Mamma Mia!
Aside from the State Fair Musical, which is Mary Poppins this year, Mamma Mia! is the last of the 2009 Dallas Summer Musicals and is currently playing at The Music Hall at Fair Park.
Mamma Mia! is set on a Greek Island, and the plot revolves around a 20 year old woman getting married and trying to figure out which of three men is her father before her wedding. However, the point of the musical is not really the plot. It was designed around the music of ABBA, and the plot grew out of that theme.
Before I tell you my thoughts on this performance, I should probably come clean. Mamma Mia! is nowhere close to one of my favorite musicals. Now don't get me wrong; I don't hate it. There are some performance pieces I absolutely refuse to watch, such as the Opera Salome. I don't care how enticing the Dance of the Seven Veils is supposed to be. I honestly wish Strauss had just kept his thoughts to himself with that one. I do not feel that way about Mamma Mia!, but a performance would have to be really incredible for me to be thrilled with it.
This performance did not thrill me. However, it had some really good points. To be totally honest, there were three specific things that dramatically lowered my impression of the performance. The first was the opening scene. The actresses playing Sophie's two best friends, Ali and Lisa, quite simply did a really poor job. They were so exaggerated in playing their parts that it was not entertaining to me. I was actually concerned that this was the way the show had been directed and it would be a terribly uncomfortable constant throughout. Thankfully that was not the case, but that scene was rather painful. After that things did get much better.
The biggest disappointment in the performance was one person: Michelle Dawson. She plays the part of Sophie's mother, Donna Sheridan, and unfortunately most of her performances were just not good. When singing with another performer, she was right on. However, when singing solo, as is often required in this role, things were not quite so good. She was constantly about a half a beat ahead or behind of the music, which makes things generally uncomfortable for the audience. At one point she sang a beautiful lyrical solo, and I was just sinking into my seat in relief when she screamed the ending of the song like a banshee being tortured. So much for that. I will, however, give her the benefit of the doubt that she was having an off night. She has had leading roles in multiple productions and has received positive reviews for Mamma Mia! as well.
The third disappointment is actually pretty minor and probably something that only annoyed me. Probably my favorite ABBA song is Take a Chance on Me mostly because I love the rhythmic background track. It is featured in the musical as a solo performance sung to Bill by Rosie, who is played masterfully in this production by Kittra Wynn Coomer. However, they omited the background vocals completely, which flattened the song and ruined it for me.
Everything else was actually pretty well done, and there are certainly some positive highlights. As I said already, Kittra Wynn Coomer did an exceptional job with the character of Rosie, and Rosie's counterpart, Tanya, was equally well played by Rachel Tyler. The male chorus certainly deserves some recognition, and the three title roles in that group, Sky, Pepper, and Eddie, played by Adam Jacobs, Adam Michael Kaokept, and Michael Roberts McKee each had standout performances. Of the "three fathers," John Hemphill playing Sam Carmichael stood out above anyone else in the cast.
If you make it out to see Mamma Mia! before it closes this coming weekend, please do not be one of those people who runs out of the theater as soon as the closing music starts. Not only is it annoying and rude to everyone else in the room as well as those on the stage, but you will miss one of the best parts of the show. The curtain call for Mamma Mia! is basically a mini-concert of ABBA Music performed by the entire cast, and it definitely helps end the show on a high note.
Mamma Mia! will be performed nightly at 8:00 PM at The Music Hall at Fair Park through Saturday, August 29 with 2:00 PM matinee performances on Thursday, August 27, Saturday, August 29, and Sunday, August 30 for the closing Dallas performance.
