Saturday, January 27, 2007

Mama Mia!

Last night I saw "Mama Mia!" at Popejoy Hall. The inner-critic in me feels compelled to give you my thoughts.
On a scale of 1-10, I give it a 6.5. It really disappoints me to say it, too, because I was hoping it would be the smash everyone says it is. Sadly, it came up short on so many counts.
My biggest problems with the show? There were three major things:
1- I felt like it was quite a stretch to make all that Abba music come together in one fluid story.
2- Some really awful staging. There was a lot of "dramatic standing" happening. People would start to run off the stage in a fit of rage or anger, but then they'd come back, and it just didn't work for me. There was no compelling reason for the actors to come back. It was like the director wanted some movement, but the way it came across didn't make sense.
3- Some horrible accents. Two of the three fathers are supposed to have accents (British and Australian) but they were some of the worst I'd ever heard. I've heard High School kids nail an accent better. It drove me crazy.
Still, it wasn't a complete lost cause. A lot of the music was enjoyable, and all the actors sang well. In the grand tradition of supporting actors, the two actresses playing the mother's sidekicks really stole the show. They were worth the fifty bucks all by themselves.
I'm not sure what Goethe would say about the level of accomplishment, but I say this was barely above break-even for me.

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