MAMA MIA

More than a thousand people showed up for the wedding. They were there to party....and party they did.

"Mamma Mia!," the Broadway and London hit musical, running at the Sacramento Community theatre, is ABBA's big fat Greek wedding, and one of the most fun weddings you're likely to attend this season.

The show is built around 22 of the best-known songs by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the 1970s Swedish pop group ABBA. Those who think they aren't ABBA fans will be surprised at how much of the music is recognizable through its use in movies and commercials.

Though the story line is thin and predictable--and merely a vehicle to move from song to song, it's the music that makes this show such a success--and isn't it nice to see a musical again where the purpose is just to have fun and sing a lot of songs.

"I haven't felt a theatre floor buzz like that before," one patron was overheard to say, leaving the theatre.

ABBA's most popular songs are almost entirely in the form of one person addressing another, so they lend themselves beautifully to fitting into a plot format and have been woven together beautifully by Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book. Many times audience members familiar with the tunes could predict which song was about to be sung by the dialog on stage. Part of the fun is guessing which song will fit in where (the songs themselves are listed in the program, but not in the order sung).

The setting is a taverna on a tiny Greek island where Sophie Sheridan (Kristie Marsden) is about to be married to her Sky (Chris Bolan). Sophie's mother, Donna (Monique Lund) was the lead singer of a 70s girl group, Donna and the Dynamos, which broke up when she became pregnant with Sophie.

Sophie has never known the identity of her father and, it turns out, neither has Donna, who spent a wild month in love with three different men, any of whom could have fathered the child.

Unbeknownst to her mother, the girl, who has discovered her mother's old diary, decides to invite all three men to her wedding, hoping to figure out which is her real father so he can walk her down the aisle. That's pretty much the whole plot, but you don't need a lot of plot in this musical. The songs, which will have the most reluctant toe tapping, and the dazzling choreography by Anthony Van Laast provide all that's necessary for a not to be missed night of theatre.

Van Laast has done very clever things with pulling in ABBA-like choruses such as having heads pop over a wall to join in when one character is supposedly singing a song alone, or, with assistance from lighting designer Howard Harrison, have the customers in the taverna join in on a chorus when they are bathed in light, but then return to the shadows for the rest of the song. And whoever thought of creating a tap dance number for a chorus of men wearing swim fins?

There's not a weak performance in the group. Particularly outstanding are Donna's former singing partners, Tanya (Ellen Harvey) and Rosie (Robin Baxter), delightful comediennes. It's hard to know which is funnier--watching the tall, distinguished, somewhat bored Tanya take a pratfall or the shorter, rounder Rosie trying to fit into her old costume.

Sophie's possible fathers are also a wonderful set of performers. James Kall has Harry Bright (whose ability--or desire--to father any child we question immediately), Pearce Bunting as Bill Austin, and Don Noble as the Aussie Sam Carmichael.

Costumes are marvelous. The muted earth tones blend beautifully with the taverna setting, but then the glitz and glitter for the production numbers were straight out of disco's finest hour, with bright colors, lots and lots of sparkles, and ridiculously high platform shoes. A dream sequence at the start of Act 2 with everyone wearing glowing scuba gear was particularly effective.

If you've been depressed by the war in Iraq, the state of the economy, or Martha Stewart's indictment, get yourself immediately to the Community Center and lose yourself in an evening of fantasy. You won't go home pondering any messages. You'll just enjoy a good two hours of escape.

If you ask me whether I think you should see this show, I can only respond "I do, I do, I do, I do, I do."

CONVENIENCE

A door slammed in Vince’s house when he was six years old. It was slammed by his father as he walked out on Vince and his mother, Liz.

The door slam became symbolic for Vince’s whole life, and his relationship with his mother. When Dad walked out, emotional doors slammed shut between Vince and Liz as well, and ultimately between Vince and Liz and the world.

The story of those doors and what has to happen to open them, so that Vince and Liz can get on with their lives is beautifully told in Greg Coffin’s gem of a musical, "Convenience," running at Sacramento Theatre Company through April 4^th.

Vince is now 26 and has not spoken with his mother in years, but they both have a secret. Liz has fallen in love with a man and wants to be married. Vince is gay and closeted. He has also fallen in love with a man and wants to move in with him. Both Vince and his mother are afraid of commitment and realize that in order to move forward, they have to confront each other.

