Summer - The Donna Summer Musical Reviews

MD Theatre Guide- Recommended

"...The best part of juke box bios like "Summer - The Donna Summer Musical" is that most of the music is very familiar to the audience. Songs like "Love to Love You, Baby" and "On the Radio" take us back to the Disco era when we finally ended a long war and dancing and fashion were big parts of young people's lives once again. Donna Summer is considered the Queen of Disco. She not only performed some of the most memorable hits from the era, she wrote most of her own music. She was sexy but not profane, risque but not raunchy."

The Beacon- Highly Recommended

"...The musical tells the story of Summer’s life from her early days in Boston with six siblings, to her days leading to international stardom — the good and the bad. Although you’ll recognize most of the songs, you may not know much about her life."

Hotchka- Highly Recommended

"...The show uses Summer’s songs in different ways, with some of them performed as she was performing them in a studio or on stage, while others are used to punctuate a moment in her life. One song, ‘She Works Hard for the Money’ serves a double purpose as a song she owed her record company after an acrimonious split, but also as an anthem for all the women in the world who had to struggle to make their way in a man’s world. There are some interesting tidbits about some of her other songs, such as who Donna’s record label wanted to give ‘Bad Girls’ to but she fought to record it herself."

DC Theater Arts- Somewhat Recommended

"...There is an unfortunate disconnect with Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, now playing at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia. The actors/waitstaff and technical crew work tremendously hard for the money — akin to Summer’s landmark 1983 #1 hit — yet the show has an inherent weakness that even this talented artistic and technical staff cannot overcome."