Happy Belated Birthday to another one of Broadway’s beloved houses. Yesterday, the legendary STUDIO 54 (now run by the Roundabout Theatre Company) celebrated it’s 90th Birthday.
This iconic venue on 54th Street has had a lot of history. It initially was built as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, renamed The New Yorker Theatre in the 1937, became a TV studio in the 40’s for CBS, and later went on to become to most famous disco nightclub in the 70’s.
After the club closed, Roundabout Theatre Company bought the space still keeping it as Studio 54 and it opened with the 1998 acclaimed Tony winning revival of Cabaret the Musical (which transferred from the leaky Henry Miller’s Theatre (now the Stephen Sondheim Theatre)). That Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall production of CABARET (which featured Alan Cumming and later numerous celebrities) ran for amazing 6 years and over 2,300 performances.
From there, the show continues to run as a Broadway house. It continues to be the home of acclaimed revivals of classic musicals and plays as well as a few premiere productions. Some of the shows that came in from there included a revival of Assassins (musical) (with Neil Patrick Harris) , A Streetcar Named Desire, The Threepenny Opera (with Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper), The Apple Tree (with Kristin Chenoweth), 110 in the Shade (with Audra McDonald), Wishful Drinking (with the late Carrie Fisher), Sondheim on Sondheim, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (with Stephanie J. Block and Chita Rivera), a later returning engagement of the 1998 revival of Cabaret (with Alan Cumming reprising the Emcee), She Loves Me (with Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti), the Broadway premiere of Holiday Inn, recently SWEAT on Broadway, and currently the home of Latin History for Morons (starring John Leguizamo).
FUN FACT: During the 2014 returning engagement of CABARET, Alan Cumming built himself a pop-up club in his dressing room called Club Cumming which he would host themed parties few times a week after the Evening performances. He later went on to expand CLUB CUMMING and now it’s a real place you can visit in on the lower east side on East 6th Street.
HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY STUDIO 54!!! We still got the disco pride in us!!
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