Back on Broadway, a much-needed summer splash of…
film review
MAMMA MIA!
Two hours and 35 minutes, with one intermission. At the Winter Garden Theatre.
The historical past ebook on the shelf is always repeating itself!
It’s summer again at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, where that dreamy discothèque “Mamma Mia!” reopened Thursday night time after 10 years away from Broadway.
The great, escapist musical, which pairs a romantic farce on a Greek island with the seventies ear-worms of ABBA, always hits cranky critics a lot just like the lyrics the track “Under Attack” describe.
About to crack, defenses breakin’!
We’re not supposed to approve of jukebox exhibits. We’re not supposed to rubber-stamp sit-com silliness. We are supposed to roll our eyes at platform footwear and blindingly colourful bellbottoms.
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Well, I say, “thank you for the musical.” “Mamma Mia!” is a much-needed trip from all the seriousness and drear. And its foundations may face up to a nuclear blast. The foremother of the old-pop-songs-in-a-new-story style is still the very best in the sport.
I first noticed the show more than 20 years in the past, and continue to marvel at its tautness and wit.
For those of us who have visited the fictional isle of Kalokairi and ex-pat Donna’s taverna an, er, redacted quantity of occasions, there’s been some noticeable pruning at the Winter Garden.
“Mamma Mia!” is back on Broadway after a decade away. ZUMAPRESS.com
What’s onstage is the national tour — not a custom-built manufacturing for Broadway. So it’s smaller and cheaper. The stone ground doesn’t mild up during “Voulez-Vous”; the lovable ensemble never peeks their heads over the partitions when they sing the title tune.
That drachma-pinching irked me at first, but I used to be rapidly gained over by “I work all night, I work all day” Donna and her Dynamos and younger bride-to-be Sophie and her three potential dads.
How can I resist ya?
Sophie (Amy Weaver) sneakily tries to uncover who her real father is. AP
Audiences actually gained’t have the option to resist Christine Sherrill, the fabulous actress enjoying Donna. She’s among the most memorable to take on the half.
As the overalls-clad “Money Money Money!” business proprietor, whose three former flames from the Seventies all arrive at her resort on the same day 20 years later, Sherrill has the flighty enjoyable and smile of Goldie Hawn in “Overboard.” So, her pathos sneaks up on us fairly powerfully during “Slipping Through My Fingers” and the 11 O’clock “Winner Takes It All.”
Sherrill bats the ballad proper outta the park.
As her “Super Trooper” friends Rosie and Tanya, Carly Sakolove and Jalynn Steele breathe new life into well-worn gags. The laughs circulate like ouzo when they sing “Take a Chance on Me” and “Does Your Mother Know?”.
Christine Sherrill (middle) as Donna steals the show, alongside her Dynamos, Tanya (Jaylynn Steele. left) and Rosie (Carla Sakolove). AP
While always a great showcase of male abs, “Mamma Mia” has never been about male expertise. It’s not called “Dadda Mia!,” after all. The gents all do their fatherly duties adequately. Victor Wallace enjoying hunky Sam, Jim Newman as rugged Bill and Rob Marnell as fidgety Brit Harry examine the packing containers.
And that’s par for the course. Fans of the 2008 Meryl Streep film have a tendency to say “no comment” on the subject of Pierce Brosnan.
And the younger lovers Sophie and Sky, performed by Amy Weaver and Grant Reynolds, are candy as ever.
So is the show, even if it’s frayed a bit around the perimeters.
“Mamma Mia!” is only back on Broadway for six months. But I see no cause they need to throw in the towel so rapidly.
To quote a a lot, a lot newer track by ABBA: “Don’t shut me down!”
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