Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
About the show
After an extended run in La Jolla, the new musical about the 70s disco queen hits Broadway with a score featuring more than 20 of Summer’s classic hits including “Love to Love You, Baby;” “Bad Girls” and “Hot Stuff."
... Read moreShe was a girl from Boston with a voice from heaven, who shot through the stars from gospel choir to dance floor diva. But what the world didn’t know was how Donna Summer risked it all to break through barriers, becoming the icon of an era, and the supreme queen for every diva who followed. Directed by Tony Winner Des McAnuff ('Jersey Boys').
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Details
March 28th - April 22nd
Monday - Thursday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $79 (reg. $99)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $48
Friday - Sunday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $89 (reg. $109)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $58
April 24th - July 8th
Tuesday - Thursday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $89 (reg. $99)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $48
Friday - Sunday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $99 (reg. $109)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $58
Terms
Prices include a $2 facility fee per ticket purchased. Ticketmaster service fees for each ticket applicable to online or phone orders. Discount not applicable to facility fee or Ticketmaster service fees. Offer not valid on prior purchased tickets and may not be combined with any other discounts or promotions. ALL SALES FINAL. No refunds or exchanges. Not all seats discounted. Other restrictions may apply. Dates, times, prices and cast subject to change without notice. Offer valid for all performances 03/2/18-07/08/18 excluding: 04/23/18. Additional blackout dates may apply. Offer may be revoked without notice at any time. Limit 11 tickets per order. Tickets must be purchased by 04/22/18 at 11:59PM **$48 and $58 tickets are full price & not discounted.
Details
Monday - Thursday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $79 (reg. $99)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $48
Friday - Sunday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $89 (reg. $109)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $58
April 24th - July 8th
Tuesday - Thursday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $89 (reg. $99)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $48
Friday - Sunday:
Select Orchestra & Mezzanine Seats from $99 (reg. $109)
Select Rear Mezzanine Seats from $58
Terms
Prices include a $2 facility fee per ticket purchased. Ticketmaster service fees for each ticket applicable to online or phone orders. Discount not applicable to facility fee or Ticketmaster service fees. Offer not valid on prior purchased tickets and may not be combined with any other discounts or promotions. ALL SALES FINAL. No refunds or exchanges. Not all seats discounted. Other restrictions may apply. Dates, times, prices and cast subject to change without notice. Offer valid for all performances 03/2/18-07/08/18 excluding: 04/23/18. Additional blackout dates may apply. Offer may be revoked without notice at any time. Limit 11 tickets per order. Tickets must be purchased by 04/22/18 at 11:59PM. $48 and $58 tickets are full price & not discounted.
Details
Mezzanine seats are $75 (reg. $99)
Terms
Fees are $9.75 per ticket and $3.20 per order, but that’s the standard charge on all tickets. Book by April 19. Prices include a $2 facility fee per ticket purchased. Ticketmaster service fees for each ticket applicable to online or phone orders. Discount not applicable to facility fee or Ticketmaster service fees. Offer not valid on prior purchased tickets and may not be combined with any other discounts or promotions. All sales final. No refunds or exchanges. Not all seats discounted. Other restrictions may apply. Dates, times, prices and cast subject to change without notice. Offer valid for all performances April 2-19. Additional blackout dates may apply. Offer may be revoked without notice at any time. Limit 11 tickets per order. Tickets must be purchased by April 19 at 11:59 p.m.
Details
March 28 - April 22, 2018
Mondays - Thursdays
$79 Select Orchestra & Mezzanine
Fridays - Sundays
$89 Select Orchestra & Mezzanine
April 24 - July 8, 2018
Mondays - Thursdays
$89 Select Orchestra & Mezzanine
Fridays - Sundays
$99 Select Orchestra & Mezzanine
Terms
Prices include a $2 facility fee per ticket purchased. Ticketmaster service fees for each ticket applicable to online or phone orders. Discount not applicable to facility fee or Ticketmaster service fees. Offer not valid on prior purchased tickets and may not be combined with any other discounts or promotions. ALL SALES FINAL. No refunds or exchanges. Not all seats discounted. Other restrictions may apply. Dates, times, prices and cast subject to change without notice. Offer valid for all performances 03/28/18-07/08/18 excluding: 04/23/18. Additional blackout dates may apply. Offer may be revoked without notice at any time. Limit 11 tickets per order. Tickets must be purchased by 04/22/18 at 11:59PM.
