by Catherine Johnson
Music and Lyrics by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus,
and Stig Anderson
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
A Mirvish Production at the Princess of Wales Theatre
April 28-June 27, 2010

   Unless you’ve lived on some as-yet unnamed Greek island, you probably know the filament-thin plot of Mama Mia!, the shoehorn musical that has become a crystal slipper from which its makers can guzzle great gulfs of champagne. A nubile girl named Sophie is to be married to a fine young hunk named Sky, and she would very much like her father to give her away. Trouble is she doesn’t know who this man is because her mom Donna (now a tavern owner) slept with three very different guys twenty-one years ago, any one of whom could have been the real sperm donor. Unbeknownst to Donna, Sophie has read her mother’s diary and has invited all three men to the wedding. Donna has her own special invitees: plump Rosie and stiletto-sharp Tanya, who were her backup singers decades ago in the trio called The Dynamos. All sorts of antic activity ensue, replete with the ebullient disco songs of ABBA that are plainly enough to set the island and the theatre on a roar.

    I have called this musical a shoehorn musical because the ABBA songs are shoehorned into situations that usually fit them comfortably, though once or twice, the director forces a gaudy surrealism that is downright Kitschy—as in the scuba gear for the male ensemble and a trio of men in top hats and tails for “Under Attack,” admittedly a dream sequence that plays like a loony nightmare. Though the present cast is hardly the best for this musical—though there is nothing radically weak in it—the musical bounces along mirthfully, and I enjoyed it guiltily because though the score is largely junk in terms of lyricism, it does lead to dance. Anthony Van Laast’s choreography gives the dancers ample scope for hectic movement, and this makes up for the less compelling dramatic moments in the libretto. There is hardly a cliché that is not turned over, and the dialogue is downright demotic, but who in the world expects high drama or comedy from Mama Mia! The most radical idea in the show is that a young woman could survive as a single mom if she displayed the feminine independence of Donna—with the undoubted assistance of an ABBA musical score to demarcate her highs and lows with claptrap approval.

   Much of the present production looks mechanical in the acting and directing departments, and much looks shopworn—especially the set, though I like the filigreed leaves and pale moon overhanging the white stucco Greek taverna, and some of the blue and purple washes of light—and the main players don’t always find the emotional cores in their characters or songs. Michelle Dawson’s Donna is more believable than Meryl Streep was in the erratic film version, though she evidently lacks real technique. Her singing is sometimes frail, though she does grow in strength in some numbers, especially the taxing “The Winner Takes It All.” Actually, she and her colleagues do better in the tender numbers, such as “One Of Us,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” or “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” (that sounds for all the world like a marshmallow Pat Boone melody. Liana Hunt is a sweet Sophie, and David Raimo’s Sky has the face, body, and gonads to elicit various Mediterranean scenarios of sand and lust. As the trio from Donna’s bohemian past, Vincent Corazza plays the English, sexually ambiguous Harry Bright, the guy with wanderlust; John Sanders is Sam Carmichael, the guy who purportedly walked out on Donna after designing her tavern and enjoying more than her affection; and Matthew Ashford scores in the hunk department as the adventurous American Bill Austin. Though none is as charismatic as the men in the movie, they all sing better than their celluloid counterparts. Comedy is given full flight by the plump Rosie of Kittra Wynn Coomer (especially in her risibly predatory “Take A Chance On Me”) and the sexy Tanya of Rachel Tyler who hits her highest peak with “Does Your Mother Know,” when she shows know how to dominate even the horniest young men around. And at the end, when Donna, Rosie, and Tanya don their flared bell-bottoms, platform boots, capes, and glitter glam, they bring the crowd to its feet in a parody of the ABBA fever.   

pic 1: Michelle Dawson as Donna in Mama Mia! (photo: Carol Rosegg)

pic2 (L-R): Matthew Ashford (Bill), John Sanders (Sam), and Vincent Corazza (Harry) in Mama Mia! (photo: Kevin Thomas Garcia)

pic 3 (L-R): Rachel Tyler (Tanya) and Michelle Dawson (Donna) in Mama Mia! (photo: Carol Rosegg)




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