Ethan, Vince’s boyfriend, convinces Vince to go home for a visit and let his mother know he is gay. Abe, Liz’s fiancé encourages her to spend time with Vince and let him know about her desire to remarry.

They pick up where they left off. Two people leading parallel lives, avoiding the herd of elephants in the living room. A wonderful song, "I love how we start off our day" perfectly describes the life of people who live together but who are terrified to discuss anything of substance.

There are, in fact, only 10 or so lines in the entire play which are spoken. The dialog is so skillfully woven in with the actual "songs" that one forgets the characters are not speaking, but singing.

Director Kevin Moore could not have a more experienced cast to play these characters in this play. They have all played the show at least once before. Melissa Rain Anderson, who plays the young Liz, trying to find a way to get through to her young son, is a friend of Coffin’s and has appeared in every production. Watching her on stage it’s easy to see why. She doesn’t just play the role, she inhabits the character.

The Liz of the present is played by Lucinda Hitchcock Cone (familiar to Sacramento Theatre Company audiences as the Fairy Godmother in "Cinderella"), who played this role in Ohio. Her fear of intimacy with her son is palpable, but we never lose sight of the fact that she loves him, but being around him brings up so many unpleasant memories and she is unable to find a way to let him know.

Scott Hunt, who played the role of Vince in its initial reading, is torn between his love for Ethan and his fear of his mother’s disapproval. Returning home, he retreats back into the private world he fashioned for himself in childhood and realizes that he has to release that child if he is ever going to move forward in his life.

Zach Hanna is sparkling as Vince’s lover Ethan and as the young Vince. It is his love and belief in Vince that gives him the courage to finally come out to his mother.

Scott Stoney is Liz’s "rock," her fiancé Abe, who has also been a father figure to Vince throughout his childhood, and who has his own secret he must reveal before the end of the show.

There are wonderful musical moments in this piece. "Surrender," sung by Young Vince, Vince, and the "Traitor King," a character of young Vince’s imagination is magnificent (offstage singing by Stoney). "The Ogre and the Wife," a duet for Liz and Ethan is very funny.

Haibo Yu’s scenic design, making very effective use of doors, could not be more appropriate.

Musical accompaniment is by a 3-piece on-stage combo led by musical director Gerald Rheault.

Who should see this play? Single parents who suffer guilt over their attempts to raise their children without a spouse, gay children who don’t know how to come out to their parents, parents, family and friends of lesbians and gays, anyone who has difficulty communicating important bits of personal information to the people they care about, and all theatre-goers who look for something new and exciting in musical theatre.

STARLIGHT EXPRESS

Starlight Express, the current touring Broadway production playing at the Sacramento Community Theatre, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stillgoe, is either the most innovative thing to happen to theatre, or the dumbest idea Webber ever had. I personally lean toward the latter opinion. That it was nominated for 7 Tony awards back in 1987 (only won one--for costume designer John Napier), ran for an unbelievable 18 years and 7409 performances in London’s West End, and that an estimated 16 million people have seen the show worldwide is merely proof that Lloyd Webber deserves the P.T. Barnum award for showing that with enough hype you can get an audience to pay to see just about anything.

Perhaps the revisions, made in 1993, removing songs from the original show and adding new songs with lyrics by David Yazbek is the problem. Songs were cut from the original score and topical ones added in styles such as rap, country, and jazz.

Starlight Express was conceived by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1973 as an animated television series loosely based on "The Little Engine that Could." As with his earlier "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," the little show evolved, in 1984, into a high-tech spectacle on roller skates that involved, when it first opened in London, a 5.5 ton steel suspension bridge, and a gigantic set constructed of 6 miles of timber, 2.5 acres of sheetwood, and 60 tons of steel.

The story centers on Rusty a battered steam engine, who is encouraged to race a flashy diesel locomotive. As the show begins, an unseen nine year old boy playing with his model train set is sent to bed by his (also unseen) mother. As he slumbers, his imagination (the Controller) takes over, controlling the engines and cars, giving each a life and personality of its own.

In his dreams, a competition is declared whereby each train engine will pull one car in a series of races staged across North America.

Key characters include Rusty, a shy well-intentioned steam engine who fears modern technology has passed him by (Franklyn Warfield), Greaseball, the cocky diesel engine (who bears a strong resemblance to Elvis) (Drue Williams), Electra, a state-of-the-art electric engine with the aura of an andrygynous rock star (Dustin Dubreuil) and Poppa, Rusty’s father (the incomparable Dennis LeGree), a retired old steam engine who comes out of retirement to preserve the honor of steam-powered engines and set an example for his son.

