The latest production from the Riverside Center For the Performing Arts will take audiences back to the disco days of the late 1970’s and early ‘80’s.
“Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” tells the story of the rise of one of the era’s biggest stars with a lit dance floor as the set and dancing in the aisles.
IF YOU GO
“Summer: The Donna Summer Musical” Riverside Center for the Performing Arts, runs until March 1. Tickets are $62-72.
The show is somewhere between a concert of Summer’s greatest hits and a biography, from her Boston upbringing, a move to Germany where she became popular in the club music scene, and her return to the U.S. as a disco star. It also includes a look at the many trials and difficult times she faced including sexual abuse as a child, divorce, separation from her daughter, and the struggle to obtain ownership of her music.
Unfortunately the writers of “Summer” lose the thread in the last part of the show where scenes randomly jump in time with little to connect them other than songs with a fleeting reference. We see light scenes like Summer learning to drive next to a traumatic episode where she was sexually abused by a minister. There is a scene where her doctor tells her she is ill, but we do not see her death.
Despite the shortcomings, the show stands strong on the music and a talented cast that bring the songs to life.
Summers is portrayed by three actors, each representing a period of her life. We see her as a pre-teen (Duckling Donna), a star in her 20s (Disco Donna) and her mature years (Diva Donna). All three actresses give stunning vocal performances throughout the show. Some of the numbers bring the three Donnas together and their voices blend beautifully as in the song “MacArthur Park”.
Disco Donna as portrayed by Jahnay Star.
Tyandria Jaaber’s time as Duckling Donna portrays Summer’s love of performing that began with shows in her family living room with her sisters.
Disco Donna is portrayed by Jahnay Star, showcasing Summer in the peak of her career with some interesting behind-the-scenes acts such as the making of “Love To Love You Baby”. Star’s acting chops are on full display as she plays scenes with domestic abuse and mental health challenges. Star’s singing abilities carry songs like “On The Radio” (a duet with Harris) and the climactic “Hot Stuff” near the end of the show.
Toneisha Jones Harris, a runner-up in Season 18 of “The Voice”, plays Diva Donna and said that the show has personal meaning for her.
“I remember my first rehearsal here listening to some of the music and it instantly transported me back to my childhood,” Harris said. “I remember watching the video for ‘She Works Hard For The Money’. I was a child on my knees in front of the television and watching MTV videos during the time I was not supposed to be watching it. My mother just did not allow R&B in the house. She was very strict … So I was sneaking watching the videos … I remember just falling in love with Donna Summer. Being able to see someone who looked like me on television sing such iconic music that was really groundbreaking.”
Jahnay Star in “Summer”.
Summer’s voice had the range of a mezzo soprano which was a challenge for Harris’s contra alto. But from the first notes of “I Feel Love” it is clear that she mastered the part.
“This really pushes me to stretch and go into some of those registers that I haven’t always used on a regular basis,” Harris said. “But I love that because now I’m able to do that a lot more comfortably than before. It’s becoming a little more second nature to do it. I love that I get to discover even more layers of my own voice as I’ve been doing this.”
“Summer” is skillfully directed by Brittny Benai Smith who played the role of Diva Donna on the national Broadway Tour. In her director’s notes in the playbill Smith wrote, “This musical is more than a celebration of iconic music for me. It’s a portrait of a woman who changed the sound of a generation while remaining fiercely herself.”
Music is the foundation this show and Riverside uses an unorthodox pit orchestra with three keyboards, guitar and drums. Music director Carson Eubank leads this group through Summer’s hits using a program that matches the sound to the familiar records.
“When we chose the show, there’s a company called KeyboardTEK that has the rights to a lot of these shows that have orchestrations based on the records,” Eubank said. “These are shows where the audience comes with some expectation of knowing how this record sounds because they grew up with it.”
Jahnay Star is joined by the cast for a musical number.
The other feature of the programmed keyboard tracks is the accompanying click track. This is a metronome that only the musicians can hear which keeps all the music at a steady tempo and can also link to other technical parts of the production.
“What it allows us to do is help keep together dance numbers and maintain tempos, making sure it’s consistent night to night,” Eubank said. “It also opens up all these possibilities which we’ve only dipped our toe into which we’re starting to explore with Weston Corey who is doing the lighting. He’s able to hook up the lighting console to the click track. So based on a certain musical beat in the song he can put a lighting cue attached to that. It really can heighten and advance the technical things we’re doing.”
“Summer” is the first production at Riverside that will have a shorter run time. Previous shows had run for eight weeks and was extended for very popular shows like “The Sound Of Music”. Starting this year the average run will be six weeks.
“It will help consolidate our audience a little bit more,” Eubank said. “I know Patrick [A’Hearn, Riverside’s CEO and artistic director] is always saying that with an eight-week or 10-week run, people think they have so much time to see the show. And then it gets to the last two weeks and those are typically when everybody has already bought their tickets and availability is really low because everybody’s waiting until the last minute.”
Despite the awkward pacing in the second half of the show, “Summer” gives audiences a glimpse of the late disco queen’s life story and an excellent sampling of her music.
“They’ll see something that they can identify with; something that might make them absolutely emotional, make them cry, make them angry, but then also make them very happy,” Harris said. “It will make them escape from reality as well. So I’m really looking forward to having these moments with the audience each night.”
