There’s not just one disco ball in the Charing Cross Theatre auditorium for Get Down Tonight. There are seven. Records are dotted around the prosenium and stage: their middles light up.
The show ran at Edinburgh as Who Do Ya Love? and has now been honed, polished, and focused into ‘feel good’ territory in an 80 minute showcase of KC and the Sunshine Band’s work.
Harry Wayne Casey/KC himself is in attendance, saying this show ‘has always been his dream’, and as we meet young Harry (a sweetly naive Ross Harmon) working in a record store, the story begins.
Not sure whether it wants to be cheese or cringe, this tale of stardom starts as aware of itself as a musical, with Harry’s friend Dee (an assured Paige Fenlon with excellent vocals) offering advice of how to craft the show through the usual tropes.
If it kept this structure throughout it might have worked, although it offers little to seasoned theatrephiles who have seen it all before. Lisa Stevens (director/choreographer) fills the show with routines that bring back the 70s.
I liked the idea of having Dee, Gina (a bouncy Annabelle Terry) and Orly (an oily Adam Taylor), the other friends who inspired the songs, taking over vocal duties, and there’s some serious talent on show.
But the origin story of how Harry Wayne Casey became KC is thin. There’s a love triangle – or even quartet – going on. Vietnam is briefly referenced but not why Harry wasn’t drafted.
Everything is rushed towards the end as one demo with promise becomes heavy touring and nine number 1 singles within a handful of years. Just like that.
Dee telling us about the bad times, the pain and the heartbreak, when we don’t really see it, makes Get Down Tonight rather superficial. No matter.
The music is lively (props to Chris Whybrow’s sound and Mark Crossland’s orchestrations) but doesn’t always demonstrate that KC ‘invented disco’, with a large chunk of the show taken up with love ballads. Otherwise it is a parade of ‘wooos’ and “uh-uhs’.
There was a definite buzz in the bar before the show started, with many patrons in disco finery. But there wasn’t as much clapping along as I expected, however hard it was solicited by the cast.
Of course Get Down Tonight is camp and cheesy, and that’s where it thrives. It also shows that Harry/KC had close friends he loved. But that’s not really enough to sustain what is essentially a jukebox musical.
The programme gives a bit more background and fills in the gaps, but its best if you are a committed fan of the music or just there to ‘shake your booty’ (don’t worry, dancing isn’t expected or obligatory until the end medley).
I’m giving this 3*.
Get Down Tonight: The KC and the Sunshine Band Musical continues at Charing Cross Theatre until 15 Nov – tickets here.
Image credit: Danny Kaan