Mamma mia reading the diary4/15/2023 ![]() ![]() Donna and her two dynamos have some of the most crowd-pleasing numbers of the show and, in all manner of shiny lamé (bravo to costumers Michal Gaidano, Haley Culliton and Tracey Williams Sutton), the trio shine and bring the audience to its feet, the years having faded precisely nothing from their joie-de-vivre. Meanwhile, Kotula as grand-high-seductress, Tanya, Donna’s other friend, prowls the stage with anĪrched eyebrow that has seen everything and still wants more. The funniest moment of the whole show is his hilariously reluctant middle-aged seduction - “Take a Chance on Me” - by Donna’s friend Rosie, played with uproarious high spirits by Dianne Miller. Smitty West is Bill, the travel writer and globe trotter who prefers to trot alone. His warm, classical baritone works as velvety well in duet as solo. Nigel Chisholm is the archetypal stammering, self-effacing English banker, Harry, erstwhile hippy and “headbanger” and still with hidden “spontaneous” depths. Shane Bourbon plays it straight and sincere, with a soaring, searing voice, as Sam, the architect who broke Donna’s heart all those years before. ![]() The three potential fathers are each a glorious treat and it’s difficult to imagine stronger casting or voicesįor the roles. Bodhi Bourbon (sharing the stage with hisĭad, Shane) is Sophie’s besotted fiancé and the two share sweet, believable chemistry. We feel the sass she has inherited from Donna. Playing her daughter Sophie, has an angelic voice and face, but avoids the trap of coming off as too naiveĪnd saccharine. The knock ’em dead voice of Asunta Fleming as she soulfully plays free-spirited but discombobulated Donna is an audience-gasping star-turn. There’s no room for duff notes when singing such well-known numbers and, in this production, very little chance of them. The actors must be at the top of their game, not ![]() Thirdly, the casting can make or break a show like this. Unbeknownst to her mother, she reads her diary and invites the three men who might be her father to the wedding. Donna’s daughter Sophie is getting married. ![]() Secondly, the simple plot, the larger-than-life characters and the eye-pleasing choreography must be conjured into a cohesive whole and, in this production, director Tracey Williams Sutton, with the support of co-producer Herb Hemming, pulls it off seamlessly, with the considerable talents of choreographer Anna Kotula, musical director Andy Street and vocal director Smitty West. It has made us feel something, even the most cynical among us, and there is room enough in this world for high-brow and lowbrow art alike, provided both are excellent. We assuredly *do* feel the ebullience when we leave the show. With charming characters and the light-infused, summery atmosphere of the Greek islands, makes them trippy and exhilarating. “Mamma Mia!” takes ABBA’s well-known, ubiquitous, powerfully addictive melodies and, put together It’s much too easy to mistake the vociferous rejection of pop culture for artistic discernment. You will laugh and sing and love every minute of it, and the unconvinced cynics you take to the theater to see it with you will laugh and sing and love every minute of it, too, despite themselves.įirstly, the songs of ABBA (the Swedish superstars around whose songs the musical is based), cheesy as they are, are regarded musically as some of the most well-constructed, euphoria-inducing ear-worms of the last 50 years. It presents a sit-com-esque plot with a woman, a daughter, and three possible dads and within that plot, it shamelessly manipulates you with some of the kitschiest, cheesiest, endearingly Swedish and most iconic pop music that anybody ever sang along to into their hairbrush. “Mamma Mia!” now playing at Ojai Art Center Theater, is ridiculous. By Sami Zahringer Special to the Ojai Valley News ![]()
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