‘Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical’ Celebrates The Life Of An Out And Proud Disco Legend

Depicting the glitzy yet all-too-brief life of disco’s most legendary out performer, Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical is giving Manhattan theatergoers new incentive to dust off their boogie shoes. The off-Broadway musical, which opened Sept. 12, begins with a simple premise: Sylvester, who died in 1988 at the age of 41, returns from beyond the grave to New York’s Theatre at St. Clement’s, where he’ll perform one final concert in the present day. “I had so much to say,” the late star (played by Broadway veteran Anthony Wayne) notes at the show’s outset, “and not enough time to say it.” Ninety minutes of the grooviest, gutsiest and fiercest disco anthems anyone with a taste for mirrorball nostalgia will appreciate soon follow. From the moment he appears in a sequined top, platform heels and a floor-length fur coat, Wayne embodies the starring role with a boulder-crunching zeal that echoes Hugh Jackman’s Tony-winning turn as Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz.