The new touring production makes its first stop in Denver at the Buell Theatre
When I heard some time back in the ’90s that someone was making a musical using a bunch of old ABBA songs, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The term “jukebox musical” wasn’t even a thing yet, and as it turned out, the show — Mamma Mia! — turned out to be a huge hit that inspired just about every jukebox musical to follow. Then it got turned into a movie, then another movie and today we’ve got the 25th anniversary tour of the show kicking off in Denver.
Those who’ve seen Mamma Mia! before can rest assured that this production is faithful to the source material, with the live band rocking those earworm tunes at top volume while a topnotch cast plays out a silly plot about a wedding on a Greek island. There are a few tweaks to the costumes and a bit of the action, but mostly things haven’t changed on the island where Sophie (Alisa Melendez) is trying to find her bio dad to walk her down the aisle. Trouble is, her mom, Donna (Christine Sherrill) was a bit busy with the blokes 20 years ago, and it could be one of three options. Without letting Donna know, Sophie sends all three of them invites to her wedding, setting up the hijinks ahead. As the potential dads, Jim Newman, Victor Wallace and Rob Marnell are all well suited to their roles while Donna’s besties — Tanya and Rosie (Jalynn Steele and Carly Sakolove) deliver a lot of the best laugh lines.
This production is also noteworthy for the choreography by Anthony Van Laast and how well the cast pulled it off on only its second night out of rehearsal (Denver is the first stop on a year-long U.S. tour). It’s a wildly energetic set of musical numbers accompanying all the well-known ABBA hits from “Dancing Queen” and “Super Trouper” to “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and, of course, “Mamma Mia.” The principal players are all quite strong, and the ensemble of dancers and singers backing up all the numbers is pretty amazing. The only shortcoming was with some of the audio, which needs some more dialing in to adjust to the hall. In some instances, the mics were dropping some of the actors’ voices as well.
Since this is a short run with limited availability for tickets, I’ll leave it here and simply suggest that if you’re looking for a high-powered musical confection that’ll leave you with a big smile on your face, you can’t do better than a trip downtown to see this new production of Mamma Mia!
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