As they had on the studio version, the members of British group Musical Youth joined Donna for "Unconditional Love." Summer's immense versatility shone through as she happily skipped from genre to genre without missing a beat.ĭonna explicitly revisited her theatrical roots in such musicals as Hair and Godspell by ascending a balcony for her performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita anthem "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" which she had also recorded for I'm a Rainbow. Summer made clear that this wasn't a mere nostalgia show as she followed "MacArthur Park" with a one-two punch of her recent singles, the bright reggae number "Unconditional Love" and urgently pulsating "Love Is in Control (Finger on the Trigger)." Continuing the show's emphasis on then-current material, she continued with the Flashdance soundtrack entry "Romeo" (recorded for her originally-scuttled I'm a Rainbow album, her final album with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte). Though the production design was low-tech and sparse compared to today's tour spectaculars, the singer more than made up for it with her incandescent presence. In the manner of a musical, the band wasn't visible for that half which featured various set pieces and costumes tailored to the songs the second set (from "Woman" on) was more in the manner of a traditional concert. Her lithe, slinky dancers were the first performers onstage, and the corps de ballet were periodically utilized throughout the first half of the show.
The roughly 90-minute concert (pared down to 77 minutes for its initial HBO broadcast and roughly 73 minutes on this CD/DVD combo) was staged as a theatrical spectacular with choreography by Broadway and West End luminary Arlene Phillips.
The venue was the then-recently opened Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California, holding approximately 18,000 cheering fans. The LP had arrived in stores a couple of months earlier, in June, but the superstar was already on the second leg of her successful tour. Now, that memorable concert dubbed A Hot Summer Night truly can be yours, as Driven by the Music and Crimson Productions have debuted it on CD and DVD as well as on a separate vinyl release.Ī Hot Summer Night, part of Summer's Hard for the Money tour, was filmed in the wake of the She Works Hard for the Money album release. "This isn't just my show.this is your show!" Donna Summer exclaimed during "MacArthur Park," the opening song of her Augconcert at Costa Mesa, California's Pacific Amphitheatre.