Theater/ OperaMamma Mia > Review
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excellent
Mamma Mia! can I go again?!
tazzywazzy (24)
london
Please note: ticket prices are £50, but for some reason trivago have said that tickets are £34 (?)
Last night, I was treated to a lovely evening by my mamma and her partner. I work in Blackfriars, so after work, I took the tube to Embankment and walked to Covent Garden (5 min walk), met up with everyone at about 5:30 and had a lovely meal at Fire & Stone (turning into my all time favourite Pizza place in London). After a glorious gorging session we waddled down to Leicester Square (about 5-10min walk) very full and very satisfied, where my Mamma had booked tickets to see Mamma Mia!
The Theatre
Mamma Mia is being shown at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Coventry Street, Leicester Square, just off Shaftsbury Avenue. You can get to Leicester Square really easily by either walking from Charing Cross (or Embankment), Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden or Tottenham Court Road.
The first theatre that was opened on this site was in January 1884 (100 years before I was born!), but was demolished in 1937 to build the current theatre. Two years ago (this coming Thursday) the Prince of Wales theatre was re-opened by The Prince of Wales as it had undergone some major refurbishments, which bought it's seating capacity up to 1,160 (across two floors) just before Mamma Mia started to show here.
Entering the theatre, it seems very clean and the interior condition seems really new still. We had pre-ordered our tickets and collected them at the window without any problems, we turned up half an hour early to ensure that we managed to get our tickets before the show started, but this really was not necessary as there weren't any queues.
Clutching our tickets in our sweaty paws we went through the box office area into the theatre. We were sitting downstairs, but we stopped to get a couple of programmes. These were £10 each (which is I suppose a pretty average price for programmes these days) and for your £10 you get an A4 glossy programme with lots of pictures from the show, the cover is white with the trademark picture of the girl in her wedding dress, you also get a smaller A5 booklet with the words Mamma Mia! on the front, which is a book of credits for the cast and crew.
One thing that I do need to point out is that I don't think that the book of credits we got had the correct actors listed, some of the cast were of course pictured correctly, but a lot of the pictures didn't look anything like the actors on the stage!
OK....tickets and programmes in hand, we head downstairs, looking for the ladies room - oh joy we found the bar!!! My sister and mamma went off to the toilets whilst I checked out the bar..."Gin & Tonic over here!"
Drink in hand, I can now go about looking around the bar area, it seems nice, well air-conditioned and fresh, very nice and light, and quite modern, a lot of red and white - nice and clean - I like it, simple, modern & minimal, now to find a seat, there are quite a few little round tables scattered around and a "stage" type area with a mini grand piano on it where a couple of people have perched themselves and some sofa/futon style seats attached to the wall, that looks like a good place to sit!
My sister and mamma return from the ladies, apparently they are nice and clean, but a bit smelly (my sister recons this is from the volume of usage it has seen over such a short space of time).
Oh...no smoking in the bar or theatre!
The Show
We got really good seats, row L so only about 12 rows from the front, and the view was brilliant, my sister was even luckier nobody was sitting in front of her - but I guess that's only fair she is really small!
To be honest I really was not sure what to expect, the scene opens and we see a girl sitting on a wall singing I have a dream and she is posting some letters.
Next two girls come along and we learn that the girls name is Sophie and she is about to get married, and the two girls are her best friends and bridesmaids. Next thing that we find out is that Sophie doesn't know who her father is and that she has found her mammas diary and the next song that breaks is Honey Honey which is read from the mammas diary. By this song I was hooked, the song was comical and the cast carried it off brilliantly and the song really fitted the story.
From the diary we find out that Sophie could have three potential fathers - Harry Bright, Sam Carmichael & Bill Austin, oh and Sophie's wedding is in about 2 days time and she has invited all three of them!
