Saturday Night Fever jives into Melbourne

There are two ways to stage Saturday Night Fever: you can treat it like a karaoke museum exhibit where everyone politely cosplays the film… or you can treat it like a living, sweating, slightly unhinged night out that happens to have excellent harmonies and a plot with teeth.

Drew Anthony Creative very deliberately chooses the second path — and thank disco for that.

The smartest choice is also the simplest: cast for talent, not for name recognition. No stunt-casting safety net, no celebrity gravity well swallowing the room. Instead, you get what theatre should be: immensely capable humans doing the kind of work that makes you forget your phone exists. The ensemble chemistry is real, they are sharing a moment in time with the audience and it’s magic. Those Bee Gees lines can become musical beige in lesser hands; here, the harmonies have bite, lift, and joy.

Choreographically, the show understands something crucial about disco: it’s not just steps, it’s escape velocity. The movement has a communal charge — bodies in sync not because the director demanded it, but because the cast seems to want it. (Yes, there are struts. Yes, they are righteous.) The production is directed by Drew Anthony, with choreography by Jamie & Suzi Rolton, and the overall staging feels intentionally built for momentum rather than mere recreation.

And then there’s the lighting design: an immersive lighting world that does a frankly heroic amount of storytelling. The mirror-ball constellation alone feels like Melbourne collectively agreed to fund a public artwork titled Glitter, But Make It Feelings. Lighting design is credited to Drew Anthony & Jason Bovaird, and it’s the kind of work that doesn’t just illuminate — it seduces.

What’s especially satisfying is the show’s emotional calibration. Saturday Night Fever has always carried darker themes under the shiny shirt-collars — masculinity, consent, death, pressure, limits, longing — and this production doesn’t flinch from that. It just refuses to wallow. The result is a balance that feels honest: you can have a big, thumping night at the theatre and still leave thinking about what people do when their world feels small. (It’s almost like escapism and social reality aren’t enemies. Imagine.)

If you’re after an evening that’s warm, propulsive, and surprisingly human — one that lets performers shine rather than “hit marks” — this is your fever dream.

It’s a wonderful, talent-forward production that turns nostalgia into something immediate, shared, and properly alive.

Now playing the Athenaeum Theatre Melbourne until January 25th, 2026.

Book now at Ticketmaster.

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SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER CREATIVES

Producer Drew Anthony Creative

Director Drew Anthony

Associate Producer Rachel Burgess

Musical Director/Keyboard 1 Daniel Puckey

Choreographers Jamie & Suzi Rolton

Production Design Drew Anthony

Screen Content Aquixel Studios

Sound Design Jordan Gibbs

Lighting Design Drew Anthony & Jason Bovaird

Costume Design Dani Paxton

Wig Design Drew-Elizabeth Johnstone

Stage Manager Alexandria Vidler

Props Manager Rachel Burgess

Production Assistant Emma Venzke

Wardrobe Design Assistant Jaimi Richards

Wardrobe Manager Samara Louise

Sound Operator Liam Roche

Mic Tech Petar Milinkovic

Lighting Operator Johnathon White

DAC Social Media Videography Abbey Burton

Associate Musical Director/Keyboard 2 Mark Bradley

Bass Anthony Chircop

Guitar Aaron Syrjanen

Drums Kieran Rafferty

PR Aisling Brady at

AE Creative Communications

Marketing Ryvalmedia

Red Carpet Photographer Sam Tabone

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER CAST

Tony Manero Ethan Churchill

Stephanie Mangano Regan Barber

Annette Izzi Green

Flo Manero Chelsea Plumley

Frank Manero George Kapiniaris

Frank Jnr Matthew Casamento

Linda Manero Amileya Moro

Bobby C Charis Morabito

Sam Hamilton

Double J Dimitri Raptis

Joey Ewan Herdman

Nightclub Singers Clara Harrison

Bianca Baykara

Thalia Oseguda-Santos

Ensemble Lily Baulderstone

Ayril Boyce

Hannah Cañon

Anthony Garcia

Sophia Katos

Joshua Kobeck

Julian Seguna

Ruby Voss

Swing/Dance Captain Katrina Bickerton

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