I saw the tour in Los Angeles last night, and it was an ABBAsolutely fabulous night at the Pantages! I have seen the show more than 125 times with a vast majority of that being at the Winter Garden with the original cast. (I was 20 years old, and couldn’t get into bars, so I would just go and see the show every Friday night from standing room.)
The Great:
CHRISTINE SHERRILL as Donna. Wow, she is fantastic! I’ve seen many actresses play the role, and I think Christine is second only to Louise Pitre. She sang with such emotion, and I loved some of the extra notes she added in.
JALYNN STEELE and CARLY SAKOLOVE as Tanya and Rosie. Again 25 years of seeing this show, and these two found new ways to make me laugh and to sing the heck out of their respective songs. Tanya is actually my favorite character in the show, and Jaylynn was perfection! Her “Does Your Mother Know” also got the loudest applause of the night (excluding the end).
VICTOR WALLACE as Sam. Eat your heart out, Pierce Brosnan! Victor was a very vocally strong Sam, and could probably project to the back row without a mic. It was nice to see some different direction for his character from the 2001 beginnings.
JAMES NEWMAN and ROB MARNELL as Bill and Harry. The trio of Dad’s were possibly my favorite trio I’ve seen! They all were extremely charming and I found myself more invested in all of their moments, than I have in the past.
The ENSEMBLE was wonderful, and sounded great. I know the show uses sweetener tracks, but I could truly hear them singing over them, which sometimes wasn’t the case on Broadway.
The LIGHTING looked the best I’ve seen it! Obviously, there have been advancements in intelligent lighting over the years, and (as lighting is my career) I noticed them! All of the saturated colors looked gorgeous on the set.
The Good:
ALISA MELENDEZ as Sophie. Perhaps this was some audio problems, but I found her singing to be fairly soft. But her characterization was great and she was very charming.
The Not So Great:
GRANT REYNOLDS as Sky. I hate to be a downer, but dang… Not my favorite. Just like Sophie, there were some audio issues during his big number, and he didn’t grab my attention during any of the group scenes. Perhaps I was spoiled by beefcakes like Joe Machota, but I’ve never seen a loose fitting Speedo on a Sky before. (On the waist, just to be clear, haha!)
The Bad:
The SET. Mark Thompson’s original design at the Winter Garden was so perfect, so the stripped down tour set just doesn’t have the same punch. The proscenium doesn’t have the white frame and is instead just two side panels, and a header. I don’t necessarily mind the more boxy shape of the taverna, but I definitely missed the steps and bridges that would rise up out of the light up floor. If the rumors are true, and this does head to Broadway for a sit down, I hope some splashy elements are added back in.
The Worst:
The audio. I am seeing the show again on Saturday, so I’m extremely hopeful that last night just was some opening night problems. But there were multiple times when I couldn’t hear Sophie, and then suddenly a blast of feedback would happen in the house. “Lay All Your Love On Me” was plagued with this issue, and they also advertently muted her mic during the final line of the show.
The Excellent: I never thought I would say something like this, but the audience was amazing last night! They were very receptive to the show, including clapping for character entrances, and singing the words to the songs in the Overture. (But no sing-along during the actual show, until the Megamix at the end.)
If Lincoln were alive today, do you think he'd be pleased with his tunnel?
