Mamma Mia
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Writer: Catherine Johnson (book), Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus (music)
Cast: Susanna Panzner (who was covering for Ana Milva Gomes when I saw it), Madeleine Lauw, Jacqueline Braun, Susa Meyer, Boris Pfeifer, Peter Kratochvil, Martin Muliar, Andreas Wanasek
Seen on: 03.05.2015
[Here’s my grumpy review of the movie from way back that probably didn’t deserve as much hate as it got from me.]

Plot:
Sophie (Madeleine Lauw) is about to get married to Sky (Andreas Wanasek) on the Greek island where her mother Donna (Susanna Panzner) owns a small hotel and bar. There is only one thing that Sophie misses to have the perfect wedding: she doesn’t know who her father is. Without her mother’s knowledge, she invites the three guys who are the possible fathers – Sam (Boris Pfeifer), Harry (Peter Kratochvil) and Bill (Martin Muliar). When all three show up, Donna is shocked, but maybe it’s time to revisit the past.

When I saw the film, I didn’t like it a whole lot. I have since seen bits and pieces of it again and I probably was too harsh about it, but that happens. So when my mom mentioned that she wanted to see the play, I decided to go along with her. And while I’m still not the musical’s biggest fan, it was entertaining.

The thing that irritated me most during the show was that it was in German. They had English overtitles, but it was just really weird hearing all the songs translated. It also seriously hampered my ability to sing along (which I do very discreetly in those settings, but I do like to do it). I think it would have been better if it had been more different from the movie version (but with the same director that was unlikely anyway), but then the film was generally disruptive to the entire experience, because you keep expecting everything to be the same, but it isn’t and with every discrepancy it gets stranger.

As little as I liked the film when I saw it, there are some things it does better than the stage version. Above all Harry’s homosexuality felt completely shoehorned into the stage version. As uncomfortable as Firth’s discomfort – which was probably an acting choice and not homophobia – made me in the film, at least there was more to the story than a sudden outburst of “I’m gay!” In the stage version that’s it.

But at least the singing was generally better than in the movie, at least with Donna and and the men. Although I have to admit that Boris Pfeifer’s voice rubbed me the wrong way – through no fault of his own. It’s the same with Sting’s voice: musically there’s nothing wrong, but I just have a hard time listening to them.

There are also a couple of things that are equally annoying in both versions – for me that’s mostly their interpretation of Take a Chance on Me, where the feminist starts chasing after an apparently unwilling men. That really irked and still irks me on a few levels.

But despite these dissonances, at least I rather enjoyed the evening.

Summarizing: Okay.