The brilliant Lachanze (center) leads the talented cast in the musical telling of the story of the “Queen of Disco.”
The story of “The Queen of Disco” is laced with a stack of the most searing tunes that defined the genre and established Donna as Top 40 royalty in the ’70s and’80s!
The biographical musical tracks the Disco Diva’s rise to the top of the charts from her humble beginning as a church singer in Boston, through her early days as a struggling performer in Munich where she met her creative collaborator and producer, Giorgio Moroder to her soaring heights in dance-crazed “Me Decade” and beyond!
The tale is told through Donna’s soaring music and with the narration of one of three actresses who play the woman who was defined disco as much as The Beatles defined rock, 15 years before.
The audience is swept up in the music when they meet the dazzling LaChanze as “Disco Donna” the oldest and most wizened of the three Donnas and the narrator of her story.
“Heaven Knows,” to “No More Tears,”
We next encounter Ariana DuBose who seduces with her singing of Donna’s first and sexiest hit, “Love to Love You Baby,” before we meet the young, Storm Lever as young “Duckling Donna” who gives life to the brilliance she showed as a child!
Together, the three dazzle through a seemingly endless string of 20 Summer classics from “Heaven Knows,” to “No More Tears,” to the appropriate finale “Last Dance.”
Like her life which tragically ended far too soon from lung cancer in 2005, the only complaint I’d have with her music is that I wanted MORE.
While it touched on many of the key moments in her life, a more in-depth telling would have made this an even more enjoyable experience!
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical is playing at the historic Lunt-Fontanne Theatre at 205 West 46th Street
For tickets, go to http://thedonnasummermusical.com/tickets/
