The cult 1977 film Saturday Night Fever put the disco phenomenon on the map and made a star of John Travolta, while sales of the soundtrack, which included several numbers especially written by the Bee Gees, went ballistic. It remains the second best-selling soundtrack of all time (behind The Bodyguard), selling over 45 million copies.

Euan Doidge and the cast of Saturday Night Fever. Photograph © Heidi Victoria

This musical theatre adaptation is a pale imitation, losing the heart, soul and grunt of the film. The dance numbers are the best thing about it, but a thin plot, one-dimensional characters, dialogue scenes that rarely make it out of first gear, and some odd staging, mean there is virtually no emotional connection with what is happening on stage.

The film tells the story of Tony Manero, a working class 19-year-old living in the Bay Ridge neighbourhood of Brooklyn. He escapes from the boredom of his dead-end job in a hardware store by strutting his stuff at the local discotheque each weekend where he is the king of the dance floor. Meeting Stephanie Mangano, who is also a wonderful dancer and determined to improve her own...