Xenon was a popular New York City discotheque and nightclub in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was located in the former Henry Miller's Theatre at 124 West 43rd Street (now the site of the Stephen Sondheim Theatre) which, prior to Xenon, had been renamed Avon-at-the-Hudson and was operating as a porn house.
Xenon was founded in June 1978 by Howard Stein and Peppo Vanini. [1] Stein had been a promoter who had brought rockers such as The Who, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, and the Rolling Stones to New York City. Vanini ran some of the greatest clubs in Europe including Regines. He and Peppo Vanini had met at Studio 54. (Xenon is chemical element 54.) Madelyn Fudeman was the publicity person. [2]
Xenon was regarded as much more of a "Fashion Crowd", while Studio 54 was more Hollywood. Still, many celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Halston, Michael Jackson, Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, Tom Cruise, Richard Avedon, Cher, O. J. Simpson, Christopher Reeve, Elton John, Roger Moore, John McEnroe, Tony Curtis, Brooke Shields, Freddie Mercury, David Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Robin Williams frequented the club. [2] According to event photographer Bill Bernstein, "Xenon was the only nightclub [in New York City] popular enough to compete with Studio 54 and was popular with the straighter, white, upwardly mobile crowd." [3]
The walls were silver and rays of light came out from a giant "X" above the dance floor. People at Xenon often liked to dance with less clothes than people at Studio 54, sometimes wearing swimsuits while dancing. Xenon was the first night club to provide go-go boxes for amateur go-go dancers to dance on. [4] This got many people interested in go-go dancing. Xenon was featured in a Life magazine article about disco. The full-time Disc-Jockey (DJ) was Tony Smith and the part-time DJs were Louis Martinez (Louis Orlando) and John "Jellybean" Benitez, who later had an affair with Madonna.
Xenon closed in 1984. The interior of the theater was razed in the 2000s to make way for the Bank of America Tower; its neo-Georgian facade remains intact, having been protected by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1987. The 1,055-seat Stephen Sondheim Theater was built behind the facade and below ground to replace the original theater space, [5] making it one of two subterranean houses on Broadway. [6]
Freddie Mercury celebrated his 38 birthday there in 1984.
West Side Story is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
On the Town is a musical with music by Leonard Bernstein and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, based on Jerome Robbins' idea for his 1944 ballet Fancy Free, which he had set to Bernstein's music. The musical introduced several popular and classic songs, among them "New York, New York", "Lonely Town", "I Can Cook, Too", and "Some Other Time". The story concerns three American sailors on a 24-hour shore leave in New York City in 1944, during World War II. Each of the three sailors meets and quickly connects with a woman.
Studio 54 is a Broadway theater and former nightclub at 254 West 54th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, it served as a CBS broadcast studio in the mid-20th century. Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager opened the Studio 54 nightclub, retaining much of the former theatrical and broadcasting fixtures, inside the venue in 1977. Roundabout Theatre Company renovated the space into a Broadway house in 1998.
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo, located in the town of Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken from the French title of the Scottish comedy film Whisky Galore! The French bar then licensed its name to the West Hollywood rock club Whisky a Go Go, which opened in January 1964 and chose the name to reflect the already popular craze of go-go dancing. Many 1960s-era nightclub dancers wore short, fringed skirts and high boots which eventually came to be called go-go boots. Nightclub promoters in the mid‑1960s then conceived the idea of hiring women dressed in these outfits to entertain patrons.
The Factory was Andy Warhol's studio in Manhattan, New York City, which had four locations between 1963 and 1987. The Factory became famed for its parties in the 1960s. It was the hip hangout spot for artists, musicians, celebrities, and Warhol's superstars. The original Factory was often referred to as the Silver Factory. In the studio, Warhol's workers would make silkscreens and lithographs under his direction.
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Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from May 1980 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous location was the second, a four-floor venue at 30 West 21st Street in Manhattan that served as the location for the disco scene in the film Desperately Seeking Susan.
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Tunnel was a nightclub located at 220 Twelfth Avenue, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It operated from 1986 to 2001.
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 124 West 43rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Owned by the Durst Organization and managed by the Roundabout Theatre Company, the modern 1,055-seat theater opened in 2009 at the base of the Bank of America Tower. The current theater is mostly underground and was designed by Cookfox, architects of the Bank of America Tower. It retains the landmarked facade of the original Henry Miller's Theatre, which was built in 1918 by Henry Miller, the actor and producer.
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The Gallery was a disco in SoHo, Manhattan which was opened in February 1972 by disc jockey Nicky Siano and his older brother Joe Siano. The first location of The Gallery, located on 132 West 22nd Street, closed in July 1974. It reopened in November 1974 at 172 Mercer and Houston Streets and closed in October 1977. Famed DJs Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles both worked at the club, but not at the DJ booth. Grace Jones and Loleatta Holloway both made their debut performances at The Gallery.
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"Somewhere", sometimes referred to as "Somewhere (There's a Place for Us)" or simply "There's a Place for Us", is a song from the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story that was made into films in 1961 and 2021. The music is composed by Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
A nightclub is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a bar and discothèque with a dance floor, laser lighting displays, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who mixes recorded music. Nightclubs tend to be smaller than live music venues like theatres and stadiums, with few or no seats for customers.
House of Yes is a creative collective and nightclub in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City. The House of Yes nightclub was opened by artists Kae Burke and Anya Sapozhnikova, and partners Justin Ahiyon and Ilan Telmont in 2015.
Hurrah was a nightclub located at 36 West 62nd Street in New York City from 1976 until early 1981. Hurrah was the first large dance club in NYC to feature punk, new wave, no wave and Industrial music. The in-house DJs at Hurrah were Sara Salir, Bill Bahlman, Bart Dorsey and Anita Sarko. Under the management of Henry Schissler, and later Jim Fouratt, it became known as the first "rock disco" in New York, and pioneered the use of music videos in nightclubs, placing video monitors around the club, over a year before the launch of MTV. The club was owned by Arthur Weinstein and his partners, who opened the club in November 1976, months before Studio 54.
Sybil Christopher, formerly known as Sybil Burton, was a Welsh actress, theatre director, and founder of popular celebrity New York nightclub "Arthur". She came into the public eye as the first wife of Richard Burton.
Got Tu Go Disco is a musical with music and lyrics by Kenny Lehman, John Davis, Ray Chew, Nat Adderley, Jr., Thomas Jones, Wayne Morrison, Steve Boston, Eugene Narmore, Betty Rowland, Jerry Powell and a book by John Zodrow. It opened on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre on June 25, 1979, where it ran for nine previews and eight performances.