As a girl, Marcia Hines was caught snooping in Donna Summer’s room. Now, she’s honouring her

When Marcia Hines became a star in Australia, Donna Summer – who grew up with her in Boston – offered her congratulations. But there was a time when the queen of disco considered Hines, who was thrice voted Australia’s queen of pop, to be a pest.

“I was best friends with Donna’s younger sister Linda,” Hines explains. “Donna was about four years older and, to us, she was the coolest chick in the world. Whenever she’d leave the house, Linda and I would go through her things and look at her clothes.”

The two teenagers made every attempt to cover their tracks – but their efforts were usually in vain. “You know how you can just tell if someone has touched your stuff?” Hines says. “Donna would know straight away. That’s why she hated us!”

Earlier this year Hines decided to craft a tribute to the woman who sold more than 130 million records globally. The result is a new show, Marcia Sings Summer, with special guest Casey Donovan, which tours nationally from October.

Just as Hines looked up to Summer, Donovan was inspired by Hines. At the age of 16, Donovan won the 2004 season of Australian Idol with the support and encouragement of Hines, who was a judge on the reality singing contest. “Back then a little seed was planted where I thought, ‘Maybe one day I’ll get to share the stage with Marcia’,” Donovan says. “Now, more than 20 years later, here we are.”

Hines was also 16 when she got her big break, boarding a plane for Harry M. Miller’s production of Hair in Sydney – which she understood to be in Austria. “The thing is, Americans didn’t learn much about Australia,” Hines told this masthead in 2023, “but I got here and realised this is the best country in the world.”

Hines, Donovan and Summer share another connection: all three rose through the ranks of musical theatre. Summer, for instance, appeared in European productions of Hair and Porgy and Bess; Hines made her name in the Australian versions of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar; and Donovan has starred in Chicago, Sister Act and Kimberly Akimbo.

“There’s nothing like a theatre upbringing,” Hines says. “I actually think that’s what made Donna such a charismatic performer.”

Donovan agrees: “There’s no other voice from that era that sounds like Donna’s voice. She had such a versatile range, which means she could do pop and disco and rock.”

Among the hits that Hines and Donovan will perform are Love to Love You Baby, I Feel Love, Hot Stuff, Bad Girls, Last Dance and Summer’s epic duet with Barbra Streisand, No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).

When Love to Love You Baby was released in 1975, the song, noted for its many erotic moans, was banned by broadcasters including the BBC.

“Donna actually hated the Love to Love You Baby stuff,” Hines says. “She probably dug it at the start but she didn’t want that to become her legacy. And she didn’t like fame at all.”

In the 1980s Summer was rumoured to have made homophobic remarks, the precise nature of which is unclear. “Some of my friends, all of whom have passed, heard her say [some upsetting things],” Hines says. “No matter which way you look at it, it was wrong.”

Summer later expressed her remorse, speaking out against homophobia and headlining several AIDS benefit concerts.

“I won’t say anything derogatory about Donna because the Donna I knew was a good chick,” Hines says. “That’s just part of life; we’ve all said shit we wish we hadn’t said.”

When asked about the enduring popularity of disco music – and its influence on artists such as Dua Lipa, Lizzo and Doja Cat – Donovan says, “It’s timeless because music, like fashion, ebbs and flows, but everything always comes back around.”

Hines adds: “Disco was just pure joy, honey, and that’s what we needed in the ’70s as we were coming out of the Vietnam War. What musicians do is to feel the pulse of what’s going on in the world and translate that in their own way. And I think, with everything going on right now, we need more of that joy.”

Marcia Sings Summer, with special guest Casey Donovan, starts on October 5 in Melbourne and will also play in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Tickets: marciahines.com/marcia-hines-live