Thursday 12 July 2012

Saturday Night Fever

Last night saw the opening night of Saturday Night Fever at the Old Vic Tunnels and Hydes and I headed down for a little 70's flava.




I'd never been to the tunnels before and as I walked, a little nervously I have to say, down Leake St I was excited to see what I'd find.




I mean this place is cool - all brickwork and winding passages. All the cooler for the rumbling sounds of trains overhead, reminding you that you're just metres below one of London's busiest stations.





Dry ice was pumped out to give the impression of downtown New York and the lights of pin ball machines flashed gaudily, reflecting scenes from the film. Sadly the set design and detail just didn't quite hit it. The overall effect underwhelming, failing to convince us or immerse us in the disco dancing world.




I heard that the pizza served at Lenny's wasn't even up to much, though the Pussy Parlour wasn't so bad - offering a little Veuve on the menu, along with hourly pole dances.




The Everyman cine set up was sweet - rows of deck chairs lined up under the dramatically curved ceiling. But, as the film kicked off, it quickly became apparent that the levels needed tweaking - the voices of the New Yorker characters sounding garbled and at points the dialogue completely unintelligible.




Sadly, Hydes and I didn't even make it to the disco dancefloor room, where the audience were due to be led post film - our keenness to catch up outweighing our enthusiasm to stay.


I feel a little bad for my scathing review  but, if I'm honest, it felt like nothing new and certainly not even a patch on productions of the same ilk (ahem, Secret Cinema). We left feeling a bit ripped off - the tickets aren't cheap and we'd even nailed the deal for under-25's.


My advice - DON'T go to this show. DO, however, get yourself down to the tunnels to the next halfway decent thing going on there. I'm hoping for a gig - the acoustics in that place would be unreal.

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