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Show-Score Offers
"Summer’s voice was one of the greatest, and most distinctive, of her era, and when you hear LaChanze and DeBose singing her songs, your mind may click over to the recorded versions Summer herself made immortal, and note the discrepancy, distancing yourself from the musical...Summer’s big disco hits do not lend themselves to the depiction of her life story. They mostly feel shoehorned in with a crowbar." Full Review
"Three talented and blameless women—LaChanze, Ariana DeBose and Storm Lever—play the late Donna Summer...At its most watchable, the show plays like a barely dramatized adaptation of Summer’s Spotify and Wikipedia pages. But when it’s bad, it’s so, so bad...There is also a smattering of bathetic TV-movie dialogue. The general level of befuddled kitsch is raised by the bizarre background presence of a nearly all-female ensemble." Full Review
"Despite the exciting vocalism of a cast led by the formidable LaChanze, it reduces the late Queen of Disco and pioneer of electronica to a few factoids and song samples that make her seem profoundly inconsequential...I found myself asking throughout the show’s intermission-less 100 minutes: Can’t they do any better than this?...The show over all skitters away from almost everything even slightly awkward or troubling — and thus interesting — about Ms. Summer’s life and career." Full Review
"The joyful disco extravaganza shakes up the recipe just enough to remind us that there's more than one way to get flavor out of the Broadway biomusical. Having women as phenomenally talented as the three sharing the title role spices things up as well...Cuts the self-seriousness with a little light-hearted camp, and allows the audience to see a world ruled by powerful white men without creating another Broadway show filled to the brim with…white men." Full Review
"It’s probably inaccurate to say that most theatergoers would be disappointed by 'Summer: The Donna Summer Musical'; – because few would expect much in the first place from yet another commercial bio drama jukebox musical. That it falls short of its potential is only surprising because of the creative team behind it...'Summer' touches on any of this (if at all) — along with almost everything else about her life — as if checking off biographical nuggets culled from a Wikipedia entry." Full Review
"A feebly dramatized Wikipedia page with lackluster covers...This dramaturgically inept show either short-changes or outright massacres Summer's music; undervalues her achievements...completely fails to contextualize her legacy; glosses over her massive gay fan base; and rams its female-empowerment message down your throat...More like a 'Saturday Night Live' parody of a jukebox musical...The hack-job direction is matched by Sergio Trujillo's bland choreography." Full Review
"LaChanze lends a dynamic leading presence, including a big voice and a weathered, but unfazed and jocular attitude...Director Des McAnuff has some interesting ideas, including the nonlinear structure and having women playing many of the male roles, commenting on gender roles and inequality. But for the most part, the show is rough in form, rushed in pace, sanitized in content, superficial in characterization and self-glorifying in tone." Full Review
"A valedictory experience, not an honest story, only tolerable for die-hard fans...Summer’s music is perfect for this treatment by Des McAnuff: her voice came with perfect pitch and a driving, irony-free intensity that was, in its disco moment, peerless...It is a cliche for critics to announce about musicals with less-than-distinguished books, and this is one such show with an especially egregious hole in Act 2, that the audience didn’t care...The audience did not just respond to the music, i... Full Review
"It took three writers for the bummer of a script for this show at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Fortunately, Summer's numerous dance-o-licious high-energy hits are still as contagious and irresistible as ever...The show actually gets off to a groovy start in every sense...But 'Summer' soon gives off a chill with its formulaic, finesse-free stream of trauma, triumph, tragedy — repeat...McAnuff's staging, meanwhile, is superslick but miscalibrated." Full Review
"Only LaChanze has the experience, commanding presence, and powerhouse vocal cords to convince us that Donna Summer was a force to be reckoned with...If only director Des McAnuff had made an effort to come up with a less generic production and a better script than the culled-from-Wikipedia one...Even diehard fans who are willing to put up with the lame script will be disappointed when they find that many of the 23 songs in the program are offered up as truncated excerpts." Full Review
"Since 'Summer' is very much a concert, the songs don’t help to tell the story. They do help to break up the monotony, not that the music itself is in any way varied...Visually, 'Summer' provides a few gems...Unfortunately, Trujillo and McAnuff’s handling of the three Donnas looks downright lame. Three little white boxes keep popping up from the stage floor, raising each performer a few feet higher or letting each of them sink out of sight at the switch of a button." Full Review
"Admittedly provides a strong showcase for the three fabulous females who share the title role...And (perhaps this goes without saying) if you have fond memories of the decade when Summer’s tunes dominated the charts, you will enjoy the opportunity to hear these songs all again. Otherwise, quite sadly, 'Summer' is the musical of our discontent: a sloppily assembled 100-minute tuner with the depth of a Wikipedia entry, a shaky structure, and a rather shocking lack of imagination." Full Review
