Review: MAMMA MIA! Dances Onto the TPAC Stage

If confession is indeed good for the soul - and I am assured that it is - let me get today's confessional out of the way by admitting to something, to essentially come out of the closet about it: I love ABBA! I'm not necessarily fanatical about my devotion to the Swedish super group (I would never let down my guard enough to be so described), but nothing makes me happier than being immersed in a world filled with their music, no matter how silly (the term "silly old man" rattles me to my core) some would judge me to be. My coming-of-age tale is just as viable as yours, even if mine is underscored by the much-maligned beat of the disco era.

Make no mistake about it: the current production of Mamma Mia!, the musical theater hit now onstage at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall is just as entertaining, just as over-the-top in all its ABBAesque glory that audiences cannot help but be awestruck by the sheer theatricality of the piece, enthralled by the cavalcade of songs that provide the show's score and delighted by the efforts of the company's talented and eager-to-please and generally eye-poppingly gorgeous ensemble.

Me? Well, just because I had tears in my eyes the very moment Sarah Smith and Laura Michelle Hughes, who were shortly joined by the production's leading lady Erin Fish, broke into song with "Dancing Queen," perhaps the apotheosis of a disco anthem - which instantly transported me back to the days of my own jaded youth when anything and everything seemed possible and despite too many cocktails that led to clouded judgments and poor decision making, I (and my coterie of friends) had never felt more alive and vibrant - you necessarily shouldn't assume that a rave review would follow my tearful response. With me, you can never judge what an emotional outburst will ultimately deliver. However, if you did presume to know that I liked the show, you may count yourself among the winners of this particular game-show worthy segment of life: I loved it (again - for the fourth or fifth time, at least)!

What is it about Mamma Mia! that sets my feet tapping, my hands clapping and my upper body moving in time to the music while on row K of the Jackson Hall orchestra? Is it the overly earnest lyrics, the expressively beautiful harmonies that exemplify an ABBA tune, or is it the percussive disco beat that may very nearly echo the sounds of my [and yours, I daresay] own heart? All of the above seems the most likely answer, to be certain, but any considered recollection of one's visceral reaction to Mamma Mia! is not the stuff of critical research.

Rather, there's just something about it that gives you 20/20 hindsight and affords a retrospective look at what once was. Your mind - and not so inconsequently - your heart is filled with memories of loves long lost, of bacchanalian nights spent on crowded dancefloors with people whose names can no longer easily be recalled. Even if previous viewings of Mamma Mia! failed to leave you in the introspective haze in which I found myself on the 2016 Nashville opening night for the national touring company, it just goes to show that we all reach a point in our lives in which nostalgia prompts a sentimental journey home to our collective heart.

But that's not so surprising, after all, when one considers the debut and subsequent 14-year run (which places it on the list of the top ten longest-running shows in Broadway history) Mamma Mia! enjoyed in New York. When it premiered on the Main Stem, it became a hit despite its timing - the show opened at the Winter Garden Theatre only weeks after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center - instead suggesting that Broadway audiences were yearning for the escape provided them by the sweetly evocative tale of a young woman trying to find her father from among a trio of prospects on the eve of her own "big white wedding," set to a score of songs made famous by an unlikely band of Swedish rockers who had come to personify the disco era. Mamma Mia! is, perhaps, far more lightweight than many shows of the early 21st century, its plot and onstage exploits decidedly of the fun and frivolous genre of musical theater, yet it somehow defines a generation of theater offerings exemplified by the term "jukebox musical."

Give me a jukebox filled with such selections as "Does Your Mother Know," "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" (which leaves me flooded with memories of Muriel's Wedding - one of my favorite movies of the past 20 yaears - just as easily as any other ABBA-fueled record album), "Lay All Your Love On Me," "S.O.S.," "Super Trouper," "Take A Chance on Me" (given a splendid treatment by Sarah Smith and Ryan M. Hunt in this rendition of the show)," "Voulez-Vous" and the title tune and I can certainly deal with that...and I suspect most audiences can, as well.

