The original version of the movie Mamma Mia! looks better than ever now that the followup film continuing the story has been released. (You want irritable? Try The New York Times review of it.) Stages St. Louis currently shows off their version of the stage production on which the movie was based, and the smaller venue is a good way for its numerous fans to enjoy it – again, in many cases.
You know the story – Donna Sheridan, the lead singer in an all-female rock trio, left her group when she found out she was pregnant in the Seventies, and now runs a small hotel and taverna on an obscure Greek island. The daughter, Sophie, now 20, is getting married and thinks she may have identified who might be her father, the family secret. Three candidates, British, Australian and American. Unbeknownst to her mother, she’s invited the guys to the wedding.
Lots of themes resonate here. Sophie, Summerisa Bell Stevens, is very young to be getting married, especially by the standards of Donna, one of the original free spirits as played by Corrine Melancon. Donna doesn’t know which of the men, is the father, either, ex-head banger Harry, David Schmittou, Aussie explorer and writer Bill, Steve Isom, or the American who left her to return to his fiancee, Sam, played by Gregg Goodbrod. Her diary, found by Sophie, uses ellipses about each man right around when it happened. The groom Sky, David Sajewich, is rather a cipher, but that’s mostly the fault of the script.
Despite all this, it really is a lighthearted show, especially when Donna’s former bandmates show up, the frequently-married Tanya, who’s Dana Winkle, and Rose, Dan’yelle Williamson, less of an Earth Mother here than in some versions of the show.
Melancon’s Donna is a hard-working mother of the bride, visibly hesitant about the whole thing and even more rattled when her exes arrive, but she sounds good. Stevens gives us a Sophie that’s a lot more, uh, sophisticated than her lines would have us believe, and she, too, makes good use of the score. The three ex-swains all are pleasing, and in particular their harmonizing at the end of “Money, Money, Money” was a delight.
It’s also a real pleasure to see that choreographer Tony Gonzalez has in the number, ”Lay All Your Love on Me”, utilized swim fins for the men of the dance ensemble, a wonderful bit that is remarkably funny. Overall, it’s a handsome show with scenic design by James Wolk and lighting from Sean M. Savoie. The opening number of the second act, “Under Attack”, as Sophie dreams, shows great imagination, with plenty of surprises and some of the best use of black light I’ve seen in a number of years. Director Michael Hamilton has put together a fine tech ensemble for the show.
Still, these days, how many people in the audience, when they weren’t wanting to sing along, were wondering, What if she had been able to get those DNA kits?
A number of performances have already sold out – get a move on if this is your bag, as we would have said in the Seventies.
Mamma Mia!
Through August 19th
Stages St. Louis
Robert G. Reim Theatre
111 S. Geyer Rd., Kirkwood
314-821-2407