Sean Burnett Dugdale-Martin
50 years ago, ABBA released their self-titled album that homed the single: Mamma Mia! To celebrate is this season of Mamma Mia! at the St James Theatre, directed by Maya Handa Naff, choreographed by Catherine Reid and musical directed by Hayden Taylor. If you haven’t been to the St James yet, this is your invitation.
The older, vaguely-European-sounding woman next to us turns and asks: “Why are you here?” She knew Bjorn from listening to his music as a little girl and she had a vague awareness of the others before they began the group known as ABBA. I didn’t know that they had careers in their own right before coming together to create one of the most commercially successful bands in history. “It’s beautiful though,” our new friend said, “you come to this show and you see the oldies around and then also very young people here all enjoying the same music.”
There was a generation that grew up listening to ABBA through the 70s and 80s, when my parents were teenagers and in their early 20s. I don’t remember the first time I ever heard ABBA, instead I have a comforting sense that they’ve been around the whole time. In the programme it’s described how the musical came about after the band's breakup in 1982. Multiple ideas for pantomimes and TV shows were all politely declined until Catherine Johnson came up with the musical’s plot and setting, grounding the narrative in the characters and letting the songs come from their journey. It made it feel like a modern fairy tale.
Donna, the activist and contrarian, railed against marriage in the spirit of free love. Sophie, with aspects of her mother, is getting married at 21 without ever having slept around. In an attempt to create what may seem like a sense of normalcy, that could also come across as rebellion against her Mother’s alternative lifestyle, Sophie wants to find out who her father is. She steals her mother’s old notebook and finds vague entries alluding to nights spent with three separate men around 9 months before she was born. She invites these men to the island in the hope that she can tell which one is her father on site. It turns out to be not so simple.
Gemma Hoskins’ Donna is trying to get by with a daughter she doesn’t agree with, and a past she has fond memories for but doesn’t need bothering her. Hoskins brings a lightness, humour and determination and doesn’t have to work hard to have us on her side, rooting for her. Her sensibilities of anti-marriage and freedom have been where my social circles swing politically at the moment. It is, ironically, a refreshing change from other narratives where the parents are prudes and the children reckless with their sexuality.
Rachel McSweeney’s Sophie is delightfully naive in her approach to solving problems and McSweeney plays her with a lot of heart and not a lot of foresight. Never falling into outlandishly bad–decision-making territory, she is fun and a joy to watch. Donna’s friends Tanya (Georgia Jamison Emms) and Rosie (Jody McCartney) are also really worth watching. The banter between them and Hoskins shows us clearly who they are and how they used to be, without ever needing a flashback. They bring the party into every scene!
The whole show feels very tongue-in-cheek, fun and funny. It romps with a lightness that a lot of people will appreciate at the moment—with everything that’s going on locally and beyond. When this musical was released in America, it was only weeks after 9/11 in 2001 and was so beloved as entertainment and escapism that it only closed in 2015 after 5,758 performances.
For those among us who haven’t forgotten that the people who bring us Mamma Mia!, Capital Theatre with G&T Productions, have been known to be a little shady in the past. Phoebe Robertson puts it best in their article there about how the production of Wicked was the biggest show in town and yet pretty much nobody got paid for it (among other things). However, there is an argument to be made about whether, with an underfunded arts sector, the choice is putting the show on without paying everyone or not putting the show on at all. Unfortunately, without total budget clarity we can’t be sure if this show can viably pay everyone involved appropriately.
The production was stellar, an intergenerational treat that the whole family will absolutely love. From start to finish to the three encores, it exuded positive energy into the crowd and livened up the room (especially at the end of the interval with the jump-scare chord). This was a modern-day fairy tale we could all use right now. Mamma Mia! closes on the 31st August, more info here.
There was a generation that grew up listening to ABBA through the 70s and 80s, when my parents were teenagers and in their early 20s. I don’t remember the first time I ever heard ABBA, instead I have a comforting sense that they’ve been around the whole time. In the programme it’s described how the musical came about after the band's breakup in 1982. Multiple ideas for pantomimes and TV shows were all politely declined until Catherine Johnson came up with the musical’s plot and setting, grounding the narrative in the characters and letting the songs come from their journey. It made it feel like a modern fairy tale.
Donna, the activist and contrarian, railed against marriage in the spirit of free love. Sophie, with aspects of her mother, is getting married at 21 without ever having slept around. In an attempt to create what may seem like a sense of normalcy, that could also come across as rebellion against her Mother’s alternative lifestyle, Sophie wants to find out who her father is. She steals her mother’s old notebook and finds vague entries alluding to nights spent with three separate men around 9 months before she was born. She invites these men to the island in the hope that she can tell which one is her father on site. It turns out to be not so simple.
Gemma Hoskins’ Donna is trying to get by with a daughter she doesn’t agree with, and a past she has fond memories for but doesn’t need bothering her. Hoskins brings a lightness, humour and determination and doesn’t have to work hard to have us on her side, rooting for her. Her sensibilities of anti-marriage and freedom have been where my social circles swing politically at the moment. It is, ironically, a refreshing change from other narratives where the parents are prudes and the children reckless with their sexuality.
Rachel McSweeney’s Sophie is delightfully naive in her approach to solving problems and McSweeney plays her with a lot of heart and not a lot of foresight. Never falling into outlandishly bad–decision-making territory, she is fun and a joy to watch. Donna’s friends Tanya (Georgia Jamison Emms) and Rosie (Jody McCartney) are also really worth watching. The banter between them and Hoskins shows us clearly who they are and how they used to be, without ever needing a flashback. They bring the party into every scene!
The whole show feels very tongue-in-cheek, fun and funny. It romps with a lightness that a lot of people will appreciate at the moment—with everything that’s going on locally and beyond. When this musical was released in America, it was only weeks after 9/11 in 2001 and was so beloved as entertainment and escapism that it only closed in 2015 after 5,758 performances.
For those among us who haven’t forgotten that the people who bring us Mamma Mia!, Capital Theatre with G&T Productions, have been known to be a little shady in the past. Phoebe Robertson puts it best in their article there about how the production of Wicked was the biggest show in town and yet pretty much nobody got paid for it (among other things). However, there is an argument to be made about whether, with an underfunded arts sector, the choice is putting the show on without paying everyone or not putting the show on at all. Unfortunately, without total budget clarity we can’t be sure if this show can viably pay everyone involved appropriately.
The production was stellar, an intergenerational treat that the whole family will absolutely love. From start to finish to the three encores, it exuded positive energy into the crowd and livened up the room (especially at the end of the interval with the jump-scare chord). This was a modern-day fairy tale we could all use right now. Mamma Mia! closes on the 31st August, more info here.