Center Rep puts its own stamp on ‘Mamma Mia!’
“Mamma Mia!” is a savvy choice to open Center Repertory Company’s theatrical season at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts, because it’s a hugely popular jukebox musical that hasn’t yet saturated the local market. Featuring the sturdily catchy 1970s dance hits of ABBA, it’s a sure crowd-pleaser largely unimpeded by a thin storyline that sets up the songs somewhat awkwardly.
The musical originally opened in London in 1999 and made its U.S. debut at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre the following year before making its way to Broadway. After the starstudded film version in 2008, now there’s even a similarly celeb-powered movie sequel in theaters, titled “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” because it would practically be a crime if it were named anything else.
More than most productions, the Center Rep one really accentuates the fun of a musical that’s all about celebration. Director Marc Jacobs and a strong cast make it marvelously funny wherever possible, abetted by comical choreography by Robyn Tribuzi and some delightfully overthe-top costumes by Maggi Yule.
In the musical’s wispy book by Catherine Johnson, bride-to-be Sophie wants to invite her father to her wedding but has no idea who her father is because her mother, Donna, won’t talk about it. Getting hold of her mother’s old diary from her free-spirit
youth in the late 1970s, Sophie decides to invite all three of the guys Donna mentions having sex with about nine months before Sophie was born. Then it’s just a matter of trying to figure out which of them is her biological father without anyone catching on to what she’s doing.
The story is set in 1999 due to simple math, but it’s not really a period piece aside from all the ’70s callbacks. Although it takes place on a Greek island, the characters are all American, British and other expatriates and travelers.
From the very beginning, Kelly James Tighe’s versatile set sets a very different scene than the usual quaint taverna exterior for the show, creating a seaside tableau that wouldn’t look out of place in “The Tempest” or “The Little Mermaid.”
Lynda DiVito packs the part of stressed-out Donna with personality and flair, laying into her songs with gusto and power. Her old friends and onetime bandmates are a delight, between Alison Quin’s hilarious vampy Tanya and Leanne Borghesi’s downto-earth Rosie, whose coming-on-strong “Take a Chance on Me” is one of the comic highlights of the show.
Sophie’s three dads are an appealing bunch: Mark Farrell as an amusingly staid but mildly fun-loving British banker, Keith Pinto as a laid-back but commitment-averse travel writer with a shaky Australian accent, and Noel Anthony as the brooding American architect still smarting over his parting with Donna 21 years ago.
Even the young lovers, who often aren’t very interesting, shine in this production. Giana Gambardella is a pleasant and upbeat presence as Sophie, with a lovely voice, and Sean Okuniewicz is charmingly charismatic as her fiance, Sky. Josh Ditto has some uproariously energetic dance moves as impish waiter Pepper.
The first act is stronger than the second, which gets bogged down by a lot of melancholy, sentimental numbers that rely on emotional investment in the inconsequential story. On the whole, though, the cast and the band led by music director Brandon Adams throw themselves into all these ABBA hits by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (some co-written with manager Stig Anderson) with vigor, making even some of the lesser numbers shine.
There have already been a few local productions of this show with doubtless many more to come, but Center Rep’s “Mamma Mia!” is an exceptionally good one to catch.