Theater Review: "Mamma Mia!"

If the movie version of this Broadway classic left you scratching your head and asking “Why the heck do people go crazy about ‘Mamma Mia!’?” then get the real answer by attending a funnier, more polished stage production of “Mamma Mia!,” which runs at the Pantages Theatre through Sunday.

First, there’s the soon-to-be-married daughter Sophie, an ordinary American girl living on a Greek island who desperately wants to know who her real father is. The many young audience members seemed to share Sophie’s sense of adventure, going crazy when she sings “I Have a Dream” to begin and end the musical.

Next, there’s Sophie’s middle-aged mother, Donna Sheridan, the caretaker of the island hotel who’s had affairs with three different men 20 years ago, which gave rise to her only daughter.

Mothers can identify with her difficult life in raising a child as a single mom when she sings “Money, Money, Money.”

Single women worship her as well, because her romantic spirit never seems to wane. Throughout the musical, she is surrounded and courted by her ex-lovers, including one Harry Bright, whose British accent is delivered with perfection by Michael Aaron Lindner.

Then there are those of us who believe and wish for second chances. Sam Carmichael is a divorced dad with two children who comes to the Greek island determined to claim his child, whom he believes he fathered with Donna.

Little does he know that two other strangers were summoned to the same task. The expert singing of John Hemphill stands out in the ballad “S. O. S.”

What may indeed be utterly frustrating in the movie version is that some of the best songs are missing.

One of the best songs in the musical, “Thank You for the Music,” was barely mentioned in the film, but in the stage version, we get the full song with the Sophie-Harry duet that celebrates the musical itself with lyrics like “What would life be? Without a song or a dance what are we?”

The slapstick comedy that the film version lacks comes through fully in the stage version. In one instance, Donna’s pals Tanya (Rachel Tyler) and Rosie (Kittra Wynn Coomer) relive their past collective glory in a girl band with Donna by using a hair dryer and a scuba diving tube as microphones.

Tanya’s role is especially well-done, with Tyler swatting off the amorous boys of the Greek island as if they are overdeveloped flies. Another comic performance that stands out is that of Adam Michael Kaokept’s Pepper.

There’s an additional element of drama that comes with the stage musical that cannot be reproduced in film. For example, when Donna first sees her ex-lovers, the stage promptly stops the actions of the three men and spotlights Donna’s reaction as she sings the entirety of the title song with the action frozen. The spotlight slowly starts to focus solely on Donna’s face, accentuating her distress.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of the performance is Michelle Dawson’s rendition of the song “The Winner Takes it All.”

At certain points, she seems to cry out the songs, giving a performance that is akin to Rex Harrison’s in “My Fair Lady.” She says the words rhythmically, rather than straight singing. Yet this is exactly what the song demands as Dawson cries out in angst near the end of the piece.

So even if you’ve seen the movie, don’t let that stop you from going to the real thing, “Mamma Mia! The Musical,” for the first time.

– Ray Luo