Three Men and a Baby (Mamma Mia!)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Mamma Mia!
Date:	19/11/06 (294 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hilarious show with great songs

Disadvantages: None

Often I’m not a fan of newer musicals and find that, much like newer ballets, they’re not a patch on the oldies. But, I really like Abba songs and when I discovered the Mamma Mia tour was coming to town, I quickly bought tickets.

There are lots of unusual things about Mamma Mia. One is that the music wasn’t written for the show, and has existed in its own right for many years. All the Abba classics from Dancing Queen to Super Trouper and of course the title song, Mamma Mia, are featured. In total there are 22 songs, most of which are mainstream Abba (there were only 2 that I was unfamiliar with) and there was only one song I could think of that wasn’t featured (Waterloo…would have been hard to work into the story), so you do feel you’re getting good Abba value for your money. What I found intriguing was how apparently-unrelated songs meshed so well, and lyrics I thought I’d understood previously now took on a whole new, incredible, hilarious meaning. So often songs in musicals only have a little to say, and that comes in the first few lines (I’m thinking in particular of one I really like, Footloose’s ‘Let’s hear it for the boy) but with the Abba tunes here a part of the story could move on loads in just one number.

Another unusual thing about the show is where it takes place: musicals often have unusual settings, but this did feel especially original. Set on a Greek island, most of the action takes place either inside or just outside a taverna owned by the main characters. It’s sweet, simple and basic – a white washed building with some plain furniture – but it does a great job of selling the lifestyle in that part of the world to you, and really made me want to book a flight pronto.

The characters in the story all seem to be genuinely nice people, who also seem real, either through their indiscretions (it’s a great moment when Sophie realises her mother bedded 3 men in 3 days some 20 years ago, and that one of them must surely be her father), their flirtations (as Aunt Tanya teases the young waiters the audience chuckles along) or their ogling (there’s quite a bit of fantastic gratuitous semi-nudity in the show, almost all male). There is no evil or mean character in the show, and many of the clichés such as a player cheating on their partner and then begging for forgiveness are nowhere to be seen which is refreshing. The story is quite a simple one: having discovered her never-met father can be one of only 3 men, Sophie invites all of them to her wedding in an attempt to establish which one has her as their daughter. Yes, there is some creative license (how would she be able to track down these men, 20 years later in a whole other country? Why would they all drop everything to fly out to Greece to meet a woman they have not heard of for 2 decades?) but it all seems plausible at the time, and it’s only later you start to question things.

Laughter is a big part of the show, but the comedic lines in the script are just the half of it – it’s the body language and facial expressions that really make the scenes. The touring production has some amazing character actors playing the parts of Donna, Tanya, Rosie and the three ‘dads’, and it’s a nice change to see a mix of body shapes and sizes on stage rather than lots of bony girls and skinny-legged guys. The groom, Sky, is tanned, ribbed and downright hot, and when he lost his clothes at one point the audience went wild.

The experience of watching the show is an interesting one. Normally I’m used to restrained enjoyment: people smiling, watching enthralled, clapping at the end. The exception is things like those sing-a-long shows where the audience dress up, get into it and, well, sing-a-long. This is not a sing-a-long show but the songs are well known, and it’s not just one or two of the numbers that the audience know well. As a result the audience, at least when we went, were highly animated. From the very beginning there were whole rows clapping along (it’s a take-a-group-with-you kinda show), and for some songs my fellow theatre goers were singing along. By the finale whole hoards of people were standing up, dancing, and I had serious fears about the stability of the upper circle as the floor was literally bouncing. It’s not a sit-quietly-and-enjoy sort of show, but it was one that was clearly being enjoyed by everyone there.

I saw Mamma Mia last week and am already considering booking next time it comes to town as it was such a nice, enjoyable, funny show to see, and kept me engaged the whole time. Knowing what happens doesn’t even detract from that, and it’s just like when you re-read a good book – you want to see if, knowing how it all ends, you can see it coming. It’s a show with wide appeal – it’s a nice family show (with a few rude references but not more than, say, Shrek), it’s full of great Abba tunes, and it’s an enjoyable, well-acted musical that regular theatre goers can enjoy too. Definitely recommended.

Summary: A brilliant afternoon or night out, suitable for all the family