Mama Mia Tour

I just saw the Mama Mia Tour closing performance tonight in Philly.
Thoughts: First time seeing the show, haven't seen the movie, or heard the album [not a big fan of ABBA]. I really liked it. I was just wondering how it was compared to the broadway production or what others thought of it.

Updated On: 5/2/09 at 11:29 PM

I just saw the opening night performance here in LA last night and all I have to say is that I’ve seen better community theatre productions.

The set has been whittled down to nothing. No turntables or hydraulics at all. It’s the two door units, two beds, a night stand and a drink cart. The stage hands were not even in blacks or costumes and were so distracting when they just wandered out and starting pushing stuff around.

The Dad’s are all just dreadful. The Ladies were lovely, but someone needs to fix Donna’s helmet of a wig. The back showed about an inch of her own hair hanging out.

And a few of the men in the ensemble were so bad, I wondered how they were ever cast in an Equity show. I think one must have a touch of the Downs.

Word is that this current tour will close at the end of summer and take a year off and then come back non-union. It couldn’t get any worse…

Oh, and the entire balcony was empty, as were the last few rows downstairs.

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Mamma Mia never used a turntable and the Broadway production was the only one to have the blocks automated. Everywhere else it's moved by hand.

Theatrefan4 - I remember the Toronto production having a turntable, but this wasn't part of the tour, it was a sit down production. But I remember it being almost identical to the Broadway production when I saw both.

I saw this in January. It was alright. I feel like Kaye Tuckerman, who was Donna, did a fabulous job. The rest of the cast was alright too, but Kaye really took it for me. It was a horrible venue (the sound was the worst part of it) but the performances were pretty good. It's not a show that I'd rush to see again, though