Directing Projects
Berklee NYC Writing & Design for Musical Theatre Showcase for New Musicals 2023
“Ella, First Lady of Song,” written and directed by Lee Summers, starring the legendary Freda Payne – 2022
“Lee Summers found a successful way to tell Ella Fitzgerald’s story without replicating Billie Holliday’s story via Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. ” –by Nicholas Pontolillo Broadway World Aug. 28, 2022
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“Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical,” directed by Lee Summers for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival – 2022
“A Great Day in Harlem” by Alexandra Maria Vollero & Dionne Hendrick – Berklee College – 2022
Film Short: “Something Special” – Madison Theatre, Rockville Centre, NY – 2021
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Film Short: “The Match” – Madison Theatre, Rockville Centre, NY – 2021
“Storm – A Virtual Tribute to Timothy Graphenreed,” produced by NYU/Steinhardt Department of Music & Performing Arts Professions, concept and direction by Lee Summers – 2021
“Harriet – An Original Musical” [Covid Cancellation] Grande Theatre, Salt Lake City, NV – 2020
Lee Summers performs a wonderful and refreshingly unique and endearing tribute to my Dad!
(From My Hometown)…captures the spirit of Hitsville USA…
From My Hometown packs in more than 30 songs, including a tribute to the many “Three Man Groups” who paved the way for the breakthrough R&B, soul, funk and Motown acts.
An Energetic and Effervescing Summer Sensation – the high octane musical FROM MY HOMETOWN.
It’s a show that takes you to a musical time past, and the cast succeeds. It’s fun, fast-paced and well-sung.
They’re throwing a party at the American Heartland Theatre. Every night. It’s called From My Hometown…
FROM MY HOMETOWN is a success in virtually every department, largely because its creators have kept things streamlined and simple.
Exuberant and so full of life! (The creators) deserve high praise for knowing what it takes to get an audience on a musical high.
A marvelous trip down R&B memory lane … A great time at the theatre. There are too many fabulous songs to list them all; you have to go see it and experience the show!
FROM MY HOMETOWN hustles faster than any show in New York … The appeal of the show is the chance to hear your favorite tunes sung just the way they sound on the radio. Make no mistake, together, the trio could bring down the house.
You’d have to be stone cold dead not to find yourself tapping your feet and ‘putting your hands together’ during the R&B numbers. HOMETOWN is a fun, rousing evening.
Scads of sweet music and a charismatic cast elevate FROM MY HOMETOWN … A selection of great old songs.
FROM MY HOMETOWN is similar to Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp’s Moving Out – except in this terrific show, the dancers and singers are the same people.
A high energy, low maintenance roof raiser. The feel-good pocket musical features three dynamite performers. This sassy, soulful show must not be allowed to skip town at the end of its all-too-brief run.
Beginning at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, this paean to a more melodic time in popular music is a double dip into nostalgia. …A story of hope, struggle, friendship…ultimate triumph…
The song list glides through everything from “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” and “Sweet Georgia Brown” to selections from the “Songbook” albums Fitzgerald recorded celebrating great composers such as Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, and Rodgers and Hart.
The Funkentine Rapture is a delightful romp through an era and it’s music. Truly original, it evokes the spirit of Funk and Harlem of the 70’s as well as any jukebox musical ever could. In fact better. I highly recommend it.
…Three incredibly talented young men, are on stage for 90 minutes delivering the most tantalizing music and dancing from the past and present. The setting is the Big Apple, mostly in and around the Apollo Theater. The band is as good as it gets…
Lee Summers incorporation of the band being used as ensemble members was as brilliant as John Doyle using his Sweeney Todd ensemble as the pit orchestra. I was also moved by Lee’s brilliant timely direction of Ms. Payne’s performance of Hoagy Carmichael and Ned Washington’s “The Nearness of You”.
“On Kentucky Avenue” Lee Summers, AUDELCO Award for “Best Director of a Musical” & winner, “Best Musical” – Aaron Davis Hall, City College – 2018
Writer/Director Lee Summers’ “The Funkentine Rapture” at 54 Below -2017
“A Raisin in the Sun” for Harlem Repertory Theatre
“Accapella The Musical” for NYMF, NYC
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Summers, Writer/Director of “The Funkentine Rapture” starring Billy Porter in NAMT 2005, NYC
Summers directs Brian Whitted’s “What’s It All About” starring LaChanze, Adriane Lenox, Marva Hicks, Amber Iman, and others
Writer/Director Lee Summers’ “From My Hometown” at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre
Lee Summers is a member of SDC.
