Jerry Limone
When the Norwegian Prima debuted in August 2022, the cruise line version of "The Donna Summer Musical" also debuted. It was the ship's headline entertainment.
Two years later, the Donna Summer show has had its last dance at sea: Norwegian Cruise Line dropped the Broadway-style musical. And Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Harry Sommer talked about it at CruiseWorld in Fort Lauderdale earlier this month in the context of the company's "return on experience" ethos -- a philosophy of delivering great experiences for guests in an efficient manner.
In keeping with the Donna Summer theme, NCL had to work too hard for the money.
"The Donna Summer show was so complicated," Sommer said during the CruiseWorld interview with editor in chief Arnie Weissmann. "We needed a full-time wig master."
The wig master got sick during one cruise, and the show did not go on.
"We had to take the show down," Sommer said. "The show shouldn't be that temperamental that having one person get sick for a week takes down the entertainment for a week. We said, we're not going to do that anymore. We're going to put on shows where if one person is sick the rest of the cast can step up so we can provide wonderful entertainment for our guests."
Donna Summer isn't alone: Adaptations of "Kinky Boots," "Six" and "Footloose" are no more. NCL last year decided to do an entertainment overhaul, opting for fewer Broadway-style shows and more shows that are developed in-house.
Bringing Broadway-style shows aboard NCL ships had been a passion at the cruise line, but guests weren't necessarily passionate about watching them, Sommer said.
"We found that guests liked the non-Broadway shows better," he said. "I could give you a number of reasons why, and you might say, 'Well, that's not true, you guys are just making that up.' "I promise you. I'll show you the guest-satisfaction scores. It is 100% true."
Sommer suggested that maybe NCL-produced shows are "a little bit shorter, a little bit more lively. Maybe the shows on Broadway today are a little bit long and convoluted."
His words rang true to an extent -- at least for me. Last year, my daughter and I watched "We Will Rock You," a musical featuring songs of rock band Queen, on Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the Seas. While that Broadway-style show was worthwhile because the music was fantastic, the story line and dialogue dragged, and the show was two hours long. (Royal Caribbean has a list of Broadway-style productions on its website, including "Grease," "Cats" and "Hairspray.)
"Guests on a Norwegian ship don't want to spend two hours in a theater," Sommer said at CruiseWorld. "They want to spend 30 to 40 minutes in a theater, then they want to enjoy the casino; they want to enjoy the other entertainment we have onboard."
It's not as if NCL has eliminated all Broadway-style shows. A 90-minute version of "Beetlejuice" is performed on the Norwegian Viva, but that ship has only been in service since August 2023 -- perhaps NCL is still analyzing that show's return on experience. Meanwhile, "Jersey Boys" is still playing on the Norwegian Bliss. Maybe that Broadway-style show has a great return on experience.
Sommer commented at CruiseWorld that an examination of guest-satisfaction scores showed "our highest-rated entertainment was the entertainment that cost us the least. Well, that was a win, we could do more of that."
He pointed to NCL's current "record guest-satisfaction scores" as proof that NCL did the right thing when revamping entertainment.
"It's absolutely fantastic," he said.