Dancing best part of "Saturday Night Fever"

The stage version of the popular John Travolta movie "Saturday Night Fever" succeeds in its most important goal - as long as the talented cast is dancing to some funky Bee Gees tune, the show is on solid ground. It's only when they start to talk that things get shaky.

Even though I lived through the era, I've never been a big fan of the 1977 movie. As I walked into the Sangamon Auditorium Friday night, I wasn't humming "How Deep is Your Love," I was thinking, "How deep is my patience."

But every time I'd shake my head at some silly plot device or awkward bit of dialogue, I'd find my knee bouncing up and down to the beat of some undeniably catchy dance number. As a matter of fact, if you simply look at this show as a great dance concert with some talented singers, you'll probably find much to enjoy here.

The dancers are superb. Director/choreographer Arlene Phillips has re-created many of the best sequences from the movie and added her own high-energy group numbers. Marcia Urani (the resident choreographer) and dance captains Alex Oteyza and Desiree Duarte have kept the show in great shape, and the dancers appear to be having fun as they're "getting down."

While it really can't be passed off as "family entertainment," it has been softened a bit. It comes across as a "PG-13" show as opposed to the "R" rating the movie earned. There is still plenty of swearing, crotch grinding and sexual situations (including an apparent gang rape).

Author Nan Knighton, with help from Phillips, actor Paul Nicholas and producer Robert Stigwood, has done her best to take a handful of Bee Gees hits and insert them into the script as character songs that help move the story forward.

The first several tunes actually succeed in this respect. "Stayin' Alive" makes a strong opening number, and "Boogie Shoes," "Disco Inferno" and "Night Fever" all work pretty well in the early portion of the show.

But those numbers are all set in the 2001 Odyssey Disco. Whenever the authors attempt to match a disco standard to an introspective moment, it usually comes across as forced. Try as you might, you can't stuff a size-12 foot into a size-8 platform shoe. Many of these songs feel shoe-horned.

Ryan Ashley is good in the Travolta role. Of course, anyone taking on the part of Tony Manero would have to be a good dancer, and Ashley fills the shoes well. More importantly, he also captures the strutting posture that makes all the guys look up to him and all the girls lust after him.

As his social-climbing dance partner, Stephanie Mangano, Jennifer Mrozik has the requisite sex appeal to make her stand out. She also dances and sings with authority and has good chemistry with Ashley.

The rest of the cast dances with style, although I had a hard time understanding the dialogue in the group scenes. Many of the cast members sounded like refugees from "Welcome Back Kotter" and were hard to hear over the underscoring.

In the role of Annette, the girl Tony constantly pushes aside, Dena Digiacinto gets a chance to score with her version of "If I Can't Have You," one of the solo numbers that actually seems to flow out of the action of the scene.

The costumes by Suzy Benzinger were all true to the period, but I really wished she'd been more outrageous with the design. It was not a pretty era, so some of the costumes could have been far goofier, although I did like the contestant dressed as "Goldmember" in the big dance number.

And I was disappointed that they didn't try harder to re-create the really ugly hairstyles of the period. They could have had a ton of fun with some awful-looking wigs. As it stood, I only noticed a couple of Farrah Fawcett look-alikes, and most of the guys had haircuts that wouldn't be out of place today.

"Saturday Night Fever" continues today at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets may be ordered by calling 206-6160.

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Gus Gordon is the chief meteorologist at NewsChannel 20 and a free lance arts reviewer. He can be reached at gusgordon00@lycos.com