Saturday Night Fever, the smash London musical due on Broadway this coming summer, will have its German premiere in July, according to an Equity notice. That production will begin previews in Cologne on July 26 and open on Sept. 11.

Saturday Night Fever, based on the 1977 John Travolta film, began performances at London's Palladium Apr. 29, 1998 and has been playing to enthusiastic, teenybopper-heavy audiences since. The tuner features many of the Bee Gees' songs from the movie, including "Stayin' Alive" (which opens the show) and "Night Fever," and others that weren't, such as "Tragedy." Also thrown into the mix are K.C. and the Sunshine Band's "Boogie Shoes," Rick Dees' "Disco Duck," and Barry Gibb's "What Kind of Fool." All the songs are weaved into the coming-of-age story, often functioning as plot-furthering personal statements by the story's various, Bay Ridge-based dancin' fools.

The U.S. mounting of Saturday Night Fever will open on Broadway on Oct. 21, said a spokesman at Bill Evans' office, who will rep the show. The tuner will probably move into the Minskoff Theatre, currently the home of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Previews will begin Sept. 28.

Peter Weck will direct the German production, with Arlene Phillips repeated her London duties as choreographer.

Saturday Night Fever is adapted for the stage by Nan Knighton, in collaboration with Arlene Phillips (who directs and choreographs), Paul Nicholas and Robert Stigwood (who will produce with Niko Associates). The set, by Robin Wagner, shares with another film-turned-stage-musical, Footloose, the monumental presence of a bridge -- this time the Verrazano.