When the lovely Nadine offered to schlep down to the Pantages a few months back and pick up four tickets for "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical," Carrie, Joan and I raised our aging goddess disco hands in approval. Last night, we met up for a nice nosh and a sip of Pinot Grigio before planting our tushies in our cushy seats.
Then I opened the program, went "uh oh" and broke the news to the gals. "No intermission." A collective look of moderate panic washed over their gorgeous punims. One of us sprang up, headed up the aisle and came right back. Oh, the cruelty of it all. There wasn't enough time to hit the loo. In hindsight, a nearly two-hour musical with no intermission might've been a sign. Sometimes people leave at intermission and keep going. I'm just sayin'.
"Summer" is a crowd pleaser, a fun night out, entertaining, but as a show, so-so. There are three versions of Donna to keep track off, often on stage at the same time, a lot of "and then I did this, and then I did that" uninspired narration, and some really head-scratching, random song selections. Her dark times and troubled relationships, along with some Born Again controversies she sparked along the way, deserve exploration but appear like footnotes. Still, when the hits come, "Love To Love You Baby," "MacArthur Park," "On The Radio," "She Works Hard For The Money," "Hot Stuff" and "Last Dance," it's hard not to clap and sing along and get lost on memory lane.
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