Other cars include Pearl, the observation car (Clarissa Grace) who can’t decide which engine holds her heart , Dinah, the dining car (Katie O’Toole) who has her cap set for Greaseball, Buffy, the snack car (Joanna Loughran-Richert), Ashley, the smoking car (Kait Left. Holbrook), Red Caboose (Jeremy Kocal) and Dustin, the coal car (Scott Bolt).

The Apollo Theatre in London, where the show ran for so many years, would fit inside the Sacramento Community Center and was completely remodeled to accommodate Starlight Express. A large track went out into the audience and, as with Webber’s later "Cats" the audience became part of the action, which added to the spectacle.

In a touring show which will be gone in two weeks, there is no way to create the long track used for the train races to run out into the house itself. Instead 3-D movies, which the audience was instructed to watch with glasses placed in the program, were shown on a drop-down screen. The movies seemed heavy on the violence and special effects.

But this is a show about special effects. There are few actually good musical numbers (AC/DC, U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D, Light at the End of the Tunnel, and the title song) but most music is loud, thunderous, drowns out the singers, with lyrics that are impossible to comprehend. As there is no dialog, making this more of a rock opera, it is all but impossible to catch the finer parts of the plot (if there are any).

Visually, however, the show is magnificent. This show is a lighting designer’s dream and Rick Belzer deserves highest praise. The lighting effect for the title song, was simply breathtaking.

The set (by Raymond Huessy) combines a large skateboard ramp with an elevated platform and the performers, all of whom attend "skate school" for 4 weeks prior to the start of rehearsal (skating is not a prerequisite to audition for this show) perform amazing feats on wheels.

This show is a little bit theatre, a little bit circus, not much plot, a lot of noise and a lot of spectacle. At just barely 2 hours (which includes a late start an an intermission), it's also a short night of theatre. This combination obviously appeals to millions of people. I was not one of them when I saw it in London and I am not one of them, seeing it in Sacramento.

THE WATER CHILDREN

"The Water Children," by Wendy MacLeod is a controversial show which deals with the volatile subject of abortion.

To prepare for the show, the cast of Acme Theatre Company began meeting with Director Dave Burmester for weekly dinners several months before rehearsals began to discuss the play and the issue of abortion. The director told his cast that he didn't care where they stood on the issue, but he wanted each of them to have a position that his or her character supported, so that they could effectively portray that character.

Members from the Davis Crisis Pregnancy Center met with the cast. (Planned Parenthood was also invited to participate, but did not follow through.)

The preparatory work and the direction--and perhaps the sense of urgency which resulted from Burmester's untimely surgery--have blended together to produce a very strong production.

The plot concerns Megan (Shakti Howeth), an out of work actress who is offered a role in an anti-abortion commercial. Because she herself had an abortion at age 16 and is pro-choice, she initially refuses the job, until she discovers it will pay well, and she needs the money. Howeth gives a brilliant performance, and is on stage almost the entire show (save for some very quick costume changes).

As she begins to work on the commercial, Megan finds herself attracted to the head of the group, Randall (a solid performance by Nick Herbert) and enters into a relationship with him. She begins to question her teen-aged decision. In a series of fantasy scenes, she imagines what her son would have been like at various ages. James Henderson is perfect as Chance, a whiney young child, growing into a know-it-all college student, and acting as the voice of calm in Megan's ambivalence regarding her actions.

Megan's feminist roommate Liz (a powerful interpretation by Jill Winternitz) is vocal in her anger at Megan's involvement with the group and in her dislike of Randall.

"There are a lot of stereotypes in this show," says Burmester, "but the cast gives them depth." Indeed this is a marvelous ensemble show where each of the characters comes to life as believable human beings.

Martin Dubcovscky is Toni Dinardi, the rabid anti-abortion gun nut, undoubtedly modeled on murderer John Salvi. His performance gives just that uncomfortable sense that leaves the audience on edge, wondering if he will go over the brink or not.

Katie German is Crystal, who claims to have started life as an aborted fetus rescued from a garbage pail by a sympathetic nurse, and who is now staunchly pro-life. Crystal is militantly perky. German also plays a waitress and gives an extraordinary portrayal of a cat.

