Mamma Mia! Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and some songs with Stig Anderson. Book by Catherine Johnson, originally conceived by Judy Craymer. Directed by Jarrad West. Musical director: Alexander Unikowski. Associate director and choreographer: Michelle Heine. Free-Rain Theatre Company. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, until May 8, 2021. theq.net.au/mammamia or (02) 62856290.
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By the end of Free-Rain Theatre's COVID-delayed production of Mamma Mia! most of the audience were enthusiastically on their feet and there was dancing in the aisles. And certainly those ABBA songs bring on waves of nostalgia.
However, there's more to Mamma Mia! than 1970s music. It's a musical that celebrates more than young love and it has an edge of seriousness about the need (or not) for marriage and recognised paternity.
It's all set on a Greek island, where free-spirited Donna (Louiza Blomfield) runs a guest house. Her daughter Sophie (Charlotte Gearside) is about to be married to straightforward Sky (Will Collett) and the guests are gathering.
They include Sophie's bubbly best friends Lisa (Jessica Gowing) and Ali (Meaghan Stewart) and Donna's rather more world-weary mates, much married Tanya (Helen McFarlane) and never married Rosie (Tracy Noble). The mates and Donna were once a trio, which is a better excuse for bursting into song than is given to characters in most musicals.
But who will give the bride away? Sophie, prompted by a sneak peek at her mother's diaries, has posted wedding invitations to three possible paternal candidates from 20-odd years before. And they arrive. Harry (Mark Maconachie) has gentle charm and money. Bill (Paul Sweeney) is a brash travel writer who has never settled down. Sam (Isaac Gordon) is the architect who came up with the design for the guest house that he returns to see Donna has built.
How it all works out, with ABBA songs the only music, is clever and somewhat satisfying. ABBA songs can have tremendous energy and this cast takes full advantage of iconic upbeat numbers like and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! and Money, Money, Money to not only advance the plot but also to have the audience certainly joining in sotto voce long before the curtain call. We know the words, we know the tunes and the lure is great.
Michelle Heine's choreography has the dancers adding fresh energy and humour every time the guest house staff and the crowd of tourists arrive on stage. Their curtain call routines contain some excellent individual surprises.
But ABBA music also has a melancholy and a romance about it as does the plot. Gearside catches well Sophie's yearning to know her parentage and there's a good seriousness about the way Blomfield's spirited Donna sticks to her independence.
However, the production sometimes seems to find subtlety difficult. The set is a rather splendid Greek guest house but the lighting is often straight out of a disco. The Greek island atmosphere often vanishes under whirling patterns and primary colours and flashing lights. And the sound seems still to need sorting out so that the singing is properly supported.
But it's very hard to deny the heart in this musical and the audience appeal of all those ABBA songs. Waterloo, Chiquitita and, inevitably, the irresistible Dancing Queen all turn up and the audience loves them. Blomfield's powerful singing of The Winner Takes it All and Gearside's delicate handling of I Have a Dream are among the delights for ABBA fans.
And it is so good to see the arrival of another of those shows delayed by COVID.
