Deborah Wilker

“For the longest time people had me convinced there was something wrong with this music.” So goes the lament of Donna Summer — five-time Grammy winner, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Queen of Disco — and the latest icon to receive the stage musical treatment. In writer-director Des McAnuff’s Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, world-premiering at La Jolla Playhouse, it’s her mistreatment that’s hammered home. Men abuse, managers steal, cancer comes calling, but worst of all, her art is derided. This retelling of Summer’s life, which reportedly is aiming for Broadway next season, not only examines an ebullient era […]