Mamma Mia on Broadway, New York

...the end, find tickets for Mamma Mia, our second choice. The cheapest tickets were reasonably priced and we now knew that we were going to love the musical because we all loved the movie.

==Getting There==

On the first day we found the Winter Garden Theatre, purely by mistake, as I kept on getting us lost over and over again. The tickets hadn’t been booked by this time, so we assumed it was almost like karma that we ...
...I think it only houses Mamma Mia at the moment; it might house another one soon though.

==Final Opinion==

I didn’t want to write too much on this review as there is not too much to talk about other than what i’ve written. It was a lovely theatre production, however now I’ve seen it once, I don’t think I’ll go back to see it again at the theatre, if the film was identical almost to the theatre production, then other ... more

I have to say I’ve never read a review on a musical before let alone write one, so I’ve based it like the same way I would write a DVD review with a little bit more about the location and crew this time. Hopefully it works.

Mamma Mia

In New York, we all knew we could not come home without seeing a show on Broadway. We were not too bothered about what we watched, so took the risk, and didn’t book the tickets until we got to New York. Our lovely receptionist asked if we wanted to see a show, we told her which ones we were interested in, and she had a look for us.

Originally we wanted to see Wicked, however the price of the tickets were ridiculous, up in the $400 mark, each. I’m afraid this was a little too much for us, I think most people would have trouble with paying this amount for a musical. However, we did in the end, find tickets for Mamma Mia, our second choice. The cheapest tickets were reasonably priced and we now knew that we were going to love the musical because we all loved the movie.

Getting There

On the first day we found the Winter Garden Theatre, purely by mistake, as I kept on getting us lost over and over again. The tickets hadn’t been booked by this time, so we assumed it was almost like karma that we would be going to this theatre.

Due to the fact that our hotel is about 10-15 minutes from the theatre, we got a taxi there and back; mainly due to the fact that our feet were killing and we couldn’t really be bothered walking back to our hotel at 11.30pm.

The theatre is located at 1634 Broadway between West 50th and West 51st street between Broadway and 7th Avenue. Here is a link so a map:

Seating

Because we booked so late, the only seats available were in the Orchestra, we only paid around $100 each for the tickets and we were close up to the stage, but still got a brilliant view of the stage.

The most expensive seats I can find in the Orchestra at the moment is $469, and by the looks of things you have to buy 2 tickets +. The cheapest tickets, which seem to fit into the price we paid for it, is $110 which is a brilliant price.

If you want to sit in the Mezzanine then the highest priced ticket you’d be paying for probably is $219 and the lowest priced ticket is $83. I would have thought that the Mezzanine would have been pricier but by the looks of things it seems to be a lot cheaper. It did look completely and utterly packed however, I think those seats went very quickly.

The Story (for those of you that don’t know it)

Sophie Sheridan has never had the chance to know her father, he disappeared before she was born and she has been completely raised by her mother Donna. However when she finds her mother’s diaries she finds out that she has three possible fathers... so she invites all three to her upcoming wedding. The three men turn up on the island and Donna is shocked, she tries to hide them from Sophie and tries to hide the fact that one of them is Sophie’s father. Music and laughter follows.

The Cast

Donna Sheridan- Carolee Carmello
Sophie Sheridan- Brandi Burkhardt

Rosie- Annie Edgerton
Tanya- Judy McLane

Sam Carmichael- Brent Black
Bill Austin- Pearce Bunting
Harry Bright- Ben Livingston

Sky- Chris Peluso
Lisa- Samantha Eggers
Ali- Amina Robinson
Pepper- Ben Gettinger
Eddie- Raymond J Lee

My Opinion

We loved the film, it was one of the best movies of 2008 and there was a lot out of them. We were a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get to see our first choice Wicked, but by going to this one instead of Wicked we saved around $300.

When we sat down to the watch the theatre production, the show started, and we all looked at each other, when the script was exactly the same as the film. We all thought, have we just paid $440 to watch what we have already seen quite a few times? However as soon as it got past the first few 10-15 minutes, new jokes began to roll on in, and very different characters began to join, it became well worth the money we paid for it.

The show was so easy to watch that it went by so quickly, I was almost disappointed when it finished even though we all just wanted to get to the hotel and into our beds after a long week.

One of the things I really did like and it might sound a bit stupid, but no one really sung along to the songs until the end, when we were welcomed to do it. When we saw Footloose (awful, awful theatre production), there we women down at the front dancing and singing away and we could see it was annoying the people behind them.

Acting

Okay, this was the only problem I had with the show; the acting from some of the actors was quite painful, especially from the prospective dads’, the actors playing Harry Bright and Bill Austin were both obviously putting on accents, and these accents, especially the British one was quite painful and really ruined the production for me in places. Chris Peluso who played Sky was pretty awful at acting, even cringe worthy at times, it made it quite hard to watch.

I thought the lead Carolee Carmello was very good, she wasn’t as good as Meryl Streep of course, but she did deliver a brilliant performance along with her on stage daughter Sophie (Brandi Burkhardt). Both, even though they look NOTHING alike each other and we could tell that from quite far back, they really had a brilliant chemistry and delivered a brilliant performance and pretty much held the film together.

The rest of the cast was brilliant, I don’t think any of them are ever going to win an Oscar, but in a musical they are perfect.

Singing

Despite the pretty poor acting from some of them, there is no doubting that they were a lot better at singing than the actors were in the film. The singing especially from the lead two girls, was just amazing, when Carolee Carmello (Donna) sung ‘The Winner Takes It All’, we were all on our feet giving her a deserved standing ovation and applaud. A fantastic voice, and within most of the songs, everyone sung brilliantly and really did deliver an amazing performance.

Comparison with the Film

Okay, you can’t watch something like this without comparing it to the film (well if there is one). I think they both have their strengths, where as the film only had one or two ‘real’ singers, and ones that could belt there heart out, I think it was mainly dominated by the brilliant acting from the cast and the fun they delivered to the audience.

The musical was a different experience, the acting was not really up to par and some of the actors were really cringe worthy, but their singing was just amazing. Absolutely brilliant, I don’t think there was anyone in the entire film who sung a bad note, or who couldn’t sing. Everyone was brilliant and because it was sung so brilliantly, the actors pulled you in and you really did have a great time.

Winter Garden Theatre

This is a brilliant theatre, we were stunned when we walked inside, it is pretty small, we were expecting something a little grander as it’s on Broadway. It was gorgeous though, inside it was all posh like and really made the atmosphere brilliant. I think it only houses Mamma Mia at the moment; it might house another one soon though.

Final Opinion

I didn’t want to write too much on this review as there is not too much to talk about other than what i’ve written. It was a lovely theatre production, however now I’ve seen it once, I don’t think I’ll go back to see it again at the theatre, if the film was identical almost to the theatre production, then other productions of this will be pretty much the same as well.

This was the third time that I have had a chance to watch a musical, and without a doubt this was the best one of the three. It hasn’t got much to stand up against though to be honest, I watched Fame when I was 7 and don’t remember much from it, and then watched Footloose on my mum’s 40th birthday and have never been so bored in my life.

If you ever get the chance to firstly get to New York, then I would recommend checking out Mamma Mia on Broadway. It was fantastic, brilliant singing and okay acting. If you do get a chance to see the production anywhere as well, I’m sure it’s going to be just as brilliant as it was on Broadway.

Hope this review was very helpful to you. Please take the time to rate and comment. Thank you for reading.

Kirsty (C) 2009

 

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