Summer: The Donna Summer Musical – Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York

LaChanze in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York. Picture: Joan Marcus

Summer: The Donna Summer Musical continues at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Donna Summer, who reigned as the “Queen of Disco”, died in 2012 of cancer. And Summer: The Donna Summer Musical makes for a scintillating memorial.

Of course, this Broadway outing isn’t your ordinary memorial. The main memorialist is Donna Summer herself, or at least quite a terrific facsimile in the person of Broadway luminary LaChanze. She gets grand assistance from two other sterling Summer embodiments assayed by Ariana DeBose and Storm Lever.

LaChanze performs as the oldest of the three Summers, identified as Diva Donna. DeBose is Disco Donna, the woman at the start of her career and climbing to disco heights, and Lever is Duckling Donna, the young girl growing up as LaDonna Gaines, one of seven children in a loving Boston family.

The three, plus a talent-laden company of some 20 other performers, take us blithely through the mostly high points, but some low points as well, of Summer’s life and career. Incidents are often encapsulated within exhilarating production numbers built around the jukebox score, replete with Summers’ big hits (many of which she co-wrote), plus others.

For example, one of Summer’s earliest professional jobs was with a production in Germany of Hair, and we see Disco Donna being embraced by all sorts of arty types and Deutsche guys in Munich – including her first husband Helmuth Sommer – while a rendition of ‘White Boys’ (from the score of Hair) pumps away in beguiling fashion.

Later on, when Summer switches record companies, suing her old company that was responsible for much of her success, the song is a rousing ‘She Works Hard For the Money’.

In line with that number, a strong feminist sensibility is laced throughout the show. The chorus is mainly women, often taking on male roles.

In a scene depicting a press interview session, Summer is asked about a rumour that she’s dating a musician. She responds: “There’s also a rumour that I’m a man – but if that were true, I’d get paid more.” (The line drew hearty applause at the performance reviewed.)

When photos of the seven-person band are projected onto the stage during the curtain call, we see that six of them are women.

However, don’t look for any sweeping dramatic arc or deep exploration of the singer’s life or times in the book by Colman Domingo, Robert Cary and Des McAnuff.  We hear briefly about an addiction to pills and witness what looks like an attempt at suicide with Diva Donna tottering on a hotel window ledge, but the inclination is defused when a maid enters the room.

Shortly after, we see how Summer finds comfort in religion, cueing song ‘I Believe in Jesus’, and being a mother to her three daughters, with the song ‘Unconditional Love’. When she, her daughters and devoted second husband, Bruce Sudano (Jared Zirilli), determine to fight her cancer, it is demonstrated in a defiant and lively ‘Stamp Your Feet’, with a retinue of hospital patients, doctors and nurses joining in.

Other crucial points are glossed over or fairly obscured in musical numbers. The sexual abuse she suffered in secret as a young girl from the minister of the family church, is demonstrated by Duckling Donna’s gospel-like rendition of ‘Pandora’s Box’, with some memory-like interjection from Diva Donna and backing from a church choir.

The controversy that arose over remarks deemed anti-gay, alienating a lot of Summer’s gay following, is dismissed as a misunderstanding.

This perfunctory referencing or obtuse handling of plot points has raised the ire of a lot of critics, causing them to summarily dismiss the show’s formidable assets in its appreciation of Summer’s talent and the excitement of an era that glows with a fervent nostalgia. And that nostalgia is what drives the show grandly, as Paul Tazewell’s costumes, Robert Brill’s handsome, geometrically-infused sets and Sean Nieuwenhuis’ projections fill the stage with tons of razzle-dazzle.

McAnuff, who directed the show, uses it all to great visual effect with his inventive fast-moving staging. The excitement is whipped up further in Sergio Trujillo’s choreography, infusing the glossary of disco moves with an exuberant freshness, even sophistication. His choreography also gives DeBose opportunities to show off her impressive dance skills beyond the gyrations of disco.

Still, it’s disco that rules the roost, and it reaches its zenith with the closing number, as LaChanze, the two other Donnas and just about the entire company get the audience up on its feet and moving to the anthem ‘Last Dance’. A blizzard of silver confetti falling on the audience adds to the joy, and as with any good memorial, it leaves you impressed with the subject’s accomplishments and wishing she were still around to do even more.

Ron Cohen