Roundup: Tommy Tune is BACK with Studio 54 Musical - FIFTY FOUR FOREVER

Conceived and directed by 9 time Tony-winner Tommy Tune and written by Mark Saltzman, FIFTY FOUR FOREVER, is currently receiving its world premiere at The University of Miami's Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, from November 9 to 19. South Florida theatre audiences are the first to experience this exciting new musical and so far, they've all been raving about the production. 

Respected Miami Herald critic, Christine Dolen writes today that "The opening-night audience didn't just like the musical: They adored it. Lots of the Ring patrons, including smiling seniors (that's senior citizens, not college seniors), looked a little let down when the show ended. The sexy musical's disco-song mix (including Hustle, Funkytown, Love to Love You Baby, YMCA) got them moving and grooving, and they didn't want to stop." She sums up noting that "The show's one original song, Lament for Three Jersey Girls (by composer Jeffrey Saver and lyricist Stephen Cole), is terrific, theatrical and funny. More like that, please. Tune's inspired touch is all over the show. I'm thinking particularly of the duet between the undercover FBI agent and his sexy blond boss, the two taking athletically seductive twirls around a pole as they sing. Muy, muy caliente."

Steve Rothaus has photos from opening night on his blog, click here. 

And for BroadwayWorld.com's Photo Flash Preview of the production, click here.

Once upon a time in New York City, there was a magical disco that everyone clamored to get into. Passing through Studio 54's velvet ropes were the world's most famous stars, politicians, and athletes - the glitterati of the 1980s. The Jerry Herman Ring Theatre will be presenting the first production of Tommy Tune's exciting and glamorous musical portrait of the world's most famous nightclub.

In 1965, Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical Baker Street. His first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1978. He has gone on to direct or choreograph, or both, some eight Broadway musicals. He directed a new musical titled Turn of the Century, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on September 19, 2008 and closed on November 2, 2008.

Off-Broadway, Tune has directed The Club and Cloud Nine. Tune toured the United States in The Sherman Brothers musical Busker Alley in 1994-1995 and in the stage adaptation of the film Dr. Doolittle in 2006. Tune is the only person to win Tony Awards in the same categories (Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical) in consecutive years (1990 and 1991), and the first to win in four different categories. He has won nine Tony Awards. Tune's film credits include Hello, Dolly! (1969) and The Boy Friend with Twiggy (1971). Tune released his first record album, Slow Dancing, in 1997 on the RCA label, featuring a collection of his favorite romantic ballads. Tune has been performing in his musical revue, Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance, in Boston in April 2008 and continuing in various venues from Bethesda, Maryland in January 2009 to California in February 2009.