Review: SUMMER - The Donna Summer Musical Brings The Diva's Story Home to Nashville

Moments before curtain for Tuesday's opening night performance of Summer - The Donna Summer Musical at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center, I was asked to name my favorite song by the disco diva who, in later years, made her home in Music City USA. At the time, I couldn't answer due to the fact that so many of her hits were playing in a continuous loop in my brain.

At that particular moment, I reckoned that sometime during the performance about to play out on the Andrew Jackson Hall stage that I would be better able to determine my number one favorite (not unlike the old Rate-a-Record segment on American Bandstand - ask Google to explain the reference if need be) and sure enough that moment came. Make no mistake about it, my favorite Donna Summer hit is "Dim All The Lights," even if there are three or four others vying for that title in my mind and memory. But thanks to a stunning performance by Charis Gullage, as Disco Donna, it clearly ranks first among equals.

Interestingly, Gullage's rendition of "Dim All The Lights" is given a slower, more somber presentation in the context of the jukebox musical - she sings it during the funeral for Neil Bogart in the show, joined by the company's Joyce Bogart (an equally strong-voiced Aubrey Young) - giving it more emotional heft and an almost heartrending pathos.

And while that is one of the true musical highlights of Summer - The Donna Summer Musical, it also focuses attention on the fact that the musical itself - or, rather, its problematic book - often seems unable to figure out how to focus the spotlight on its heroine. Taking a non-linear pathway through the story of the diva's life, Summer - The Donna Summer Musical is oftentimes confusing and sometimes perplexing, despite the fact that the musical score (attributed to Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Paul Jabara and "others" in the playbill) is wonderfully entertaining and certain to unleash a flood of memories for audience members of a certain vintage.

In retrospect, however, what else might be expected from the attempt to capture the spirit - the heart and soul, if you will - of a woman whose lifestory is full of contradictions and moments certain to make you wonder what she was all about. Rather than answer that probing question, the book writers (Colman Domingo, Robert Cary and Des McAnuff) seem determined to create an image of Summer as a music industry trailblazer, hardworking creative artist and flawed but loving mother which begs even more questions than a typical musical theater offering can answer in a scant two hours of onstage revelry and remembrance.

Summer fans of my generation (and my ilk, if you get my drift) will be heartened to know that the disco diva's career-threatening, off-handed remarks to a Cleveland, Ohio, audience about God "not making Adam and Steve" - an offensive tirade that cost Summer many of her most ardent fans - is given some consideration onstage. Diva Donna (Brittny Smith) attributes it to a bad joke gone awry and, in a rather emotional segment, laments the loss of fans and friends due to her poor choice of words and the decimation of the gay community by AIDS. That it comes at a time in the show in which Summer's evangelistic religious fervor is front and center, however, makes it seem almost as incongruent and difficult as the real-life events that inspired the scene. Still, I'll give credit to the script writers, particularly Domingo, for tackling that particularly prickly subject.

Suffice it to say that even if you leave Summer - The Donna Summer Musical with heart-thumping disco rhythms pulsing through your veins and a certain lightness in your steps that you're apt to find some nagging questions to deal with before coming to the realization that her story may not be unique, nor special enough to warrant such theatrical treatment and veneration.

Directed by Lauren L. Sobon, with choreography by Natalie Caruncho (after McAnuff's original direction for the Broadway run and Sergio Trujillo's original choreography), the national touring company delivers a pleasant enough diversion and a nice respite from two years without much theater to savor. You certainly cannot fault the performances of the multi-talented cast, who sing, dance and emote their way through the promised "concert of a lifetime," but can't quite elevate the troublesome script into the stratosphere no matter how game they are for an adventure.

Joining the aforementioned Gullage, who portrays the disco queen Summer, are Brittny Smith as "the Diva Donna" of the songstress' later years, and Amahri Edwards-Jones as "Duckling Donna," the homegrown version of Summers who delights in putting on living room floor shows for family, friends and neighbors. Having the three women portray Summers at various times of her life is an intelligent theatrical conceit and each of the women delivers the goods with style and panache (even if Gullage does the heavy lifting required by the busiest years of Summer's career track) and, perhaps surprisingly, they are ideally cast, managing to deliver heartfelt and authentic performances.

Among the men in the cast, Porter Lee Anderson III (known to Tennessee theater-goers for his performances earlier in his career at Cumberland County Playhouse) is quite good as her doting, if stern and strict, father; John Guaragna is convincing as musician (and later her husband) Bruce Sudano; and Christopher Lewis is sometimes unctuous and manipulative as Neil Bogart, but the shared connection with Summer is readily apparent.

Robert Andrew Kovach's scenic design is clever and imaginative, while Russell A. Thompson's lighting design presents the cavalcade of musical moments the perfect illumination and captures the disco era with precise artistry, while the projection designs of Chris McCleary whisk the settings from one part of the world to another with elan. Paul Tazewell's costumes are right on the money (he styles the different Donna personas in royal blue that enhances the beauty of each of his three leading actors) and when the entire company takes the stage for the finale - the very appropriate "Last Dance" - they truly are turned out in glittery perfection. And particular notice must be given to the wig and hair design by Brandon T. Miller that is nothing short of terrific.

Sobon's direction keeps the action moving at a brisk pace and the show's playing time of one hour and 45 minutes really does fly by, thanks to her attention to onstage movement and transitions. Likewise, Caruncho's energetic and stylized choreography perfectly captures the tone, look and feel of the disco era, adding a fillip of theatrical pizzazz to ensure the audience is thoroughly delighted from start to finish.

Summer - The Donna Summer Musical. Presented by Broadway at TPAC at Andrew Jackson Hall, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, Nashville. Music by Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Paul Jabara and others. Book by Colman Domingo, Robert Cary and Des McAnuff. Directed by Lauren L. Sobon. Choreographed by Natalie Caruncho. Musical direction by Erika R. Gamez. Music coordination by JP Meyer. Through Sunday, March 27. For ticket information, go to www.tpac.org or call (615) 782-4040. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes, with no intermission.