Mamma Mia Response

Mamma Mia Review

On Friday, February 28, 2020, I saw the Cheshire Academy Varsity Players’ rendition of Mamma Mia by Cathrine Johnson. This musical was directed by Ms. Guarino and starred Elena Parkerson, Audra Foli, and Jackson Rafferty. It was held in the Black Box Theater in the Field House on Cheshire Academy’s campus. 

As stated in the Director's Note, the main theme of this musical was “Fun, Fun, Fun!” The Black Box was full of color, brightness, upbeat music, silly characters, and whimsical choreography. In this musical, the main character, Donna, has a daughter named Sophie that is getting married. Before she gets married, she wants to find out who her father is. There are three possible candidates; Sam, Harry, and Bill. Without Donna knowing, Sophie invites all three of them to the wedding to find out which one is her true father. Additionally, another theme of this musical is self discovery. Sophie feels that she needs to find who her dad is in order to find out who she is on the inside. By the end of this musical, Sophie finds out that who she is on the inside isn’t determined by who her father is, it is determined by her own self.

This production wanted to emphasize the theme of fun and having a good time. They did this by using a variation of color schemes, costumes, and sets. Most of the main characters had a lot of costume changes throughout the musical, moving from one free-flowing outfit to another. With regards to lighting and color schemes, this production used a lot of flashing, colorful lights which reflected the fun, good time atmosphere that the directors wanted to create. As expected, the spotlight mostly followed the two main characters, Donna and Sophie. Each of these actors embraced the spotlight in great ways, and represented what each character was about in a way that was pleasing to the audience. In addition, Sophie, Lisa, and Ali were positioned to be similar to each other for many reasons. They are all part of the same friend group, their personalities in the production harmonize, and the three of them show up a lot in the same scenes together. Overall, I felt that the directors’ vision of creating a fun atmosphere was achieved through the use of outgoing costumes, flashing colorful lights, and the harmonization of personalities within each character.

The scene at the altar towards the end of the show was very memorable to me as a viewer. In that scene, there was a lot going on all at once. Sophie and Sky are about to get married, nobody knows who Sophie’s true father is, and Sam is still confessing his love for Donna. The directors and actors create confusion at this moment, which causes the audience to be full of suspense because they don’t know how the story is going to come to a close. This causes the resolution of the story to be much more fulfilling to the audience, and as a member of the audience, it helped me appreciate the ending so much more because of the buildup created by the staging, actors, and directors.

In my opinion, Caroline was my favorite actor because of the way she represented her character and because of the amount of emotion and effort she put into representing her character. She was very realistic, very believable, funny, and emotional when she had to be. She did a great job projecting her voice, her gestures were firm and worked well with her character, and her blocking was full of swagger and confidence. For example, in the beginning of the musical, she ran in with Ali to see Sophie for the first time in the show, and she was able to portray a lot of energy and excitement. As one of Sophie’s best friends, this fit well with her character and what the director wanted to stage. All in all, Caroline was able to make her character such a success due to her hard work, dedication, and willingness to be bold.

Overall, I enjoyed this rendition of Mamma Mia because of how upbeat, energetic, and bold this group of actors made the musical. If I were to ask the rest of the audience, I believe that they also enjoyed this musical. The actors all worked well together, the atmosphere in the room was electric, and most importantly, the main theme of the musical was achieved. Furthermore, this musical taught me that theater isn’t just about reading lines off of a script; it’s about portraying a message to an audience and helping them figure out how they can implement your message into their daily lives. Mamma Mia helped me realize that who I am inside isn’t decided by anyone other than me. I control who I am, nobody else does.