"There's no shortage of vocal talent in 'Summer: The Donna Summer Musical' — and that's the best thing I can say about the jukebox musical detailing the life of singer/songwriter Donna Summer...It's all glossed over in a rudimentary paint-by-the-numbers presentation. And the narrative structure, bouncing back-and-forth in time, prevents us from gaining a clear sense of Summer's career progression and accomplishments." Full Review
"Thanks to the swift, smart construction of 'Summer,' which neither overburdens its material nor overstays its welcome, it’s a pretty damn good time. 'Summer’s' book is sometimes predictable, sometimes sentimental, and every so often pushes unsubtly on its central image. But it’s also uptempo, fluently interwoven with the show’s songs, and often genuinely funny...Has its dips...All in all, though, 'Summer' does well at moving us through both the bright and dark spots in its hero’s life." Full Review
"You’ll forgive librettists Colman Domingo, Robert Cary and director Des McAnuff for their lamer lines and more awkward transitions, and be sucked into the sheer joy generated by a woman who still doesn’t get enough credit for repeatedly defying expectations, boundaries, and stereotypes...If there’s some hokum here, McAnuff smartly avoids getting mired in the darker aspects of Summer’s story; that approach wouldn’t suit the form." Full Review
"Staged with ruthless efficiency by director Des McAnuff...The tracks are largely distributed between three ages of Summer, which is a clever way of sharing the load. The staging is far more glossy than gritty, though, with furiously busy projections by Sean Nieuwenhuis setting the ever-changing scene. But I’m not sure this amiable show – more slick Las Vegas revue than a fully-functioning musical – will be remembered next week, let alone forever." Full Review
"Little more than a glorified concert...The timeline, from early days in recording studios, to abusive husbands and ministers, to bouts of depression and grave illness, is hard to follow, bouncing illogically over the years. Further confusing things, LaChanze sometimes takes on the role of Summer's mom...What saves all this, of course, is the celebration of the music...There are moments of pure emotion in the show." Full Review
"Each number proceeds the same way: There is a plot development interpolated into a song; the song ends and that chapter is over, never to be mentioned again...There are 23 Summer hits here, in an intermission-less 100 minutes or so, and McAnuff, with the choreographer Sergio Trujillo, stages the hell out of them...'Summer' is a musical that throughout seems to want you to have a great time but also slightly misses the mark." Full Review
"Delivers the seasonal sunshine. It just doesn’t also bring a whole lotta depth...Of course, the music is terrific; Donna Summer isn’t the undisputed Queen of Disco for nothing. But this production lives or dies on the shoulders of its three Donnas — and they are incredible...Toe-tappingly familiar songs, stellar performances, shiny costumes, and a reminder of the impact of its subject on the music industry at large. It’s also a little thin on story." Full Review
"As unimaginative as its title...Cooks up some excitement during the musical performances of hits, but mostly the songs come off as well-delivered covers, evoking little of the subversive, decadent ecstasy of the Studio 54 era...The book’s shallow treatment of even the most serious events – is one-upped by the distraction of having many of the minor (and a few not so minor) male characters played by the female chorus ensemble, in campy, sketch-comedy drag." Full Review
"Borderline incoherent. It turns a complex woman’s life into a hagiography, a slide show of events minus context or emotion...You’d think the songs would redeem this show...But some of the tunes hereare hard to enjoy. Des McAnuff, who gives us more ups and downs than a heart monitor, directed this mess...He seems to have Scotch-taped together some wonky ideas." Full Review
"You must resign yourself to the fact that this is a musical with little plot and no substance and when you inevitably must learn to sit giddily in the delusional comforts of a musical made for Donna’s sake and Donna’s sake only...It may look like a perfect installation of the vacancies and cringe-worthy clichés that plague jukebox musicals. Its design may seem to hinge on a few painfully repetitive gags...Yet, somehow by the end of the musical, I was on my feet, silly with laughter." Full Review
See it if You love the music of Donna Summer (even though several songs are truncated) and can hold out for the final two numbers
Don't see it if You want a well written story. The book is horrendous and jumps around Donna’s life without any real purpose. Major events are glossed over.
Also Events that made and ruined her career are only alluded to. Very unsat... Read more Read less
See it if her songs are timeless...but unfortunately, this show is not. LaChanze's performance is the best thing in this show.Great singing,weak plot.
Don't see it if You are expecting a work of outstanding artistry, profound or thought-provoking.
See it if you want to enjoy some incredible singing - all three women who play Donna (at various stages of her life) have powerful voices.
Don't see it if great singing and a generally interesting bio are not enough. Structurally flawed. And something 100 minutes long shouldn't feel long.
See it if You will see anything w Donna’s music& like shows w no intermission.
Don't see it if Appreciate a well written book of a musical, love her music but this was disappointing...
See it if Someone pays you a very large sum of money to see it. If you get a comp to this musical, you're still spending too much.
