Although you can’t see The Bee Gees, you can see the next best thing.
Stayin’ Alive: One Night of The Bee Gees performs at 8 p.m. Aug. 10 at RiverEdge Park in Aurora. Just like the name implies, it’s a night of all the classic looks, sounds and songs of The Bee Gees.
The Bee Gees was formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb who grew up in England and Australia. The brothers were prominent members of the disco movement in the 1970s.
Todd Sharman is the voice of Robin Gibb in Stayin’ Alive: One Night of The Bee Gees. The group has been to Aurora several times, he said, and this is their fourth time at RiverEdge.
“You’re going to see a show that takes you through a catalogue of The Bee Gees, basically,” he said. “We’ll start back in the ‘60s and earlier periods of their career. We take you through that into the disco period, performing all their big hits and maybe a couple of their not-so-big hits, plus fan favorites. We pride ourselves on putting on a very energetic show and being as true to The Bee Gees’ music and vocals as we can. We try to get as close as we can.”
You’ll hear all the hits like “Night Fever,” “Jive Talkin’,” “How Deep Is Your Love,” “You Should Be Dancing,” “Nights on Broadway” and “Stayin’ Alive” while images and videos are projected on a big screen, he said.
They will even perform familiar songs that were written by The Bee Gees but not performed by them, including “Islands in the Stream,” “If I Can’t Have You,” “Shadow Dancing” and “Grease.”
“They went through a period when disco was going through a downturn. They experienced … a huge backlash and basically couldn’t get arrested,” he said. “They ended up turning their talents to writing songs for other artists and they were successful at it.”
Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and Dionne Warwick all had hits written by The Bee Gees.
The band won’t get too much into the history and lore of The Bee Gees, choosing to keep the flow going throughout the show.
“That being said, we do have trivia that we play prior to the show that kind of touches on different things throughout their career,” Sharman said.
Halfway through the show there will be a costume change, he said.
Sharman admits he didn’t know much about The Bee Gees before embarking on this project.
“Growing up in the ‘70s … you were either a rocker or a dancer,” he said. “There were two camps and I fell into the rocker one. Not that I didn’t appreciate the music, but growing up my brothers and I were more into the rock stuff and we didn’t dare step over that line while we were in high school.
“A lot of the stuff that we thought was great in the mid-‘70s doesn’t really hold up when you listen to it now. But The Bee Gees tunes, because they’re so well-written, stand the test of time. That’s why you can play to a demographic that’s very wide. So many people from all generations love the music.”
The group was put together in 2001 in Toronto.
“I was curious as to who was going to sing it because it’s challenging,” he said. “I can sing some of it but the really high vocals are not my thing.”
Fortunately, that’s exactly singer Tony Mettina’s thing — he executes the Barry Gibb falsetto flawlessly, Sharman said.
“It blew my mind. We ended up harmonizing really well together,” he said. Joseph Janisse — their Maurice Gibb — joined the group in 2011.
While Sharman has other gigs, including a Tom Petty tribute, Stayin Alive’ is his main band.
“The Bee Gees thing keeps me super busy. The Bee Gees market is huge and it’s a lot different than the market for the Tom Petty stuff,” he said.
He guarantees a night of nostalgia and great music.
“We’ll take you back to the ‘70s when things were simpler,” he said. “Come out and have a good time and sing and dance and forget about all your troubles.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Beacon-News.
Stayin’ Alive: One Night of The Bee Gees
When: 8 p.m. Aug. 10
Where: RiverEdge Park, 360 N. Broadway, Aurora
Tickets: $20
Information: 630-896-6666; paramountaurora.com/riveredge
