|
Mamma Mia! A popular trend in recent years has been the development of new musicals from popular films or from a grouping of songs. From the vaults of film, we've had Footloose, Saturday Night Fever, Hairspray, and The Producers on The Great White Way. Just last season we had Burt Bacharach and Hal David's work transformed into the short lived musical revue The Look Of Love, and Smokey Joe's Cafe (the songs of Leiber and Stoller) was a hit in the '90s. In the wings, we have in the works such new shows as Never Gonna Dance (the songs of Jerome Kern) and Cry Baby (based on the film), among others, and Hugh Jackman is starring as Peter Allen in The Boy From Oz, which features Allen's songs. Which brings us to Mamma Mia! The music for this London/Broadway smash comes completely from the hits made by that famous '70s disco group, ABBA. Though the book is a little sluggish and off balanced at times in the first act, what bookwriter Catherine Johnson has achieved wonderfully is is a superb interweaving of ABBA's major hits within the storyline. This creates a festive approach for the audience because you keep guessing where a certain ABBA hit will be slipped in. Throughout the evening, Tuesday's opening night audience laughed or burst into applause as each ABBA gem was performed within the plot. Johnson's book takes us to a tiny Greek Island where the wedding of Sophie Sheridan is about to take place. Sophie was never told the identity of her father by mother Donna, a '70s rebel feminist. Sophie finds her mother's diary, where it is revealed that any one of three men could have been her father. So Sophie invites all three men to her wedding. Have some cake, throw some rice, and oh, are you my daddy? Of all of the design elements, Howard Harrison's delicious array of lighting wears the crown of best of the best in this production. He creates a luscious blue sea, sands, and shadows of trees for the Greek Island. But he also creates garish yet dazzling lighting for dream sequences and disco dancing madness. The cast for the most part is picture perfect, with only a couple of uneven performances in the company. As the couple to marry, Kristie Marsden (Sophie) and Chris Bolan (Sky) do sing marvelously, but their acting skills lack polish and honesty. Both performers create cookie cutter stock characterizations. They are bland, with no real life and commitment pumping through their performances. You just don't believe in their journey both as performers or characters, though they present their songs beautifully and with energy. Monique Lund portrays Donna, the single mother who is lambasted with her past when she finds her three ex-lovers, all in her hotel at the same time. Lund's strong vocals are presented with a dark, smokey soprano and a concrete vibrato behind it. Lund is compassionate and warm, yet brings the rebellious, feminist strengths within her character right to the forefront. Lund has an array of ABBA hits to sing, but her eleven o'clock number, "The Winner Takes it All," is a showstopper. As the three men who arrive at an Island wedding only to be notified that one may be a father, Don Noble, Pearce Hunting, and James Kall all give winning performances. Although I do wish that Hunting's character (who reminds me of that Aussie alligator guy on TV) had a solo, each actor brings individuality and humor to his role. But the show belongs to two scene stealing ladies - Robin Baxter and Ellen Harvey as Donna's two best friends Rose and Tanya. If you are a fan of Absolutely Fabulous, you might think you are watching Patsy and Edina live on stage! Harvey is Tanya, a trice divorced grande dame. But the gal is one tall drink of water, topped off with a blonde Dairy Queen ice cream swoop of a hairdo that must have been sprayed with thirty cans of Aquanet! Harvey's facial expressions are side-splittingly hysterical. I find actors who use their bodies, faces, and voices to create comic performances the true thespians in the art of comedy. Harvey is one of those actors, hands down. My face still hurts from laughing so hard during her number, "Does Your Mother Know," in the second act. As Rosie, Robin Baxter gives an uproarious, scenery-chewing performance that has the audience eating from the palm of her hand. On opening night, Baxter brought down the house with her rollicking rendition of "Take A Chance On Me." She only had to sing a few lines of this classic ABBA song and the audience went crazy with laughter and applause. This brilliant comic actress uses her face and body to generate ear-shattering laughs throughout the evening. Even though "Dancing Queen" is a trio (with Lund), it is Baxter and Harvey who create a vociferous, hilarious performance from that song in act one. The physical comedy that is staged in this number is priceless. Kudos should also go to the fantastic ensemble in the production. They are the backbone and sheer strength behind the show's energy and vitality. They sing with gusto and dance like they have been given Red Bull intravenously backstage. They are the unsung heroes of the company. If there is one major flaw in the production, sadly it is once again the sound system. Throughout the entire evening, body mikes wheezed, popped, cracked, or fizzled out - to the point that it was embarrassing, and also managed to hurt the flow of the production. Sadly, this is not going to get any better. Practically every single production this summer has had its share of technical sound problems. The Music Hall brings the best of Broadway to us, and it is embarrassing for this city to be weighed down with sound problems that are painfully uncomfortable. It should be known that Dallas Summer Musicals does NOT own the Music Hall. It is a city owned property. In the opening night audience was our very own Mayor Laura Miller; I hope Ms. Miller's being there will make her think about sending money over to the Music Hall to get a new sound system, because it is a nightmare. Overall, the show does drag here and there, and the book at times loses its grip on the material. But so what - you will laugh so hard that you have to wipe tears from your eyes. And that music! You'll just want to get up and dance along with the company, or sing along during the ballads. Its just that much a fun show. Mamma Mia! ends with a massive, disco filled mega-mix, and you will be shaking your Voulez-Vous in the aisles like you were at Studio 54 dancing along with Liza and Halston! Mamma Mia! is the official musical for this year's State Fair of Texas. The musical runs through October 19th. Tickets can be purchased at at he DSM Box Office, from Ticketmaster by phone at 214.373.8000, online at ticketmaster.com, or at a Ticketmaster outlet, including including Foley's, Fiesta, The Majestic Box Office and Wherehouse Music locations. The Box Office is located in the Northwest corner of Preston Royal Shopping Center which is at the intersection of Preston and Royal in between Tom Thumb and Lester Melnick's. The Box Office winter hours are Monday - Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Box Office summer hours (during the time that single tickets to the summer season are on-sale) are Monday - Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mamma Mia! will also continue to the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth Texas, from Oct 21 to Nov 2. Tickets are available at the Bass Hall Box office. Call 817-212-4280. www.casamanana.org. Groups of 20 or more call 817-332-2272, ext 128 Mamma Mia!. Music & Lyrics by Benny Anderson, Bjorn Ulvaeus; some songs by Stig Anderson. Book By Catherine Johnson. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Choreography by Anthony Van Laast. CAST Sophie Sheridan................Kristie Marsden
|