In the following scenes we meet the rest of the characters:
Sophie's Mamma, Donna - a pretty cool, laid back, chilled out mamma in dungarees, and learn that she owns a taverna (the set) on a tiny Greek island
Sophie's two Aunts - Rosie & Tanya who used to be in a band called Donna's Dynamos with Sophie's Mamma. Rosie was played by someone who, to me, looked & sounded a lot like Victoria Wood (from Dinner Ladies) but I can't find any information anywhere confirming that and was brilliant, Tanya is a woman that has made a living from marrying rich men, spending their millions and then divorcing them, she sort of reminds me of Dorian from Birds of a Feather!
3 x Fathers:
Harry Bright - a very conservative character, whose only crazy moments were when he was with Donna, he is now married with no kids and works as a banker. He seems timid and quite reserved, but it turns out that he used to be known as Harry Head banger!
Sam Carmichael - Was the love of Donna's life (out of all three I think), but he was in Greece on holiday and left Donna to go home and get married to his fiancée. He also designed the taverna, which Donna later built.
Bill Austin - a writer from Leeds, a really funny character, the one that I thought would have been the most likely candidate to be Sophie's dad.
Sky - Sophie's fiancée, he doesn't really have much of a role in the play and is a bit of a bland character
Pepper, Eddie & the rest of Sky's mates, sort of like a tweedle Dee & tweedle dumb, pepper is a small actor and he sort of reminds me of a Seth Green type, he is a bit sex crazed and determined to get it "owwwwn" with Tanya. Pepper & Eddie both work at the taverna for Donna.
The set itself is really simple, but it works brilliantly, it means that the curtains aren't constantly coming down for set changes, the set is basically 2 x curved structures - 1 side of it is made to look like the outside of a building, the moves around (mechanically) to form the inside of a a building, actually there are quite a few variations, just depending on how the two walls are positioned.
Ok, so the story starts to unfold, Harry, Bill & Sam all arrive at the taverna together, under the impression that Donna has invited them...many hilarious scenes follow.
The first half ends with Sophie sort of discovering who her father is, although, all three think they are her father and poor Sophie is still none the wiser as to who her father is!
Interval
We pre-ordered our drinks for the interval when we had our first lot of drinks and they were laid out on a table waiting for us in the bar which was nice, again my mamma and sister popped off to the toilets but I decided not to brave the queues (even in aid of a good review)!
Second Half
Opens with a strange dream sequence, the costumes kind of reminded me on the theatre of light in Prague (sorry if you haven't been, but that's the best way I can describe it) - lots of neon coloured gloves and costumes!
Will Sophie find out who her Dad is? Will she live happily ever after with her new husband? Will Sophie forgive her mamma for never knowing who her father was?
The play ends with a couple of Abba songs by the cast in full blown costume - which is great - everyone gets up and has a bit of a boogy around!!!
My Opinion
I loved this musical, it was really easy to follow, and all the Abba songs fit the story line perfectly. It was really funny and really amusing, although, I did notice that there were quite a few younger viewers (about 8/9 years old) in the audience, and to be honest, I would not really recommend this to anyone under the age of 11/12 as the play has a mild "American Pie" feel to the whole thing, there is a whole lot of grabbing of boobies and male nether regions and a bit of a raunchy scene between Sophie and Sky, I think that a couple of these scenes mixed with the adults laughing in the audience may lead to a few uncomfortable questions to answer on the way home. There is also a mild reference to smoking weed, one scene sees Donna and Harry reminiscing about old times in Paris and Donna mimes the actions of rolling a joint and getting stoned!
Overall I would give this a massive 10/10 it was brilliant for light entertainment and a thoroughly enjoyable evening out, men and women alike will enjoy this - our tickets were about £50 each, but you can get them as cheap as £25, this would be a great 16th birthday gift for a girlie and her mates - it is a really feel good play that left me smiling as I left the theatre!
Neither my sister's boyf. or my boyf came to watch this with us, as they did not want to pay for their tickets, however if they didn't have to fork out the massive £50 I think they would have thoroughly enjoyed it!
