"Ordinary Girl" - the Donna Summer musical

[greensgreens]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 2:27pm

Sad that she passed today. In my reflection, I remember her having written a number of songs for this. Junior Vasquez produced "My Life," which she performed at her "Live and More Encore" show in the late 90s. In her patter leading up to the song, she talked briefly about its place within her musical. Does anyone know much more about this? "My Life" is such a fabulous song and many of the other songs she has written are so theatrical, it seems like this would be/have been a great show. Were there any workshops or more demos or something of that sort?

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 2:58pm

Here's an article from 1999.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/44523-Concert-Tour-Pushes-Donna-Summers-Ordinary-Girl-Musical-Back-to-2000

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/17/12 at 3:04pm

She Works Hard for the Money? Last Dance? Heaven Knows? Love to Love You Baby. No More Tears. Once Upon a Time. I Feel Love. This Time I Know it's for Real....

[lupone76]

Posted: 5/18/12 at 12:57am

GreensGreens, I remember loving and dancing to that remix on Junior's dance floor on a Sunday morning/afternoon at the Twilo Club. Those were the days! Donna Summer RIP...

[RainbowJude]

Posted: 5/18/12 at 1:05am

greensgreens wrote: Sad that she passed today.... Does anyone know much more about [ORDINARY DAYS]?

EricMontreal22 is likely to know more about this. He's an expert on Donna Summer.

And, yes, RIP Ms Summer. You were a legend.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/18/12 at 2:26am

Some might think I'm an irritant, but all I know of the end game with project is what Donna recorded at PWL Studios as a demo, My Life which is a great, Last Dance clone is the best of the bunch. I think there's something to be mined in her song catalog, but this project really was not it.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/18/12 at 3:35pm

To me, the problem with any disco musical is that I don't see the appeal of listening to dance music, including disco, without moving.

PRISCILLA is fine on the screen because we usually only hear parts of songs or other things are happening during full songs (and they do interrupt the disco with other kitsch from the 70s). But as for the stage version, frankly, I was bored by the end of the Tony Awards number.

ABBA may be the only exception, but I'm not sure that qualifies as "dance music".

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 5/18/12 at 4:56pm

Disco fans have been known to get quite upset when ABBA (or the BeeGees) are called a disco group, though both definitely dealt in the genre. To be fair, Donna has a number of killer ballads and later in her life was writing a lot of country (! she also wrote the Dolly Parton hit, Starting Over Again), so it wouldn't have to be all disco by any means.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/18/12 at 6:02pm

^^^Wow! You are the expert!. I don't think of Abba as disco, either, but I remember that Abba was usually mixed in when one went to a club in those days.

Eric, do you know Helen O'Connell's disco cover of her 1940's rendition of Johnny Mercer's "Tangerine"? That was a favorite of mine, probably because it was actually a standard.

BTW, when I said I'm not a fan of sitting and listening to dance music, I meant "dance music" as a sort of super-genre of music designed for discotheques from the 1970s until today, usually written with a heavy emphasis on the beat.

I do realize that ballet and musical theater have music written to accompany dancing, but to my ear, that's very different than the endless repetition of what they play at the White Party.