My Ramblings on Summer: The Donna Summer Musical

New Season. New Seats. New Shows (well some at least).

October was our first show in the 2019-2020 Broadway series at the Playhouse Theater.

The series opened up with the sounds of the disco queen in Summer The Donna Summers Musical.

Here are the rest of the shows on the list:

-The Band’s Visit
-Mean Girls
-Anastasia
-Jesus Christ Superstar
-My Fair Lady
-Frozen

Not that I remember my initial reaction to every season well, but I am thinking this one probably elicits the least amount of excitement from me.

My exception is Jesus Christ Superstar which is one of my all time favorite shows, however, rarely does it meet expectations. I am keeping fingers crossed for this time.

Two shows about princesses in the same season seems a little much. But the I have heard good things so I will remain hopeful.

The Main Event

So now let’s dig into the feature show here, Summer. Let me start by saying I am happy this is the first show because there is no where else to go but up!

I did not know much before the show except that I was going to be hearing quite a bit of disco. Now I am not gonna lie, I love oldies but disco is a style I could go without so I wasn’t ecstatic about the show.

But I don’t love Frankie Valley’s sound that much either and I really enjoyed Jersey Boys even though I had no desire to see it. So I was willing to give Donna a shot.

The show opens with an older version of Donna talking to an audience. It was a little confusing as I was not sure if she was addressing the audience that I was in or a fictional audience. There was canned laughing so I decided on the latter. I feel like most people just weren’t sure how to respond. And so sets the stage for the whole show.

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My Thoughts

The one word I would use to best describe the show is Confusing.

There are 3 versions of Donna, older Donna, young Donna and Donna on the rise. They interacted with eachother and the story went back and forth with who was telling the story although primarily it was older, wiser Donna.

The show also jumped back and forth through time. The “Donna” being used at the time would help identify where we were at in the story or timeline. Although sometimes the Donna’s also played other roles, like Donna’s mother or daughter.

There are little bits of information that are dangled throughout the show that may hold relevant later on. Unfortunately, by the time it becomes relevant, it was forgettable or was not developed enough to make sense in telling.

The bright light in this show is that the singing was outstanding. I am certain the Queen of Disco herself would be proud.

The only time the singing was a little off is when the 3 lead Donna’s sing together. It is almost as though since they are all leads, they couldn’t figure out how to sing together. But their voices alone were each incredible.

If you love Donna Summers the songs and singing may be enough to love this show. But the storytelling was just, very disappointing. The show was not cohesive. It felt like parts of the story were rushed, not explaimed well and just thrown in. It just did not make sense.

I left this show with so many more questions then I went in with. And not the type you want to be leaving with, like not thought provoking or deep but more like, what in the hell was that about? Why did that happen? Who the hell is that guy? And so many more.

I just feel like if you want to have a bunch of songs in a show by a specific performer or group, make sure you put in as much effort into writing an amazing story to go along with it. Otherwise just produce a review.

I think it is insulting to the audience to believe that just because someone had great songs, you just piggyback off of that and all is well.

The sad part is that she had a very interesting life and had more time been spent developing certain aspects of it, the show probably could have been really good.

Women Unite

To end this review on a high note, I would like to say I appreciate the theme of empowering women. It was highlighted throughout the show but wasn’t shoved down your throat.

In particular, this theme is noted in the decision to use a primarily female cast. The women in the chorus were often used to represent both genders. This is where we also got to see some fun and well executed dancing. If nothing else the dance moves from that time are the best. But they still used male actors to reflect the main male roles.

Wrapping up

Ultimately the show had some highlights but it was just lackluster.

I am no professional theater person. I am just a middle aged lady who loves to watch musicals. So take what I say with a grain of salt. Now go out and watch a good show and let me know your thoughts.