A case of Febribus Saturday Noctis

When something is going awry in your body, it reacts accordingly. Sweating. Shivering. General weakness. Confusion. Hallucinations. These are all symptoms of a fever, a tell-tale indicator something may be amiss. Coincidentally, these are all things one can experience during Saturday Night Fever The Musical.

How did we wind up in Connecticutistan's most charm-free city, Waterbury, to witness this event? A few months ago, one of my friends pulled me aside and in hushed tones, told me he'd all but been forced to buy tickets (anyone else who's done time in a corporation knows of what I speak - the annual 'voluntary' support drive) to (what we will now call) SNF. Always ready to help a friend, I told him we'd support him and his wife and go with them.

So fast forward to last night. Since Waterbury's restaurant scene seems to mostly double for needle exchange joints, we ruled out dining there. We ate closer to home and made our way to the Palace Theater. The police presence, in numbers reflective of imposed martial law, around the venue was, um, interesting. I didn't know if we should have felt comforted or terrified (see that, a tell-tale sign of fever-confusion-was already setting in). We settled into our seats, which were quite good, and before we knew it, we were in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, being reminded of the awesome terrible that was the Disco Era. To sum it up, there was a lot of jive talkin', a few bad cases of night fever, some geniuses trying to ascertain just how deep is love, and a lot of tragedy. See what I just did there?

As we left the theater at the end of the night, one patron, upon seeing the cadre of police (again, should this have been a point of concern?), loudly summed up his feelings:

It's a good thing the cops are here so

they can arrest that cast.

Best. Line. Ever. 

We roared with laughter and I spun around and shook the guy's hand. He continued railing against the production as we walked back to our cars. Apparently, back in the day, he either really liked the original movie or lived the Bay Ridge disco days experience. He was, in a word, displeased.

Was the cast worthy of arrest? No.
Was it better than a high school production? Yes.
Was it better than a Mormon Roadshow. Yes.
Was it a train wreck? Yes, a thousand times yes.
Was it a Tony winner? No, no and no.
Was it fun to be out with some really good friends? Yes.

Now I've got to go figure out the answer to the dilemma of what to do "If I Can't Have You."