Hope you enjoyed my review, sorry it's a bit long x
also on dooyoo & ciao
Last night, I was treated to a lovely evening by my mamma and her partner. I work in Blackfriars, so after work, I took the tube to Embankment and walked to Covent Garden (5 min walk), met up with everyone at about 5:30 and had a lovely meal at Fire & Stone (turning into my all time favourite Pizza place in London). After a glorious gorging session we waddled down to Leicester Square (about 5-10min walk) very full and very satisfied, where my Mamma had booked tickets to see Mamma Mia!
The Theatre
Mamma Mia is being shown at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Coventry Street, Leicester Square, just off Shaftsbury Avenue. You can get to Leicester Square really easily by either walking from Charing Cross (or Embankment), Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden or Tottenham Court Road.
The first theatre that was opened on this site was in January 1884 (100 years before I was born!), but was demolished in 1937 to build the current theatre. Two years ago (this coming Thursday) the Prince of Wales theatre was re-opened by The Prince of Wales as it had undergone some major refurbishments, which bought it's seating capacity up to 1,160 (across two floors) just before Mamma Mia started to show here.
Entering the theatre, it seems very clean and the interior condition seems really new still. We had pre-ordered our tickets and collected them at the window without any problems, we turned up half an hour early to ensure that we managed to get our tickets before the show started, but this really was not necessary as there weren't any queues.
Clutching our tickets in our sweaty paws we went through the box office area into the theatre. We were sitting downstairs, but we stopped to get a couple of programmes. These were £10 each (which is I suppose a pretty average price for programmes these days) and for your £10 you get an A4 glossy programme with lots of pictures from the show, the cover is white with the trademark picture of the girl in her wedding dress, you also get a smaller A5 booklet with the words Mamma Mia! on the front, which is a book of credits for the cast and crew.
One thing that I do need to point out is that I don't think that the book of credits we got had the correct actors listed, some of the cast were of course pictured correctly, but a lot of the pictures didn't look anything like the actors on the stage!
OK....tickets and programmes in hand, we head downstairs, looking for the ladies room - oh joy we found the bar!!! My sister and mamma went off to the toilets whilst I checked out the bar..."Gin & Tonic over here!"
Drink in hand, I can now go about looking around the bar area, it seems nice, well air-conditioned and fresh, very nice and light, and quite modern, a lot of red and white - nice and clean - I like it, simple, modern & minimal, now to find a seat, there are quite a few little round tables scattered around and a "stage" type area with a mini grand piano on it where a couple of people have perched themselves and some sofa/futon style seats attached to the wall, that looks like a good place to sit!
My sister and mamma return from the ladies, apparently they are nice and clean, but a bit smelly (my sister recons this is from the volume of usage it has seen over such a short space of time).
Oh...no smoking in the bar or theatre!
The Show
We got really good seats, row L so only about 12 rows from the front, and the view was brilliant, my sister was even luckier nobody was sitting in front of her - but I guess that's only fair she is really small!
To be honest I really was not sure what to expect, the scene opens and we see a girl sitting on a wall singing I have a dream and she is posting some letters.
Next two girls come along and we learn that the girls name is Sophie and she is about to get married, and the two girls are her best friends and bridesmaids. Next thing that we find out is that Sophie doesn't know who her father is and that she has found her mammas diary and the next song that breaks is Honey Honey which is read from the mammas diary. By this song I was hooked, the song was comical and the cast carried it off brilliantly and the song really fitted the story.
From the diary we find out that Sophie could have three potential fathers - Harry Bright, Sam Carmichael & Bill Austin, oh and Sophie's wedding is in about 2 days time and she has invited all three of them!
