This news will come as no surprise to anyone with even a fleeting knowledge of the undisputed Queen of Disco. The final song in this show is “Last Dance.” At that moment, the disco balls drop, the lights start spinning, the audience leaps to its feet and, well, it’s sort of theme park Studio 54. Thank goodness that time arrives because our Queen needed some adoration in the dully titled Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. I mean, come on. With song titles like “Hot Stuff” and “She Works Hard For the Money,” certainly a tad more creativity could be expected. How about I Feel Love: The Donna Summer Story?
The title is about as deep as this show gets. Summer is a biographical journey of a woman who defined an era. She had a string of Top 40 hits every year from 1975 to 1984 with one twelve month period where she had four Billboard number one singles. Also on the plus side, she is a fascinatingly complicated person. Ms. Summer’s life was filled with controversies and conundrums. Orgasm singing in “Love to Love You Baby” followed by born again Christianity. Her alleged anti-gay comments during the AIDS crisis which alienated her fans. All presented here by scratching the surface and quickly moving on.
Everyone I attended this show with liked it immensely if not absolutely loved it. Sorry, someone left the cake out in the rain. Long stretches of boredom are not, not, not my imagination. There are reasons to enjoy parts of this show notably the familiar songs (How could I have forgotten “Heaven Knows”?) There are three actresses portraying Donna, all superb singers. Storm Lever is Duckling Donna, our young talent in the gospel choir but not immune from evil. Ariana Debose is Disco Donna and brings life to everything she touches. However, it is La Chanze as Diva Donna that commands our most rapt attention. As quasi-narrator, we see Donna Summer through her. All three have knockout numbers which make this musical at least float and occasionally soar.
Now for more of the disappointing news. How can Sergio Trujillo’s choreography not be amazing? I saw Saturday Night Fever too but the oft repeated hand spinning and pointing upward was frankly not enough to encapsulate the disco era. The set was a distracting mess of literal projection squares moving around. When Duckling Donna tries on lipstick, the projection shown is a tube of lipstick. Much of the stage is oddly dark and cavernous. Except for the costuming (Paul Tazewell), little feels representative of the era. Enough is definitely enough. Then it’s time for “Last Dance” and sparkly fun. I so wish Summer would have turned up the old Victrola so we could dance the night away.
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