Review: GET DOWN TONIGHT, Charing Cross Theatre

Danny Kaan

It’s not often you get a personal onstage welcome at a musical biography from the subject of the show, but that’s what happened at the Press Night of Get Down Tonight. Introduced by the show’s Director/Choreographer Lisa Stevens, KC (Harry Wayne Casey) welcomed everyone to a version of his life as the performer who more or less invented disco. He also adds that his career began in the UK fifty-one years ago. Having had his first hit in 1973, there’s a lot of life story to tell here, but book writer J. F. Lawton sensibly keeps it light and simple, and concentrates on the early years. The occasional meta flourishes amuse but soon get dropped in favour of one disco hit after another, none of them outstaying their welcome. 

With a cast of eight, we meet only four characters, high school friends who will form the Sunshine Band. The other four cast members form the backing ensemble, with the only other character an occasional disembodied voice from the back of the theatre. Despite the long career that followed, it’s the beginnings of the band we see for the most part, with meetings in a suburban park in Miami. We also briefly hear about Junkanoo music, which was a big influence on the band’s sound; it would have been good to learn more about that. Harry Wayne Casey explains in the programme that he wants the show to focus only on the happy moments, which is just as well since the music is almost unrelentingly upbeat, the occasional ballad struggling to do the necessary narrative lifting.

All four main characters are well portrayed, with Ross Harmon to be commended for his confident portrayal of an icon who is sitting there watching him. It’s an engaging and youthful performance, well contrasted with Adam Taylor’s best friend/lover. Taylor gives a nicely detailed account of Orly, recently returned from Vietnam, and Paige Fenlon’s Dee contrasts well with Annabelle Terry’s Gina. All four work well together and convince as a group of friends making music, and high school friends Orly, Dee and Gina go on to perform the music, rather than this being done by any recreation of the actual (and numerous) members of the band.

This is not the show to go to for accurate music history of course; it’s an excuse for a very well-staged, exuberant evening of disco hits (seven disco balls!), albeit on the small stage of the Charing Cross Theatre. The involvement of ATG Productions does lead to the suspicion that this could develop into something bigger if it does well – although the current 80 minute running time seems to work and there may not be enough material here to extend it further.

If you were there the first time round – like your reviewer who was a student then – this will be a great evening of musical nostalgia. If you enjoy disco but know nothing of its beginnings – well you won’t learn much but you could still have a great time at a show which also sounds really good: kudos to Sound Designer Chris Whybrow. The combination of KC’s music and Lisa Stevens’ direction and choreography has created a fun show which offers a great night out for disco fans. Get Down Tonight runs at the Charing Cross Theatre till 15 Nov.

**** Four Stars

Reviewed by Chris Abbott

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