To cynics, Mamma Mia, a musical built around the existing songs of the phenomenal pop group ABBA, might seem like glorified opportunist karaoke.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing: nothing like a good tune to warm the heart and stimulate the toes. As the gorgeous, chic, well-known NZ actress next to me squealed at the end, "I just love it!" There’s no denying the easy appeal of a show jam-packed with enduringly singable tunes and all their associated memories. After all, who hasn’t sung Dancing Queen into their hairbrush in front of the mirror when they were young? Ok. Just me huh.

Producer Judy Craymer conceived the idea 22 years ago, delivered her first Mamma Mia in 1999 and hit the jack-pot. Currently there are 8 productions in full-swing around the globe, cashing in on what director Phyllida Lloyd calls the "Mamma Mia Factor" (MMF) which gives the audience a shared experience with those on stage, thanks to Catherine Johnson’s book.

While I enjoy Johnson’s humorous, sometimes naughty but always totally digestible story -sort of ‘coming-of-age-meets-mid-life-crisis-meets-new beginnings-meets-second-chances-meets-live-the-dream-meets-love-in-all-its-infinite-wonder’ – it is the perfectly formed pop melodies of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus that keeps Mamma Mia’s audiences dancing in the isles night after night.

In the hands of sound designers Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken, along with musical supervisor Martin Koch and musical director Carlton Edwards, their songs are given a rich, full and dynamic new lease of life via Mamma Mia.

This musical is also stunning to watch, thanks in particular to the tight collaborative efforts of production designer Mark Thompson, lighting designer Howard Harrison and choreographer Anthony van Laast.

Laast’s use of the ensemble, to form shapes and move as one, combines with Harrison’s textured lighting and layered definition to give an extra dimension and beauty to many of the show’s company numbers, such as Money Money Money. Laast’s treatment of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! and Voulez-Vous are absolute crowd favourites, as is his irresistible tap dancing men in wet suits during the "flipper-dance".

Harrison’s lighting is snappy, rich in summer colours and features everything from a low-tech yet completely appropriate string of festoons for the pre-wedding bash, to a freaky UV lit acid-trip, with luminescent fishy folk swimming inside poor Sophie’s head.

Thompson & associate set designer Jonathan Allen’s vision is a clean, clear sea and sky, evoking endless days of summer. This frames an authentic rustic wharf, able to transform into Donna’s stucco Greek getaway with a simple revolve, giving the cast ideal elevation for all scenes. 

Director Lloyd and her touring associates, Paul Garrington and Andrew Wale, set the story at a brisk pace, though some spoken dialogue has a tendency to switch from light and conversational to a shouting match in an instant. In particular moments between Sky (Gary Watson) and Sophie (Miria Parvin) seem a little contrived. Also, some of the more reflective or earnest songs are given a more intimate mood, with just the singer on stage. Without the support of the dynamic ensemble, some of these performances drag a little. Unless you are a die-hard ABBA fan, The Winner Takes It All, What’s The Name Of The Game and Knowing Me Knowing You, suffer somewhat from the empty space.

I’d like to celebrate the tenacity of producer Craymer and writer Johnson, not only for creating this fun night out, but also for creating a hit musical requiring 6 mature musical theatre artists for its lead roles: The result is wonderfully refreshing mix of chunky, wrinkly and real.

The trio of men are marvellous. Michael Beckley as Bill is a loveable rough diamond, with inspirational disco moves. He and Leigh McDonald as the amorous Rosie make a meal of Laast’s delicious "musical chairs" in Take A Chance On Me. Cameron Blakely gives Sam Carmichael a sweet tenor voice that is particularly fine in SOS. John Alastair’s understated Harry is adorable – the added bonus being he has an uncanny resemblance to Colin Firth.

The trio of women work well together. In particular, Geraldine Fitzgerald’s Tania and McDonald’s Rosie are hilarious as they try to cheer up distraught Donna with their special twist on Chiquitita. Jackie Clune gives Donna the vocal power she needs to pull off some of the show’s most iconic numbers. Yet Clune also shows considered light, shade and vulnerability during her more personal songs, such as One Of Us Is Lonely.  

The trio of young girls are upbeat and bright – Sophie (Miria Parvin) has the perfect best friends in Ali (Karli Vale) and Lisa (Nicky Griffiths). Parvin gives a particularly touching performance alongside her mother, bonding over wedding dress preparations.

Finally, the trio of young strapping lads are very watchable. Tim Newman as Pepper is especially entertaining, pulling out his try-hard hip-hop and MJ moves alongside Fitzgerald in Does Your Mother Know. However, by the end of the song, Tania shows what a magnificent cougar she is, and uses little more than her stature to smoothly dominant the scene.

Eddie, played by live-wire Sebastian Sykes, gets a well deserved laugh for his deflated bagpipes, while Gary Watson’s stand out moment as Sky comes when he flexes to full effect as he slips into his wetsuit.

