Oedipus at Studio 54
I never expected to see Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex performed live on stage. Of all the ancient plays, this one is the most brutal. An upstairs hallway at Studio 54 During our annual December trip to New York last week, Joe and I paused our feel-good activities. We attended a harrowing new adaptation of the Greek tragedy at Studio 54, the former disco and site of so much ’70s and ’80s debauchery. After opening as the Gallo Opera House in the 1920s and later becoming Studio 54 during the disco era, the venue has reinvented itself once again, now functioning as a Broadway theater while keeping the Studio 54 name. But even as a legitimate theater, you can't escape the ghosts of Andy and 1970s Liza, or thoughts of the mountains of cocaine that people used to do here when visiting the space. It's a strange but somehow fitting stage for the ancient tragedy about a king who ignored prophecy, unknowingly murdered his father, and married his mother. Bénigne Gagneraux, T he Blind Oe...
