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Mamma Mia


 



When: 16th July 2022

Where: Novello Theatre, London (Matinee)

Writer: Catherine Johnson

Director: Phyllida Lloyd


I have always loved Mamma Mia, it has always been my comfort film. When the second film was released I went through an embarrassingly strong obsession. In fact this is the second time I have seen the stage show, and I do think I prefer the stage version to the film. There are more songs and more nuanced details in the show compared to the film.

I am a regular theatre goer and I do normally see plays, so I was expecting the audience to be a little chatty and rustley. What I was not prepared for was two people behind me having a full blown conversation at full volume. I don't want to go into this here and will be doing another post on my bad audience experience, but I wanted to mention it as sadly I do feel this had a massive impact on my enjoyment of the show. 

Everyone knows sort of what to expect with Mamma Mia, you know the story, you know to expect fun coloured lighting and sparkly outfits and ABBA songs, and it definitely lives up to this. I love the way the show is shown, they don't use over complicated sets or fancy techniques. The set is simple and yet you know exactly where they are, I also think its a really interesting choice to not hide the actors coming on and off, almost reminding you its a show not real life. I also love the way they use lighting across the whole of the auditorium and stage to bring the audience into the party that is being shown on stage. Particularly the moments at the beginning of each act where we are sat with funky lighting and music for quite a while before the curtain is lifted and the story starts. This really helps to build the audiences excitement, and it gives this idea that you are being transported to this story through ABBAs music. 

The performances are really interesting too, I love the way in which the performaers are totally aware of the audience looking out towards them and bringing them into the party during the fun scenes. Yet also turning their backs to them and ignoring them during private scenes. To me this is really interesting as when first starting out acting you are always told to include the audience in everything you do, never putting your back towards them and this show does both. There are so many shows in the west end at the moment that encourage people to attend by including someone they know from somewhere else particularly screen actors, but this is not the case for Mamma Mia and I don't believe thay ever have done. I think this works in their favour because everyone there is there to see the show not the performers, meaning 1. All the performers get more equal recognition, and 2. They don't have to do as much for us to totally believe their characters as we don't have the non-character version of them to compare them too. I really like this, and the all the performers in the show I saw were amazing. I didn't get a programme as I already have one from the last time I went so I don't know whether I saw the leads, the understudies, the swings, but it doesn't really matter becasue they are all incredible at their jobs.

Another thing I wanted to congratulate the show on was its inclusivity, a few rows infront there was a girl in a wheelchair who clearly had a disability, and I could sense the audience membeers around me getting worried that she might ruin the show for them as she came in. However she was no where near as disruptive as the people behind, but this is not the reason I brought this up. I was thrilled to see how well the ushers treated them, letting them know where everything was and where to go and who to ask for anything. I am a believer that theatre should be accessible for everyone, and I was so happy to see her being able to enjoy the show just as much as everyone else, if not more. Her clear thrill and enjoyment during the show helped me to enjoy the show more and desperately try to ignore the people behind me. 

Sadly due to my experience with bad audience members, I was unable to totally detach from the audience and enjoy it as much as I wanted to, luckily this was my second time seeing it, and I got rush tickets so paid no where near full price, but it has taken a little bit of time to recognise that I enjoyed it because as soon as I left the theatre all I wanted to do was rant. Saying all this I would totally reccomend Mamma Mia, its not classical evening at the theatre and if thats what your looking for i would go elsewhere, but if you want a fun time, which any member of the family will enjoy, or if you haven't been before it's definitely a must see, you won't regret it.

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