JOHN Travolta is a hard act to follow by anyone's standards so it's no surprise that this stage version of Saturday Night Fever fails to sparkle like the original film.

A West End hit, it has a wonderfully energetic cast and some amazing dancing, but just seems to lack a little bit of magic.

Stephane Anelli and Zoe Smith as the lead characters are perfectly competent at dancing and singing but they don't bowl me over and I don't really believe in them. The plot is also paper thin, with various characters and storylines seeming to peter out as the show goes on.

None of that matters too much, thankfully, as the music and dancing in Saturday Night Fever are the main things.

The songs, of course, are fantastic. Classic disco track after track, all favourites of mine, and belted out with much gusto here. The cast features some seriously talented - and utterly gorgeous - dancers, both male and female, and all dressed in fab 70s costumes.

Four in particular perform breathtaking displays of agility and rhythm at the dance contest at the 2001 Odyssey nightclub. Earlier, an utterly funky take on Jive Talkin' gets a huge round of applause.

The only scenes which didn't work for me were at the Dale Dance Studio, where the embarrassing tutor Monty performed daft moves in front of an incompetent class - an attempt to be funny which simply didn't work.

But the show ends on a high with the audience invited to get down in the aisles to a medley of the best tunes. They do, en masse, clearly having had a marvellous night.

Sam Strangeways

* The sold-out show runs until Saturday.

Published: 24/10/2003