Those ABBA tunes still get them seat-dancing
At Mirvish and movie theatres, throwback Swedish pop is as fun as ever, at a time it’s needed
Mamma Mia!
K (out of 4) Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Book by Catherine Johnson. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Until Aug. 19 at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Mirvish.com or 416-872-1212
The return of Mamma Mia! to Toronto, where it received its North American premiere in 2000 and subsequently ran for five years, is exquisitely timed. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the Hollywood sequel that expands the sto- ry of the stage version and its film adaptation, is in theatres now. Cher, who cameos in that film, is releasing an album of ABBA covers. The jukebox musical phenomenon that the success of Mamma Mia! reinvigorated in 1999 is alive and well, with the Go-Go’s-based Head Over Heels opening on Broadway just last week.
And then there’s the context of some very stressful international and local politics for Toronto theatregoers, so the stage version of Mamma Mia! makes for some prime nostalgia-driven musical escapism.
With 18 years of distance from its premiere, Mamma Mia! (in a limited 10-day run at the Ed Mirvish Theatre) resonates with audiences who danced to ABBA in the 1970s, theatre fans who discovered it as children (cough, cough), and younger audiences who may be new to both ABBA and theatre, but are immersed in current pop music that owes its history to these Swedish hitmakers.
And in terms of two and half hours of feel-good, high-energy musical theatre, audiences can do a lot worse than Catherine Johnson’s play that transposes ABBA’s biggest hits to a small Greek island, the day before the wedding of Sophie (Lucy May Barker) who has secretly invited three former lovers of her mother Donna (Shona White) — Sam (Tamlyn Henderson), Bill (Matthew Rutherford) and Harry (Daniel Crowder) — in an attempt to find out which one is her father and have him walk her down the aisle.
Where most jukebox musicals present songs as pauses in the action, Mamma Mia! is surprisingly effective in turning ABBA’s songs into dramatic moments.
The most effective such use of song for drama is “Slipping Through My Fingers” which Donna sings while dressing Sophie for her wedding. It not only captures a mother’s fear of losing her child, but highlights the chasm between Donna’s devotion and the energy Sophie has been dedicating to an absent, unknown paternal figure.
Or on a different note, “Chiquitita” is the reaction to Donna’s melancholy at her past paramours’ arrival, as felt by her best friends Rosie (Nicky Swift) and Tanya (Helen Anker), which also showcases the basis of their friendship, which is music, as well as their giddy, raunchy, slapstick sense of humour.
On the sweeter side, “Thank You for the Music” becomes a folk song shared between Harry and Sophie, a simple and sweet suggestion of a potential parental link.
Besides the enduring appeal of ABBA’s chart-toppers (there’s no reason “Dancing Queen” can’t get a crowd moving as easily now as it did in 2000) and a good sequined, bell-sleeved jumpsuit, Phyllida Lloyd’s production ages suc- cessfully with the performances of the current cast of this international West End tour.
Barker’s Sophie gets the audience on board with the musical’s outlandish plot with a sweet singing voice, and a balance of a 20-year-old’s naiveté and the headstrong independence she inherited from her mother.
That’s especially noticeable in the show’s final moment, where she and partner Sky (Phillip Ryan) take the stage after the musical’s hijinks have faded: she leads him onstage, almost pulling him, eyes fixed eagerly out toward the audience.
Past personifications of Sophie can make that a more leisurely promenade, canoodling with her lover. Small changes like this underline aspects of Mamma Mia! that border the line of feminist or stereotypical.
Another welcome is Swift as Donna’s lifelong bachelorette friend Rosie, usually used as comic relief with a stout physicality against Tanya’s tall drink of water. The pairing of Swift and Anker is as funny as ever; luckily that comes from giving Rosie a bawdier, goofier sense of humour.
Similarly, she’s matched against Rutherford as Bill. They discover their sexual chemistry in “Take a Chance on Me.” The bulk of the crowd-pleasing 11 o’clock number still has Rosie chase Bill in between the wedding’s seating arrangements, but it’s more of a game of catand-mouse than Bill rebuffing the advances of an aroused, middle-aged woman. Rutherford’s heightened dad-jokester energy also further explains this couple’s attraction. In a show that can’t resist nicely made pairs to tie up loose ends, at least this one makes sense now.
In the middle of these comic performances, Henderson’s and White’s Sam and Donna can’t help but fall a little flat, and White in particular keeps her emotions on the restrained side.
Luckily ABBA isn’t known for their subtlety, and songs like “Money, Money, Money,” “The Winner Takes It All” and “Mamma Mia” are enough to keep audiences seat-dancing on their own.