Get out the mirror balls and groovy platforms, because a Studio 54 musical is in the works, with its eye on a Broadway bow.
Producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron are leading the project, which is intended to feature a jukebox score of disco hits and a book by Chad Hodge (Holiday Inn). Tony winner Sergio Trujillo is directing and choreographing the in-development musical, which is not currently sharing a development timeline. Joanne Horowitz, who handled Studio 54's celebrity coordination and was onsite for most of its glory days, is serving as a consulting producer.
Currently titled Studio 54 The Musical, the show will tell the story of the infamous club—notably now a Broadway theatre. Though Studio 54's life as a nightclub was shockingly short—it opened in 1977 and shuttered in 1980—its cultural impact was large. Many credit Studio 54 with transforming our notions of nightlife and of celebrity culture. Among the nightspot's most famous—or infamous, depending on who you ask—guests were Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Cher, Elton John, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Andy Warhol, and Donald Trump.
Notably, this wouldn't be the first major musical to attempt to musicalize the nightclub's storied history. The same tale was the inspiration behind Stephen Trask, Peter Yanowitz, and Rick Elice's This Ain't No Disco, which played a world premiere run Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company in 2018. The earlier musical featured an original score and hasn't reemerged since its initial run. The two projects do not appear to be connected in any way beyond their subject matter.
After years of various refurbishments and brief rebirths as a number of other nightclubs, Studio 54 became a Broadway theatre in 1998, operated by Roundabout Theatre Company. The venue is one of the company's three Broadway spaces, along with the Todd Haimes and Stephen Sondheim Theatres. Roundabout's takeover returned the venue to its original roots, having been built in 1926 as Gallo Opera House.