It’s a disco inferno for Sergio Trujillo…
The 61-year-old Colombian Tony Award-winning theater director, choreographer, dancer and actor will direct and choreograph the Broadway-bound Studio 54 The Musical.
Producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron are developing the new work with a book by Chad Hodge.
The musical, which will feature a full playlist of hits from the disco era, will trace “the astonishing ascent and sudden downfall of the most legendary club in nightlife history.”
“Neil Meron and I started talking about the amazing story of Studio 54 as a possible series years ago,” said Greenblatt in an exclusive statement to Deadline, “but we finally came to our senses and realized we had the perfect musical right under our noses.”
Add Meron, “And with book writer Chad Hodge and the incredible Sergio Trujillo, who came of age during the disco dance craze in Toronto and New York, we have the perfect team to bring it to life.”
Casting details and production schedule are to be announced.
The synopsis: “In staggeringly short order, two scrappy impresarios turned an abandoned west side theater into the hottest club in the history of New York– utterly transforming music, nightlife, and celebrity culture in the process. It also transformed the lives of everyone who made it past the door, whether for one extraordinary night or every night. Until it all abruptly came to an end. Studio 54 The Musical will bring audiences past the velvet rope and into a world of unfathomable decadence, set to the thumping sound of the most iconic disco hits of the 1970s and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, all having the time of their lives. Welcome to Studio 54.”
The legendary disco nightclub was opened by Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager in 1977 and quickly become a cultural sensation. Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, Truman Capote, Bianca Jagger and countless other celebrities made the venue their nighttime home-away-from-home, along with New York City’s most fabulous collection of gay, straight and trans nightclubbers. The club on West 54th Street in Manhattan is currently a Broadway theater operated by the Roundabout Theatre Company.
Trujillo has an impressive roster of Broadway credits, including Ain’t Too Proud, Memphis, Jersey Boys, The Addams Family, On Your Feet! and Summer: The Donna Summer Musical.
He was most recently Director/Choreographer of the new musical Real Women Have Curves, which debuted at American Repertory Theatre, and he served as choreographer for the upcoming movie musical Kiss of the Spider Woman starring Jennifer Lopez.
He was Emmy-nominated for his choreography for NBC’s Annie Live!