The 63-year-old singer – who died of cancer in 2012 – and her husband Bruce Sudano had previously collaborated on a stage project about her life, but the show was to tell a story with original songs.
However, Bruce, 68, has revealed there have been some changes to the upcoming show in order to include his late wife’s biggest hits, such as ‘Hot Stuff’ and ‘On the Radio’.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “It’s something that over the years, Donna along with myself and a couple of other writers worked on an original musical called ‘Ordinary Girl’ – which is also the title of her autobiography – and it was a musical of all original music that told her life story, but we had a very difficult time selling it because everybody wanted the Donna Summer hits, so this show that what we’re doing now is telling Donna Summer’s life story using many of the famous songs and a few obscure ones so it’s definitely a story that she wanted to be told.”
The production will open in California later this year, with the hope of it eventually transferring to the iconic theatre districts of New York’s Broadway and London’s West End.
Bruce added: “The show is really shaping up great. It’s going to be a great musical. It’s being directed by Des McAnuff, who is the person that directed ‘Tommy’ and ‘Jersey Boys’ and I’m working in close collaboration with him on the show.
“The goal is to either get to the West End in London or Broadway, so these shows were doing in the fall are part of this tweaking process because in that kind of situation you’re improving things and tweaking things all the time, it’s a never ending process.”
Bruce Sudano’s album ’21st Century World’ is out on June 2.