During the year I was born, men strutted the street wearing white polyester suits with long, starched collars. They sported patterned polyester shirts unbuttoned to the navel and platform boots. Women wore high heels and glitter and did their hair in Farrah Fawcett wings. The year was 1978, and everyone wanted to be John Travolta, dancing the night away on a lit-up disco floor. The movie, of course, was “Saturday Night Fever.”

“Saturday Night Fever” is back as a Broadway musical now. Today polyester may be out and Afros have gone the way of hoop skirts and bustles, but “Saturday Night Fever” still encapsulates an era. True, it may be lacking a meaningful plot and it may lack the topical appeal it held 20 years ago. But it’s still a great show, the kind that makes you want to dance in the aisles even before the end of the overture. Inside the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco, on Tuesday through Sunday nights, disco is still king.

The story is simple and formulaic - almost ludicrously so. By day, Tony Manero is an uneducated kid from Brooklyn, living with his family and working at the neighborhood paint store. By night, he puts on his boogie shoes and becomes the hottest item on the dance floor at the local disco.

When the MC announces a dance contest with a monetary prize, Tony shuns his long-time admirer, Annette, and instead asks Stephanie, a sophisticated Manhattan beauty, to the dance. Of course, Tony and Stephanie win the dance contest.

Throughout the show, the sparse dramatic scenes are overshadowed by a few heartfelt ballads and dynamite dance numbers galore. The big musical numbers were, of course, what brought down the house. Highlights included the opening number to the Bee Gee’s “Staying Alive,” which convinced us that Tony is, indeed, the king of the dance floor. Later on, the audience was thrilled with several other large ensemble numbers, including Tony’s gang of friends dancing to “Boogie Shoes” and “Disco Inferno” at the night club and the climactic dance contest scene.

In particular, Stacey Martin and Aubrey Smith - the black couple competing for the prize - were wild, energetic and a thrill to watch, hamming it up and commanding attention for all they were worth. Of course, Tony and Stephanie (Richard H. Blake and Jeanine Meyers) also put on a good show, but their moves seemed a bit uninteresting, and less spirited. But these ensemble numbers and duets had no low point: From beginning to end, they were flashy, filled with technically dazzling choreography and the right kind of attitude to pull it off.

Ballads were another mainstay of the evening. Jim Ambler as Bobby C., and especially Aileen Quinn as Annette, both delivered strong performances, making their songs seem emotionally compelling (no small feat, given the two-dimensional nature of the characters). But other ballads simply blended into the rest of the meager plot and could have been left out of the show altogether. In general, the slow songs disappeared into the minimal dramatic scenes; both could have been eliminated without diminishing the quality of the musical.

Although billed as a musical, it seemed like the stage production of “Saturday Night Fever” should have been a musical review. Dance numbers, elaborate and effective stage sets and outlandish costumes were all effectively highlighted during the dozen or so energetic and skillfully performed dance numbers.

The score, composed primarily of songs by the Bee Gees, perfectly fit the spirited, carefree mood. Only the forgettable storyline and ballads put a damper on things. Go see the show, don’t think too hard about the plot, and by the end of the evening you’ll be wishing you could wear polyester, boogie to the Bee Gees and live the dream of “Saturday Night Fever.”