Don't see it if You have even the remotest sense of taste, quality or self respect. I have never, ever been so shocked by how horrible something was.
Also Truly, words can't describe how bad this musical is. The writing is th... Read more Read less
See it if you love the disco era, or learning about artists'/celebrities' lives
Don't see it if you're looking for an incredibly strong plot/acting show; you're not into flashy shows
See it if You are a fan of Donna Summer & want more of a concert of her greatest hits. All 3 Donnas are superb. Great vocals/dancing/female ensemble.
Don't see it if You want a strong book/want to know more about her life; they brushed over a lot. More of a concert than a musical.
Also Least favorite line was said right at the beginning: If you wanna sing... Read more Read less
See it if You want a fun, entertaining night at the theatre. You want AMAZING singing, esp. from LaChanze & Ariana DeBose. You like Donna Summer.
Don't see it if You want deep insight into Donna Summer's life. It's breezy snippets that aren't addressed in detail. You hate disco and/or Donna Summer.
See it if you enjoy jukebox musicals with Donna Summer hit songs. The cast is very talented and the audience was really rockin' and rollin'.
Don't see it if you're expecting an insightful biographical story about the life of Donna Summer OR you don't like the disco music of Donna Summer.
Also This was a show that I had not intended to see since I was fully aware... Read more Read less
See it if You want to enjoy Donna Summer’s hits & some fabulous costumes! Ariana DeBose was the standout star! LaChanze was stunning as Donna! So gay!
Don't see it if You aren’t up for some disco beat, some sparkle, lots of women playing men and a very quick span of Donna Summer’s life story.
See it if You love disco music and Donna Summer.
Don't see it if You want a good story and want to care about it.
See it if You love the music of Donna Summer.
Don't see it if You are expecting a good, cohesive story line.
See it if you are a Summer fan, or love LaChance. She is fabulous! Audience was singing along & cheering. Loved that it's an almost all female cast.
Don't see it if you aren't a Summer fan. Story feels glossy and romanticized. Great music. Loved that they had individual bows for the hard working ensemble
Also This is an ambitious project to take on such an icon with 3 actresses.... Read more Read less
See it if this is your music & you're the show's target audience. Great music as expected but the songs are chopped-up & smashed together haphazardly.
Don't see it if you expect to learn anything new about Donna. The book is terribly weak & flippantly throws mostly negative tidbits at us for 1hr & 40min.
Also I was SO looking forward to "Summer".... Read more Read less
See it if You are looking for a good time and are a fan of Summer and her music. Ariana Debose & LaChanz are amazing. Lots of fun!
Don't see it if If you want 'high art' or highfalutin theater. This is a Donna Summer greatest hits show. It's not groundbreaking but it doesn't need to be.
See it if you want to see a cast work hard for the money trying to inject some hot stuff into a tepid, reductive bio of a legend who deserves better.
Don't see it if you expect to love to love it, baby. It's just bad, girls. Heaven knows what they intended, but they'll dim all the lights on this show soon
Also Of special note is an utterly ridiculously staged domestic violence sc... Read more Read less
See it if you loved her music, and want to go back in time to your Disco years
Don't see it if you are expecting a tony-winning show. Singers and music is great.....story not so great
See it if you love disco and the music of Donna Summer sung incredibly by three powerhouse performers.
Don't see it if you need a more in depth and nuanced look at the life of Donna Summer.
See it if If you love Donna Summer’s music or the disco era.
Don't see it if Very little coherent back story. It is a vehicle for Summer’s music.
See it if you like Donna Summer’s music, disco, are nostalgic for the 70’s and early 80’s, like La Chanz, like biopics.
Don't see it if you don’t like her music, disco, biopics, uncomfort situations w/ mild depictions of domestic violence & a nod toward sexual abuse of child
See it if you would be happy hearing good singers sing the songs of Donna Summer and you don't care about the story or any other aspects of the show
Don't see it if you want a well-written show, a good book, any meaningful real history of Donna Summer's life, or a coherent production.
See it if you love Donna Summer songs in a show that has a confusing, disjointed story that lacks emotional highs, with run of the mill dancing.
Don't see it if you just want to hear Donna Summer songs and avoid the fluff of a disjointed story line that wants you hungering just to hear the songs.
See it if This show provides the best vocal performances by females of the Broadway season, even though it comes from a bit clumsy jukebox musical.
Don't see it if One forgets what a talented song writer Donna Summer was, because the music holds up rather well. The production and execution are slick.
See it if Donna Summer fan, disco music lover, want to dance & sing along, experience the hits in person, confetti storm at finale would thrill you
Don't see it if disco music, last dances, working hard for the money, jukebox biopics, would drive you insane
Cast & Creatives (34)
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