In the following scenes we meet the rest of the characters:
Sophie's Mamma, Donna - a pretty cool, laid back, chilled out mamma in dungarees, and learn that she owns a taverna (the set) on a tiny Greek island
Sophie's two Aunts - Rosie & Tanya who used to be in a band called Donna's Dynamos with Sophie's Mamma. Rosie was played by someone who, to me, looked & sounded a lot like Victoria Wood (from Dinner Ladies) but I can't find any information anywhere confirming that and was brilliant, Tanya is a woman that has made a living from marrying rich men, spending their millions and then divorcing them, she sort of reminds me of Dorian from Birds of a Feather!
3 x Fathers:
Harry Bright - a very conservative character, whose only crazy moments were when he was with Donna, he is now married with no kids and works as a banker. He seems timid and quite reserved, but it turns out that he used to be known as Harry Head banger!
Sam Carmichael - Was the love of Donna's life (out of all three I think), but he was in Greece on holiday and left Donna to go home and get married to his fiancée. He also designed the taverna, which Donna later built.
Bill Austin - a writer from Leeds, a really funny character, the one that I thought would have been the most likely candidate to be Sophie's dad.
Sky - Sophie's fiancée, he doesn't really have much of a role in the play and is a bit of a bland character
Pepper, Eddie & the rest of Sky's mates, sort of like a tweedle Dee & tweedle dumb, pepper is a small actor and he sort of reminds me of a Seth Green type, he is a bit sex crazed and determined to get it "owwwwn" with Tanya. Pepper & Eddie both work at the taverna for Donna.
The set itself is really simple, but it works brilliantly, it means that the curtains aren't constantly coming down for set changes, the set is basically 2 x curved structures - 1 side of it is made to look like the outside of a building, the moves around (mechanically) to form the inside of a a building, actually there are quite a few variations, just depending on how the two walls are positioned.
Ok, so the story starts to unfold, Harry, Bill & Sam all arrive at the taverna together, under the impression that Donna has invited them...many hilarious scenes follow.
The first half ends with Sophie sort of discovering who her father is, although, all three think they are her father and poor Sophie is still none the wiser as to who her father is!
Interval
We pre-ordered our drinks for the interval when we had our first lot of drinks and they were laid out on a table waiting for us in the bar which was nice, again my mamma and sister popped off to the toilets but I decided not to brave the queues (even in aid of a good review)!
Second Half
Opens with a strange dream sequence, the costumes kind of reminded me on the theatre of light in Prague (sorry if you haven't been, but that's the best way I can describe it) - lots of neon coloured gloves and costumes!
Will Sophie find out who her Dad is? Will she live happily ever after with her new husband? Will Sophie forgive her mamma for never knowing who her father was?
The play ends with a couple of Abba songs by the cast in full blown costume - which is great - everyone gets up and has a bit of a boogy around!!!
My Opinion
I loved this musical, it was really easy to follow, and all the Abba songs fit the story line perfectly. It was really funny and really amusing, although, I did notice that there were quite a few younger viewers (about 8/9 years old) in the audience, and to be honest, I would not really recommend this to anyone under the age of 11/12 as the play has a mild "American Pie" feel to the whole thing, there is a whole lot of grabbing of boobies and male nether regions and a bit of a raunchy scene between Sophie and Sky, I think that a couple of these scenes mixed with the adults laughing in the audience may lead to a few uncomfortable questions to answer on the way home. There is also a mild reference to smoking weed, one scene sees Donna and Harry reminiscing about old times in Paris and Donna mimes the actions of rolling a joint and getting stoned!
Overall I would give this a massive 10/10 it was brilliant for light entertainment and a thoroughly enjoyable evening out, men and women alike will enjoy this - our tickets were about £50 each, but you can get them as cheap as £25, this would be a great 16th birthday gift for a girlie and her mates - it is a really feel good play that left me smiling as I left the theatre!
Neither my sister's boyf. or my boyf came to watch this with us, as they did not want to pay for their tickets, however if they didn't have to fork out the massive £50 I think they would have thoroughly enjoyed it!
Hope you enjoyed my review, sorry it's a bit long x
also on dooyoo & ciao
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