By Anna & Maria Sciacca
The glamour of the nightlife at the famous Studio 54 club in Manhattan, New York, will be on Broadway in a fantastic musical produced by Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, directed and choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. The musical, from the book by Chad Hodge, features the classic disco hits of the seventies when celebrities wearing lurex dresses, showing themselves in extravagant looks and glittered make-up, danced to the sound of disco music under the scintillating moving lights of a spinning disco ball and spotlights; sometimes colored globes were launched above the large stage, while disc jockeys, musical groups and singers performed.
The nightclub was designed by Italian American architect Eugene De Rosa and opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, later becoming the Gallo Theatre; in 1943 it became Studio 54, which was used as a radio and television set for shows. 
Some songs played at the famous nightclub are collected in the compilation “A night at Studio 54”; the album includes songs by artists such as Chic, Love & Kisses, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Cher, and Village People. Other famous artists who frequented Studio 54: Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Amanda Lear, Elton John, Sylvester, Diana Ross, Barbara Streisand.
Founded in 1977 by the entrepreneurs Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, the nightclub Studio 54 featured a bar and silver banquettes under the balcony that overlooked the parquet dance floor with seats and tables, and the picture of the “Man in the Moon” snorting a silver glowing spoon was on the wall of the discotheque. During the night, the spoon would rise toward the moon, triggering lights that illuminated the moon’s face. The club was also very famous for its wild parties, in an atmosphere that was between a nightclub and a theatrical production.
Studio 54 represented entertainment, fame, hedonism, and a desire for transgression, with a liberty of styles and self-expression. Roundabout Theatre Company has renovated the club into a Broadway theater.
