Local show hits the right notes

A couple who've seen the polished Broadway production of Mamma Mia! swear the home town version's much more spontaneous.

They're superstitious folk, theatre folk, therefore it's something of a surprise that Friday the 13th was chosen to ring up the curtain on Mamma Mia!

So much can go wrong with a show of this magnitude, let alone tempt fate selecting Black Friday to launch it, but a wee scenery whoopsie apart, providence smiled on the production that had the near-full house stamping, clapping and singing along to those oh so familiar ABBA numbers.

A couple who've seen the polished Broadway production swear the home town version's much more spontaneous.

Certainly, family and friends didn't hold back saluting their own when they made even the most cameo of appearances. This is as it should be when a relatively small musical theatre such as our own is bold enough to stage one of theatre-land's international biggies.

Mamma Mia! is billed as a romantic comedy, realistically it comes with undertones of Greek tragedy, its setting a taverna on a Greek island, where good-time '70s girl Donna Sheridan raises daughter Sophie, a child of uncertain paternal parentage.

She reads her mother's diary and secretly summons the three contenders for the 'Dad' title to her wedding. Let the fun and games begin.

With Donna, Rotorua has a double treat; she's played on alternate nights by musical theatre doyennes Evelyn Falconer and Susan Morrison. Falconer drew the opening night straw and couldn't be faulted. Kim Chapman as Sophie is also a deservedly familiar lead face on the local stage, Chicago and Miss Saigon included.

As hunky groom-to-be newbie Matatia Brell excels. Fresh out of Waiariki's Musical Academy he already carries the ' professional star in the making' imprint.

Whether newly minted or those of more mature years, the entire ensemble delivers pure enjoyment from go to whoa.

Imported director Dean McKerras' choreography's the icing on an already luscious cake, boys break-dancing in wetsuits and flippers . . . who'd have thought?

This is a multi-gener-ational show for a multi-generational audience. Take the kids, take Nana and Granddad, take yourselves. It's a long time between big stage local productions of this calibre.