Krystal White is Megan's agent, Kit, and also a waitress. In addition, she gives a sympatetic performance as Megan's mother .

Andrew Conrad is wonderfully fey as Rodger, the hairdresser, and also plays a snooty TV director, Chance's father and a Buddhist priest.

Despite its serious theme there is a lot of humor in this play and at its conclusion, Megan is faced with blending her feelings and her experiences and attemtping to reconcile her past with her present in order to make life-altering decisions.

The play makes no final moral judgement, but leaves it up to each member of the audience to assess their own feelings on the subject.

The set design by Josh Nielsen is beautifully simple and works extraordinarily well, especially in the final scene.

Special kudos to Lighting Designer Tiffany Lynn Michael, who has created a design which beautifully separates fantasy from reality.

Stage Manager Karlee Finch is credited with sound design and has done a perfect job of selecting the background music for the various scenes.

After the curtain call, there is a q&a between the cast and the audience. The effect of the script on the young actors became blatantly obvious as they explained how their feelings about abortion, and about safe sexual practices had been strongly altered by becoming enmeshed in the actions of the characters and in the story itself.

In this day and age, if there is any more rewarding pay-off of presenting a play like "The Water Childen," I can't think of it.

SEEDS

Everyone remembers Maj. Frank Burns, the pompous, pedantic medical officer played by Larry Linville, on the classic TV show M*A*S*H. Linville lost a battle to lung cancer last year, but when alive, he developed friendships with members of the Winters Community Theatre.

As a tribute to Linville, Winters Community Theatre was given the opportunity to present the world premiere of a comedy, "Seeds," written by Linville and his wife Deborah Guydon Linville. The show opened on Friday night at the Winters Community Center, under the direction of Howard Hupe. The opening was attended by Deborah Guydon Linville, several family members, and Linville’s longtime friend, Gary Burghoff (Radar in M*A*S*H).

"Seeds" is a modern day comedy which deals with the subject of artificial insemination. At its best, with a somewhat faster pace, it has the potential to rival a bedroom farce, with people coming and going out of doors and windows, double entendres, and secret sexual liaisons.

At its worst, the dialog stretches the bounds of credibility. With some tightening, it might have been possible to shorten exchanges so that they had a ring of truth to them, but alas, that was not the case here.

There are, in truth, many funny situations, and many funny lines. But a lot of the dialog concerning the secret revelations which unfold throughout the evening, just don’t work.

The action takes place during one evening at the apartment of Thomas (Chad Frazier), who is about to introduce his soon-to-be significant other Andrea (Gina Wingard) to his mother. Thomas has planned the perfect evening--champagne, pate, caviar, and dinner at a very exclusive Chicago restaurant. Andrea, anticipating a special "dessert" after dinner, has bought a silken nighty and the couple are looking forward to advancing their relationship to the next level.

Plans are disrupted by the unexpected arrival of Herb Darwin (an excellent characterization by Scott Graf), an eccentric and newly retired aerospace engineer. Herb claims that as a man alone, facing his waning years, he realizes that he has no one special in his life, and so he is trying to locate any children he may have fathered when he was earning money selling sperm to the "Onan Institute." He claims that Thomas is his son.

It’s difficult to know if the problems with the ensuing scenes, where Thomas expresses ire and vehemently denies the facts presented to him are the fault of the script, or of the many line flubs on opening night. Suffice to say that they don’t work.

The group awaits the arrival of Thomas’ mother, Gloria (Diane Taylor), confident she will help everyone to sort out the truth. But it appears that there is more to the story than even Herb revealed and concerns a summer of love and a couple of flower children named Sunshine and Earth Dog.

This being a comedy, in the end everything is sorted out and the twists and turns of the plot have smoothed out, leaving everyone to live happily ever after.

There are nice little touches throughout the script, such as Thomas’ intermittent telephone conversations with the doorman, Carleton (a reminder of the old Rhoda TV series), and Gloria’s membership in the Daughters of Upstanding Heritage (DUH). But if Winters was the "out of town" tryout for this production, it needs a bit more reworking before it’s ready for the big time.

Ken Grubaugh, Bob Taylor, Larry Jutus, Howard Hupe and Gary Schroeder have created a nice utilitarian apartment scene for Thomas, and Jerry Cushman’s sound design, especially regarding Thomas’s remote controlled ambience enhancer is very well done.

2-1/2 stars