all of the grittiness but without the cursing or SA of the character of Annette.
Starring on the London stage in 1998 with on-the-rise talents Adam Garcia and Anita Louise Combe, he set about with his usual gruffness and grandiosity to create a staged musical version of the classic film that was—okay? It did well enough to generate interest on Broadway, but the snobby New York theater critics eventually devoured it. It’s remembered as an audience pleaser but not on the level of Kinky Boots or Billy Elliott.
In my upcoming book, FEVER: The Complete History of Saturday Night Fever, I interviewed several people who created the 1990s version and explained why it failed to gain traction.
In the clip below, the setting is the 1999 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with stars James Carpinello, Orfeh, and Paige Price. They arrived on-site at 4 a.m. in 40-degree, rainy weather and pulled off the electric performance. Orfeh told me this was by far the most challenging choreography of her career and that the cast met weeks before the initial COVID outbreak to do a surprise performance in Times Square.
Ah, what could have been?
Margo Donohue
Co-Host of What a Creep, Book Vs. Movie, and Dorking Out podcasts
Author of Filmed in Brooklyn and the upcoming “FEVER: The Complete History of Saturday Night Fever” from Kensington Books
LinkedIn profile Threads @BrooklynFitChick
BlueSky @BrooklynMargo Instagram @BrooklynFitChick
TikTok @margodonohue and YouTube
