‘Summer: The Donna Summer Musical’ Theater Review: Hot Summer (Fun) In The City

Jukebox musicals like Jersey Boys and Beautiful are powerful Broadway attractions – and few artists have as infectious musical catalogues as the late disco queen Donna Summer. So it was only a matter of time before producers put two and two together. Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which premiered Monday night at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theater, offers a fun-filled tour through the diva’s rocky life.

TICKETS FOR ‘SUMMER: THE DONNA SUMMER MUSICAL’

The musical divides Summer’s life into three parts – child-aged Duckling Donna (Storm Lever), Disco Donna (Ariana DeBose) and most notably Diva Donna (LaChanze). The division works well for the most part but clearly LaChanze is the strongest of the three. The show zips along for 100-minutes without intermission jumping from Summer’s discovery in Germany, becoming a mother, disco stardom and abusive relationship to name a few, but never really dwells long enough for meaningful character exposition. What it lacks in narrative depth, Summer makes up for in high-octane musical performances from “Enough Is Enough” to “On The Radio” to “Love To Love You,” the audience on the night uInterview attended couldn’t get enough of the thrilling disco music. The supporting cast, mostly women dressed in drag, were energetic in their movement and execution.

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Only at the end does Summer deal with the singer’s famous falling out with the gay community. She cops to jokingly telling a concert that “god created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve” in order to get some male fans to simmer down. In fact, Summer, who became a devout Christian before her death from cancer in 2012, sued New York magazine for printing other anti-gay remarks that she had allegedly made. Gay fans, who were and are a large part of her fan base, will undoubtedly feel let down by this cursory treatment of the topic. Still, Summer rocks on till the end, powered by the diva’s undeniably great music. With 23 songs, many of the them just snippets, one only wishes there was time for more music.

SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical is now playing at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street).

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