Former Matthew Bourne principle dancer Richard Winsor will take on the iconic role of Tony Manero in Bill Kenwright’s new touring production of Saturday Night Fever which is due to launch in late August 2018 at the New Wimbledon Theatre.
Winsor who starred in some of Bourne’s most celebrated productions including the choreographer’s ground-breaking Swan Lake, Edward Scissorhands and The Car Man, will don the famous white suit to play his first leading role in a musical when the re-imagined and re-vitalised show hits the road later this summer.
Forty years after the cinema release of the film which made John Travolta a superstar, the major new stage version which will be produced by Bill Kenwright by special arrangement with the Robert Stigwood organisation promises “more drama, more music and hot new choreography”.
Launching at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 30 August 2018, the tour will visit Liverpool, Dublin, Birmingham, Bristol, Aylesbury, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Llandudno, Bradford and Cardiff.
Kenwright will also direct the production which will feature choreography by Olivier Award-winning Bill Deamer with designs by Gary McCann, lighting by Nick Richings and sound by Dan Samson.
Based on the 1977 John Badham-directed film that starred a famously white-suited Travolta and featured the distinctive music of the Bee Gees, Saturday Night Fever was inspired by a 1976 New York Magazine article by British writer Nik Cohn.
Adapted for the stage by Robert Stigwood in collaboration with Bill Oakes, the musical version of the film debuted in London’s West End in 1998 with Adam Garcia in the leading role of Tony Manero. Directed and choreographed by Arlene Phillips who is credited alongside Paul Nicholas and Stigwood as collaborators on the book which was written by Nan Knighton, the production ran for nearly two years at the London Palladium. Phillips also directed the show’s Broadway debut which began in 1999 and featured James Carpinello in the central role.
Featuring some of the Bee Gees’ biggest hits, including ‘Stayin’ Alive’, ‘How Deep is Your Love’ and ‘Night Fever’, the musical has toured the UK four times with the most recent ending in 2015 and starring Danny Bayne, the winner of the ITV talent show Grease Is The Word, as Tony Manero.
Angela Thomas
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