Disco music has seen better weeks.
Broadway’s “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” — which features a disco-heavy score, including Donna Summer, Thelma Houston and more, will close on June 24, the show;s producers announced Wednesday. Erie’s Nick Adams has a starring role in the show.
Then, disco queen Donna Summer, 63, died today of cancer..
“Priscilla” opened on Broadway in March 2011 and will have played 526 performances, according to the New York Times. It was based on the 1994 film “The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.” Adams played Adam/Felicia, the same role Guy Pearce played on film. “Priscilla” won the 2011 Tony for Best Costumes. It featured more than 500 over-the-top glitzy costumes, including dancing cupcakes. Adams made more than 23 costume changes during the glittery show.
“We are greatly saddened to say goodbye to Priscilla but we are joyous by the amount of people who have been touched by our production and embraced its message,” Adams told me by e-mail. “Its always unfortunate when a show comes to an end, but I am forever grateful for this experience and the wonderful ride it has been. I will survive!”
Despite the end of the Broadway run, the show will live on, however. A national tour begins in January and will play Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
Summer was one of the biggest disco divas of the 1970s with seminal hits such as “I Feel Love,” “Love to Love You Baby,” “She Works Hard for the Money” and “Hot Stuff.” She also earned five Grammy Awards.
“How to Train Your Dragon” — the live show? Believe it. The folks who put together the surprise-hit arena tour “Walking with Dinosaurs” has turned the film into a, uh, large-scale show complete with 23 flying, fire-breathing, smoke-spewing dragons. The show will hit Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center (Aug 22-26); Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena (Sept. 5-9); and Buffalo’s First Niagara Center (Sept 19-23). On-sale dates will be announced soon.
Train has its third Top 10 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100. “Drive-By” inches up to No. 10, joining previous hits “Drops of Jupiter” (No. 5 in 2001) and “Hey, Soul Sister” (No. 3 in 2010). Billboard says the latter song is still the top-selling digital downloaded rock song with 5.9 million.
“Drive By” took 18 weeks to reach the Top 10. It peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s adult contemporary chart.
Train shoots the video for its next single Friday in Echo Park, Calif. In a previous interview with Showcase, Pat Monahan said the next single would be “50 Ways to Say Goodbye,” a catchy, Latin-flavored song from “California 37.”
Train, by the way, has recorded an unlikely cover — “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” as a salute to the late Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. They posted the video on their web site, www.trainline.com.
