Mamma Mia! @ the Palace

Mamma Mia!
Music and Lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus
Book by Catherine Johnson
Palace Theatre, 26 April 2011

What could be more topical than a musical about  a wedding?

Mamma Mia! is perhaps the preeminent example of what Larry Stempel, in his magisterial work Showtime, calls ‘the jukebox musical’.  That is, the musical which takes songs from a certain period (say the 1950s) or which has been built around the back catalogue of a well known artist or group.  The great advantage of such musicals is that the songs are already familiar and well loved; the main downside is that the songs weren’t originally meant to express the emotions of the characters who get to sing them.  They may feel contrived when sung on stage.

It has to be said that the above mentioned disadvantage is hardly felt in Mamma Mia!  Indeed, the two dozen or so ABBA songs slot seamlessly into place.  As well as the songs, the dance routines are spectacular and there’s a lot of humour and vivacity to this production, especially from Jennie Dale as Rosie.

And the story of a child searching for her biological parent will always pack a certain primal punch – wasn’t the film Oranges and Sunshine built on just this premise?

This was exhilarating entertainment, but watch out for those platform boots!

Chess

Chess
Music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus
Book and Lyrics by Tim Rice
The Lowry, 26 October 2010

This is a majestic production of Andersson, Ulvaeus and Rice’s  musical of the royal game.

If chess seems a weird subject for a musical, well, you probably haven’t seen many musicals.  It is usual for musicals to explore curious byways, to waltz in the ballroom of transgressive absurdity as it were, with the juxtaposition of nuns and Nazis in The Sound of Music being a case in point.  That’s still probably the one to beat, actually: the Holy Grail, the high water mark.

There were excellent performances here, especially from Shona White as Florence Vassy, Trumper’s second, and David Erik as the arbiter.

The story, which concerned romance and political intrigue centring around a couple of world championship matches, was fairly compelling, though the Cold War shenanigans seemed somewhat dated.  Among the fine songs were ‘Pity the Child’, ‘One Night in Bangkok’ and ‘I Know Him So Well’.

A terrific evening’s entertainment.

Chess is showing at The Lowry until 30 October.  Full details are here.