*MAMMA MIA! (National tour)
Music & Lyrics by Benny Anderson and Bjour Ulvaeus
Book by Catherine Johnson
Dallas Summer Musicals
*REVIEWED 07/04/06 PERFORMANCE
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Choreography by Anthony Van Laast
________________________MAMMA MIA!____________________________
Ah the jukebox musical. That genre of musical theater that gushed onto Broadway not too many years ago. Some have become boffo hits; others were met with harsh reviews and tepid audience response, kinda like Star Jones on THE VIEW.
Just this past season four new jukebox musicals opened,
LENNON, JERSEY BOYS,
LENNON with its nine John Lennons and being controlled with
a tight fist by Yoko Ono was laughed off the great white way & closed
quickly. RING OF
MAMMA MIA uses the music of 70s Swedish disco/pop group ABBA for its jukebox musical entry. The creators cleverly tinkered with some of the lyrics very carefully to fit the simple plot of a wedding involving three men, a feminist whose daughter is the one getting married, and some wacky friends-all set on a Greece Isle. While the book is basically junk, the music is what gives the show its polish, enjoyment, and pizzazz.
Second national tours tend to dampen in their physical aspects with their sets, costumes, and lighting by stripping it down from its first national tour. Not this one. It was quite enjoyable to still see Howard Harrison's glowing, color enriched lighting and Mark Thompson's simplistic bone colored set.
The majority of this cast delivers winsome, enjoyable performances, with several shining quite brightly.
Laurie Wells portrays "Donna Sheridan", the single mother who owns the café that we see on stage. She also happens to be the mother of the bride. It does take a few scenes and musical numbers for Wells to warm up both in character and for the audience. At first she seemed a bit stiff & lackluster, but slowly she melts into the role, delivering a smashing performance by the end of the evening. Her best moment comes in the second act ballad, "The Winner Takes All". Here she finds interesting, yet perfect acting choices to really give the lyrics
emotion and purpose to the inner conflict of her character.
Lisa Mandel and Laura Ware portray Wells two sidekick best friends. "Tanya" (Mandel) is slightly modeled after the booze drinking, pill popping, plastic surgery addict Patsy Stone from the hit comedy ABSOULTEY FABULOUS. "Rosie" (Ware) tends to be cast with shorter women with an ample body frame. Both actresses are hilarious and do deliver the laughs, but I must admit I enjoyed the work of the previous two actresses from the first national tour more (Robin Baxter and Ellen Harvey).
Mandel and Ware become a tad hammy and try too hard at times to generate the laughs. During "Dancing Queen" the staging, facial expressions, and physical shtick become a little distracting. Both talented ladies seem to beat the audience over the head to achieve laughs with this and a couple of other numbers. Even with those minor flaws they both are quite funny and do succeed in providing the best laughs of the evening.
As the couple to be, Carrie Manolakos and Corey Greenan are much better than their first national tour counterparts (Kristie Marsden and Chris Bolan). This time around these two talented thespians have much more believable chemistry than the aforementioned Marsden and
Bolan. Manolakos and Greenan possess strong pop vocals and do deliver as well in the laughter department.
Ian Simpson as "Harry Bright" and Milo Shandel as "Bill Austin" provide top notch work as two of Sophie's possible dads. Simpson supplies a crisp British accent to his characterization while Shandel is all Aussie. They are both quite entertaining to watch.
Sean Allan Krill provides for me the best performance of the evening. As "Sam Carmichael" he completely overrides the wretched book to find painful conflict with his character's arc to deliver a fully fleshed out character that you truly believe. Krill's facial expressions and body posture adds another layer of subtext perfection for the role. This talented actor also knows exactly how to create loud laughs with even the simplest lines. He also has two terrific musical numbers to shine in within the evening. Krill has an exquisite tenor voice that can glide easily into the high notes and then right back down for the baritone notes.
When I saw his name in the playbill I was quite excited to know he was in the production. Dallas audiences may recall his superb performance as "Trevor Graydon" in THROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE a couple of seasons ago. I wrote in my MILLIE review that Krill almost steals the show in MILLIE, well in MAMMA MIA he does.
There are however two problems within the evening: Some of the staging and the ensemble. Last night was my third viewing of this musical (first on Broadway then the first national tour), and this was the first time I really noticed the bland staging that pops up off and on throughout the evening. Some of the musical numbers try to do too much to get the laughs. At times the staging tries to create some form of action or movement for every single line. It tries too hard to produce laughter, and it doesn't need that. Two perfect examples of this awful staging include the trio number sung by Sophie and her two friends at the beginning of Act One and the duet with Simpson and Wells in Act Two.
The ensemble for MAMMA MIA seems to be way too over the top in the comedy department. Ensembles for me personally make or break a show. They should provide commentary and add enjoyment, not draw focus for all the wrong reasons. This ensemble tries way too hard to be funny and instead only look foolish and amateur. Comedy is rough! It's all about finding the joke within the joke, not the obvious punch line. The young ensemble is way too "waka-waka-waka" for me. Finally they must have learned the choreography that afternoon by the looks of it last night. Instead of unified, crisp, clean, choreographed numbers, we saw dancers spin out of control, missteps all over the stage, and mistakes everywhere. You would literally see dancers counting wrong, going up or down on the wrong counts, and so forth. This caused them to stick out like sore thumbs and thereby severely wounding the choreography. They are in dire need of a major brush up rehearsal.
Nonetheless, last night's MAMMA MIA was still a blast to watch all over again. The music is infectious and keep you bouncing in your seat throughout the night The majority of the company keeps you entertained and laughing. MAMMA MIA is a perfect way to spend a nice, summer night at the theater.
GRADE: B+
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MAMMA MIA plays through July 16th at Music Hall at Fair Park. Tickets may be purchased at The Box Office at 542 Preston Royal Shopping Center (NW corner of Preston and Royal). Forms of payment accepted are Cash, Check, Amex, Visa, MC, and Discover. You may purchase your tickets directly through the Ticketmaster website at www.ticketmaster.com. Phone orders may be placed at your convenience by calling 214.631.ARTS (214.631.2787) or 817.467.ARTS