‘Mamma Mia!’ ROCKS SA AGAIN
Audience says ‘Thank You For The Music’ with a standing ovation for this effervescent new staging of a wellloved classic
When Kiruna-Lind Devar sings Honey, Honey as Sophie, in the new staging of Mamma Mia! at the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town, her voice soars as smooth and sweet as nectar, enchanting the audience. Devar’s singing fell like stardust over young and old Abba fans alike on a Sunday night, catapulting them into a blissful summer on a Greek island. Her performance on its own is striking enough to make this musical, backed by a vigorous live band, a winner.
But Gina Shmukler, as Sophie’s mother Donna, shone as brightly in the constellation of stars singing and dancing across the stage. The mother-daughter pair were effervescent, infusing the show with a warmth that the audience — clapping throughout and waving their arms along to tunes — couldn’t resist.
Mamma Mia!, a film and musical about a bride-to-be (Sophie) and her mother’s intriguing past, is sheer fun. It revolves around the question of which of three male visitors to the island 20 years ago, all of whom arrive and collide with one another around the time of her wedding, could be her father.
The all-South African cast of awardwinning professionals exceeded expectations in this production directed by Janice Honeyman and produced by Hazel Feldman of Showtime Management.
Donna and her two best friends (the trio are in the band Donna & the Dynamos), reprising the roles they played in Mamma Mia! in 2010/2011, got the audience laughing as the wedding drama unfolded to the beat of Abba tunes and an ensemble cast whose vigour and dance steps were flawless.
Ilse Klink as the freewheeling Rosie and Kate Normington as the cougar Tanya are more like magnets than foils to Donna, attracting their own share of attention and romance in paradise.
Sophie’s fiancé, Sky, played by Gianluca Gironi, was excellent in his role, while his friends, Chad Baai as Pepper and Bradley Smith as Eddie, added to the excellent entertainment.
The potential fathers bring humour, and at times pathos, to their roles — Emmanuel Castis as Sam, Matt Newman as Harry, and Tiaan Rautenbach as Bill — drawing on their talents as actors to enrapture the audience.
As Sophie agonises over which of them could be her father, complications arise with her fiancé, and the 20-year-old has nightmares about her choices.
The sound and lighting are vivid in this hallucinatory scene, effectively bringing the charm of the taverna, with its traditional blue shutters, white courtyards and bougainvillea, to life. Inevitably, at the heart of this musical are the slick performances of 22 Abba numbers, such as Dancing Queen, Take A Chance On Me, One Of Us and Thank You For The Music. By the final song, Voulez-Vous, the audience rose to its feet to give the cast a standing ovation, sharing the exuberance of the stars.
Mamma Mia! moves on April 7 from Artscape (mostly sold out) to The Teatro at Montecasino (April 7 to May 26). To book, go to showtime.co.za or ticketmaster.co.za.