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Super Troupers: Helen Anker as Tanya, Sara Poyzer as Donna and Nicky Swift as Rosie. Pictures: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg Mamma Mia! Birmingham Hippodrome ***** Here we go again and how can we resist
you as they say as Donna, Rosie and Tanya are back in town bringing with
them a splash of Greek sunshine with Mamma Mia! The songs of Abba are part of growing up for
those of a certain age – I was in my prime, or as near as I was ever
likely to get to it, when Waterloo blew away the Eurovision
Song Contest back in 1974. Their music has been played and played ever
since, with nine No 1s, 20 top 10 hits, the second best selling album of
all time in the UK and a combined total of more than four years in the
UK top 40 charts – in almost half a century they have become an
institution attracting generations of fans. So, the idea of creating a musical around their
music (Judy Craymer) was genius – whatever the plot, this really was a
case of Thank You for the Music. The story is simple, Donna (Sara Poyzer) runs a
simple taverna on a small Greek island and has a daughter, Sophie (Jena
Pandya) who is about to get married to Sky (Toby Miles) but she has no
idea who her father is.
Jena Pandya as Sophie and Toby Miles as Sky No idea, that is, until she finds her mother’s diary and discovers there are three possibilities – Donna, it seems, was a pioneer in the cause of equal opportunities and she has no idea of who the father is either. So, Sophie, now 21, secretly invites all three to her wedding, none of whom have seen Donna in 20 years, under some sort of impression she might find which one is her dad . . . some hopes. Thus, we have Bill (Phil Corbitt) a Geordie
adventurer and travel writer, single and determined to stay that way,
Harry, (Daniel Crowder) a banker with a partner and wealth to spare, and
architect Sam (Richard Standing) with two sons but now divorced – so
he’s free . . . just saying. Donna was in a girl band, Donna and the Dynamos,
so the rest of the band Rosie (Nicky Swift) and Tanya (Helen Anker) turn
up for the wedding as well. There’s a bit of angst here and there, a stag night and a hen night, Sophie and Sky walk off through the mist into the sunset, everyone lives happily ever after and the audience go home floating on a feel-good cloud. with a smile on their face and a whole catalogue of tunes in their head.
Keep it simple, keep it fun and let the songs
tell the story – 22 of them – and by golly, does it work. Feet were
tapping, heads swaying, smiles broadening from the off, all basking in
the sound of youth and memories.
She is involved in most of the emotive songs with
her conflicted feelings about Sam coming out in One of Us while
Sam has his moment with a lovely version of Knowing Me, Knowing You
as he tries to be a dad giving advice and telling Sophie about his
failed marriage.
Bill being a devotee of the single life with
Rosie determined, and to be fair, succeeding in converting him – dot,
dot, dot as they say in the show. We have the male ensemble and Sky in a flipper
and snorkel dance – don’t ask – as part of the stag night, or the
attempts by Pepper (James Willoughby Moore), one of the taverna staff,
to seduce Tanya with a display of break dancing in a comic routine to
Does Your Mother Know. The set (Mark Thmpson) is simple, two trucks
which are rotated to give walls, the outside of the taverna, or,
reversed, the inside courtyard of the taverna while Howard Harrison’s
lighting design is a masterclass in how to create mood and drama,
highlighting characters and moments. He uses stark, harsh white
contrasted with warm, sunny day tones, dimming and increasing when
needed to create constant interest and change on a static set. Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken’s sound design was
well balanced and the seven piece band under musical director Carlton
Edwards were into the swing of things with that authentic Abba sound
from the start. If you want a fun night out, making even
feel-good feel good, then take a chance on this, it’s a night of
memories for a certain age and the enduring sound of a true Supergroup
for the rest. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia! is The Name of
the Game to 14-05-22. Roger Clarke 04-05-22 |
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