Rialto Chatter: Tommy Tune at Work on Studio 54 Musical

According to the Miami Herald, nine-time Tony Award winner Tommy Tune has spent two weeks working with playwright Mark Saltzman and University of Miami theater students on "Project 54." The untitled musical is about New York's Studio 54 and its co-creator Steve Rubell.

Tune came to the University of Miami after being invited by theater-arts department chair Henry Fonte, who has held the position since last fall.

The project was presented on four occasions in front of small invited audiences, including UM President Donna Shalala.

"The writers get a priceless gift. Mark has learned so much - and Tommy, too. It's such a gift to hear your words in the mouths of actors," Fonte said. "Tommy was creating on the spot, which was invaluable, and the students were part of the creative process. They also contributed. ... It's important to have students work with living playwrights on new projects."

Tune has firsthand experience with Studio 54, as he lived one street over when the establishment was in its prime. He would visit every night. He told the Miami Herald that once, ballet great Rudolph Nureyev invited him to dance by staring up into Tune's eyes as he poured them each a glass of champagne.

Tune's goal is to stage "Project 54" at the old Studio 54, which is now a theater space run by the Roundabout Theatre Company.

"We had many versions in script form, but this was our first time working with actors," Tune said. "I had thought we'd sit at a table, but UM required a presentation. I didn't really like that at first, but having an enforced deadline was a good thing. So we cut off the legs of the table and turned it into a runway. ... Nothing was wasted in what we were doing and in what the kids were giving me."

So far, there's no word on the rest of the creative team.

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Mr. Tune began his career as a dancer in the Broadway shows Baker Street, A Joyful Noise and How Now Dow Jones. He first stepped into a principal role in the Broadway musical Seesaw, which won him his first Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a musical. His first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Tune has been honored with nine Tony Awards celebrating him as a performer, choreographer and director. In addition, Tune has been awarded eight Drama Desk Awards, three Astaire Awards and the Society of Directors and Choreographers' George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is also the recipient of The National Medal of Arts, the highest honor for artistic achievement given by the President of the United States, and he has been honored with his own star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2009, Mr. Tune was designated as a Living Landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and has recently unveiled his latest work, Steps In Time, A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance.
Mark Saltzman began his career in New York with Jim Henson, writing for the Muppets. His Sesame Street sketches and songs earned him seven Emmy Awards. At the same time, Saltzman was writing cabaret shows and musicals. He co-wrote the long-running revue A, My Name is Alice.

Mark's musical play, The Tin Pan Alley Rag opened in 1997 and was nominated for five Los Angeles Ovation Awards, including Best Musical. In June of 2009 the play made its New York debut at the Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels Theatre.

Mark's stage musical, Romeo and Bernadette, played at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami and New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. His newest play, Clutter: The True Story of the Collyer Brothers Who Never Threw Anything Out, had its world premiere at the Colony Theater in Burbank in 2004.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos