Mamma Mia!

At Theatre Under the Stars, Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park until August 17, 2019
Tickets from $30 at ticketstonight.ca
Dress for evening temperature and take mosquito repellant

Posted July 13, 2019

This production gets off to a slow start but by curtain I can almost guarantee you will be on your feet, waving, shakin’ it, and maybe singing along to Dancing Queen:  “You can dance/You can jive/Having the time of your life” or “Mamma mia/Here I go again”.  Love it or hate it, ABBA’s music is infectious and an earworm that lingers for days. Just try to get “Money, money/It’s a rich man’s world” out of your head.

Mamma Mia! has always been a bit of an awkward setup: the songs pre-date the musical by more than a decade so it’s not a musical comedy in the usual sense with music and lyrics having been created at the same time.  The stage version, written by Catherine Johnson, premiered in 1999 and takes almost two dozen ABBA songs from about 1972-1982 and weaves them into a story that happens in the late 90s. The songs do not always seem to fit neatly into the story but because the music and lyrics are so strong, audiences continue to overlook it. It’s the mother lode of catchy songs and millions have forgiven Mamma Mia! for the goofy story. That popularity isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

The story opens on a Greek island with 20-year-old Sophie (Keira Jang) on the eve of her wedding to Sky (Joshua Lalisan). She wants her father to walk her down the aisle but Sophie’s single mom Donna (Caitriona Murphy) sowed some pretty wild oats back in the day and there are at least three possible contenders for Sophie’s paternity. Sneaking a peek into her mom’s diary, Sophie came up with three likely candidates and, without telling her mother, she invited them to the wedding. Architect Sam (Peter Monaghan), travel writer Bill Austin (Matt Ramer) and banker Harry Bright (Stefan Winfield) all turn up – much to the consternation of Donna who knew nothing of Sophie’s invitations. Sophie is convinced that when she meets the three men, she will instinctively know which one her father is. Ah. Not so easy.

It’s a crazy setup but it makes for a lot of complications and laughter  – especially when Donna’s two best friends thrice-married Tanya (Lori Ashton Zondag) and Rosie (Sheryl Anne Wheaton) turn up, too.

Everyone is staying at Donna’s small hotel (set design by Francesca Albertazzi) so there’s no place to run, no place to hide. And the wedding is the next day.

Under the direction of Shel Piercy, there’s a lot going on. Keeping almost two dozen performers busy makes for a sprawling show; it can be a distraction when, with the spotlight on two characters, there are others in the background doing busywork. On the plus side, Piercy gives these young performers a huge leg-up in the business. With a few exceptions, the ensemble, comprising the hotel staff, is young, leaving you to wonder if there are any adults living on that Greek isle.

The real strengths of Mamma Mia! are the music (under the direction of Wendy Bross Stuart) and the choreography (Shelley Stewart Hunt); the leads in this show are all terrific.  Caitriona Murphy, as Donna, would blow the roof off Malkin Bowl, if it had one, with “The Winner Takes It All” but she also shows off her comedic chops with “Honey, Honey”. Keira Jang and Joshua Lalisan make a delightful couple and do a great job of “Lay All Your Love On Me”. Adding a lot of sparkle and naughtiness is Lori Ashton Zondag as cougar-ish Tanya (“Does Your Mother Know?”) and Sheryl Anne Wheaton, as Rosie, turns up the heat with “Take a Chance on Me” as she wiggles her way around the reluctant Bill.

This is not the slickest show TUTS has produced but it might be a first when, so caught up in the story, an audience member felt moved to volunteer a shout out: “Marry him, Donna” was heard by all and caused a ripple of laughter.

Choreographer Hunt combines choreography, suited to the period, with more contemporary moves. Eventually that works and by curtain, with all those skin-tight, flared and flounced Spandex costumes dripping with glitter and fringe (created by Christina Sinosich) and everyone dancing up a storm,  Mamma Mia! achieves lift-off. It’s a happy, satisfied audience that drifts out of Malkin Bowl through the woods and back to their cars.

“Mamma mia, here I go again/My, my, how can I resist you?”