Mamma Mia!

At The Stanley until August 12, 2018
Tickets from $29 at artsclub.com or 604-687-1644

Posted May 17, 2018

It’s so cheesy and I love it. A pox on those who mock Mamma Mia!; sure, it isn’t Shakespeare. “It is what it is”, says director/choreographer Valerie Easton. “You do the best you can with it.” And she sure does. Far from resting on her laurels, Easton’s choreography is fresh, energetic and sexy (in a nice way). Her ensemble ‘gals’ are cute, bubbly and bouncy; her ensemble ‘guys’ are buff, built and athletic. Energy just pours off The Stanley stage in the big numbers like “Money, Money” or “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”. Overheard: “What do those kids EAT?” Whatever it is, I want some.

David Roberts’ set isn’t cheesy; it’s so beautiful, so Mykonos-ish , you just want to hop a flight to Greece, crack a bottle of retsina and make like Shirley Valentine. Curved whitewashed buildings, white terraces, blue doors and window frames and a blue sea beyond – all bathed in light by Robert Sondergaard that goes from hot hot daytime heat to cool evening light.

Just when you start humming the theme from Zorba the Greek – based on the set design alone – the six-piece orchestra, under the direction of Ken Cormier, kicks in with the overture – teasers of all the ABBA songs that are to come.

Perhaps not everyone knows that the ABBA songs pre-existed the 1999 jukebox musical, Mamma Mia! After negotiating with ABBA, Catherine Johnson wrote the book, incorporating some of ABBA’s hits into a fabricated storyline. And that’s where it does get schmaltzy.

Self-described “good Catholic girl” Donna (Stephanie Roth) had a few wild flings back when she was visiting Greece as a young woman. There was Sam (Michael Torontow), who left Donna to return to the US to marry his fiancée. There was BIll (Warren Kimmel) who ran off to explore the wilds of Africa. And there was Harry, (Jay Hindle), an English rocker known as “Head Banger”.

Nine months later there was Baby Sophie and Donna was running a small guest house on the island where those long-ago romances occurred.

Now, twenty years later, Sophie (Michelle Bardach) is about to marry Sky (Stuart Barkley) and she wants her dad to walk her down the aisle. But neither Donna nor Sophie knows which of the three it was, and the three possible fathers have no idea that Sophie even happened.  Sophie, pretending to be her mother, writes to them and invites them to Greece for a visit.

Some of the ABBA songs fit the narrative; others just don’t. But all your favourites are here, including “Dancing Queen”, “Lay All Your Love On Me”, The Name of the Game”, The Winner Takes It All”, “Waterloo” and, of course, “Mamma Mia!”

Bardach, as Sophie, is sweet, fresh and dimpled. Roth’s Donna is smart and resilient but cautious about love. Together, Bardach and Roth make a great team, both able to tease or belt a song out. On opening night, there were times when the orchestra drowned out the singer but that will obviously be remedied. Cathy Wilmot and Irene Karas Loeper are Donna’s old friends Rosie and Tanya. Give Wilmot something good to sing and a chance to be funny doing it (“Take A Chance On Me”), and you’ve got yourself a good deal. Loeper, as been-around-the-block Tanya, comes close to stealing the show in 6” stilettos, a sarong and singing, “Does Your Mother Know You’re Out?” Cougar? You betcha!

Costume designer Alison Green goes nuts with some flared disco outfits and the boys’ scuba getups.

If the overture sets Mamma Mia! up at the beginning of the show, what do you call the scheduled encores at the end that keep the audience, already on its feet, clapping and woo-hooing through several songs? How about the wrap-ture? Because, for ABBA fans, and those not too sophisticated to go with the flow, that’s what it is: rapture. Cheesy or not, Mamma Mia! will have you leaving The Stanley whistling or singing something ABBA. Ear worm guaranteed.