Not to detract from this talented cast, the ensemble deserves a special mention. As a cohesive, well-oiled machine, they are uniformly awe-inspiring in every company number, exploding on to the stage with energy and flare, delivering many of the evening’s highlights.

Mamma Mia is summer romance with great tunes and a very happy ending: the neat and tidy wedding of chaos and confessions is a fitting finish to this bubbly night out. The compulsory finale medley predictably has the open night audience on their feet.

Coda: here are some comments from my 5-year-old daughter, regarding:
– the pre-show AV / lighting seascape: "That’s water."
– the sound: "Too loud just then Mummy. That was scary."
– the DVD she loves: "It’s like my Mamma Mia, but I think they made some bits up."
– going out with mum: "It’s good to see some new people"
– the meaning of it all, during SOS she whispered: "Those two are trying to say how much they love each other.

Priceless. 
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With more fizz than an exploding champagne bottle and enough feel-good factor to fuel a cheerleaders convention Mamma Mia! thoroughly justifies the exclamation mark that is part of the show’s title.

Anyone who has spent the last three decades trying to get Abba tunes out of their head will be amazed at the persistence of memory. These songs have permanently insinuated themselves into our collective unconscious. [More]
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What better show to set the pulses racing in spring than this sunny smash hit of a musical, adding far flung Aotearoa to the list of simultaneous productions pumping out all over the world. For this zesty recapturing of irrepressible ABBA music plays, we are told, to 17,000 people a night and since its opening at the Prince Edward Theatre in London in1999, a staggering forty million people have joined in the fun.

Although its staging in the concrete vastness of the Westpac Stadium might suggest otherwise, it is not limited to some techfest of noise and light, impressive though they be. This is a very clever weaving of ABBA favourites into an appealing story with vivid characters more or less driving a real plot.

The musical numbers arrive with gratifying regularity but they always contribute more than the pleasure of hearing them again and support the emotional impact of the human story impeccably.

We are on a Greek island where Sophie, the only daughter of the redoubtable Donna, owner of the local taverna, is about to be married. Sophie has really started something when she found and read the diary her mother kept in the year before her birth, discovering that any one of three men could be her father.

Of course she invites them secretly to her wedding as any spirited young woman would want to do, relying on instinct to tell her which one is the real papa. The arrival of old friends and old flames for the event marks the beginning of the complications and of course the solutions. Both are hugely enjoyable.

The story races along with smashing entertainment at every opportunity. Donna and her two best friends do their Donna and the Dynamos act, the three maybe fathers impact on hearts and mindsets and the young lovers fall out and in again. All this has the audience wanting to get up and join in. An undercurrent of Cantabrian voices accompanied many of the songs on opening night.

The staging for such a large show is comparatively simple as classic curved white taverna walls neatly reconfigure for various locations, amplified by lighting effects which lift the mood and cover scene changes with fluid wizardry.

Support for the dazzling choreography of the big numbers is outstanding. From original production direction and design, an international team of associates propels the international version (direction Andrew Wale, choreography Nichola Treherne, music Nick Finlow, set Jonathan Allen, costume Lucy Gaiger, lighting Andrew Voller and sound Brian Beasley and Richard Brooker). Every aspect of the touring production is as colourful and polished as if it had been up and running on home ground for weeks, transforming the stadium into a place of focussed pleasure.

Beyond the smiles and the applause, there are definable ‘human’ themes if one wanted to explain further the work’s popularity. Family relationships are there of course, the generation gap most humorously and a passing glance at the question of identity, independence and self determination.

Really though, we are there for the music and the characters weaving it into their story. The familiar songs acquire an unfamiliar depth associated with particular roles and situations. They are more reflective and perhaps even more satisfying away from the pop scene.

The range of voices confirms freshness without losing the affection we feel for, among a generous rendering of others, Chiquitita, Dancing Queen, Knowing Me, Knowing You, Take a Chance On Me, or The Winner Takes It All, not to mention the joyful abandon of Mamma Mia itself or I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do and that wistful wonder I Have a Dream. 

In the mother-daughter pairing, Jackie Clune and Miria Parvin are dynamic, cementing theirs as the central relationship between Donna and daughter Sophie, around which the others develop. Donna’s old mates Tanya, an exotic Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Rosie, vivacious Leigh McDonald, could hardly be bettered and as Sophie’s fiancé Sky, Gary Watson brings tenderness as well as machismo to his part in the proceedings.

As the trio of maybe dads, Cameron Blakely (Sam), John Alastair (Harry) and Michael Beckley (Bill) confirm the strength of this whole British cast .They can sing and act with equal impact – and they do pack a powerful punch.

By the final scintillating set pieces, with a stage full of brilliant movement, sound and light, the ABBA legacy is well and truly delivered and infectious exhilaration is complete.
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