And so it remains today: the show's plot lacks the literary depth of other shows that have become hits in the 21st century, for sure, but if you take a more scrutinizing into the show's book you quickly realize that the story Mamma Mia! tells is one of "girl power," the story of a single mother raising her daughter on her own, cut off from family because of her unwed pregnancy and the relative conservatism of the times in which the tale takes place. Watching Donna Sheridan (Erin Fish) walk her daughter Sophie (Kyra Belle Johnson) down the aisle is a post-modern feminist tale of achievement and cultural change all gussied up in confectionary colors and the aquamarine hues of the Greek isles.

The towering Fish (she's got to be over six feet tall, judging by how she practically stands eye-to-eye in two-inch heels, with Stephen Ecklemann, the 6'5" actor who plays Sky, Sophie's intended) is ideally cast as Donna, the owner of a taverna and inn on a tiny Greek island, who has for years provided for herself and her daughter with a determined drive to give the girl an unjudged way of life that makes her a woman of independent thought.

Catherine Johnson's book is crafted gracefully despite its farcical underpinnings, although some comedic moments stray dangerously close to the line in the way some Shakespearean comedies are wont to do, resulting in a story that succeeds admirably, thanks to and despite its sometimes hard-to-believe moments.

Fish sings with gusto and acts with theatrical flair to make Donna the center of this production, and she is surrounded by a bevy of actresses who give her ample onstage support. Johnson is delightful as Sophie, her relative youth adding to a sense of innocence and whimsy that underscores her character with authenticity. Laura Michelle Hughes proves herself an adroit physical comedian as Donna's chum, the oft-married (three times! - which seems small potatoes in this day and age) Tanya; and Sarah Smith's charmingly appealing Rosie very nearly steals every scene she's in with her easy way with comedy. All four of the production's leading women have engaging personalities, possessing enough stage presence to make even the most groan-worthy line equal to their talents.

The show's four leading men, which includes Nashville favorite Ryan M. Hunt (yep, the same Ryan M. Hunt whom audiences at The Renaissance Center still recall with mixed amounts of glee and affection from his time on that particular Middle Tennessee stage) as adventurer Bill Austin, an Indiana Jones-inspired writer (all that's missing is the whip), give credible performances that are certain to engage the audience, but the women in the cast are so formidable that their work is more than cut out for them. Chad W. Fornwalt is terrific as Sam Carmichael, the one member of the trio who truly captured Donna's heart during the heated summer of 20 years past and whose turbulent past with her paves the way for a latter-day coming to terms, while Andrew Tebo gives a particularly nuanced performance as Harry Bright, the "headbanging" musician who morphed into a buttoned-down banker in the intervening years.

Ecklemann is wonderfully appealing as Sky, even as he towers over the petite Johnson in their scenes together - a mismatch of heights that will always lend more heft to the audience's laughter - revealing himself as the epitome of a song-and-dance man in the process.

The show's principals are given ardent support by an attractive ensemble of gorgeous/sexy/lithe young women and men who people the story as villagers, Sophie and Sky's wedding party and all manner of attractive people who make the musical all the more visually stunning - even though Mark Thompson's production design guarantees that audiences have lot of pretty colors to look at as the story unfolds. Howard Harrison's lighting design is beautifully spot-on, capturing an array of exquisite colors and the glory of an island sunset in the process.

Anthony Van Laast's choreography lends a effervescent sense of fabulous fun to the story, while Phyllida Lloyd's direction seems effortless and seamless as each scene unfolds. Evan Casey leads a six-member band who bring Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (with some songs by Stig Anderson) to life with unfaltering commitment.

• Mamma Mia! Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (with some songs by Stig Anderson). Book by Catherine Johnson. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. Music conducted by Evan Casey. Presented by Work Light Productions, executive produced by Stephen Gabriel. At Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, through May 1. For details, go to www.tpac.org. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (including one 15-minute intermission).

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