By Rita Moran, Theater Critic, Ojai Valley News
“Mamma Mia!” Ojai Art Center Theater’s staging of the zesty, nonstop musical, offers dynamic leads who can belt out songs, move like acrobats and stand out as distinctive characters, most important in a show that balances a bit of plot with a lot of song and dance.
Today’s audiences may not all be familiar with the ABBA pop music era from the mid-1970s through the
early ’80s. The Swedish-based group’s upbeat performances and records brought a bright, easy-to-listen-to touch when they burst onto the international musical scene by winning the Eurovision Song Contest, then quickly secured their popularity with nonstop recordings until they disbanded in 1983.
But they didn’t entirely disappear. “Mamma Mia!” is the work of two ABBA members, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, who turned from recording the group’s songs to creating musicals, including “Mamma Mia!” first staged in 1999 and since heard around the world. British playwright Catherine Johnson penned the musical’s book, garnering a Tony Award.
Ojai is staging its production with a cast of nearly 30 actor-singer-dancers, many familiar to their stage’s fans, with Tracey Williams Sutton as director and Herb Hemming as producer.
The show’s audiences don’t need a program bio to realize Asunta Fleming as Donna Sheridan is the hands-down standout in the show. A professional performer who is an actress, singer, dancer and vocal teacher with extensive credits, Fleming is now based in Nashville, but claims Ojai as one of her favorite locations. Fleming is gifted with a wide range of beguiling vocal strengths, paired with alert acting skills and even a bit of amusing, and amazing, dance moves. No matter what she sings, audiences will want to listen. Among her songs in the show are “Money, Money, Money,” “Super Trouper,” “Our Last Summer” and “The Winner Takes It All.”
Also funny and flexible and singing up a storm are two friends, the three-times married Tanya and the carefree Rosie, played with zest and terrific senses of humor by Anna Kotula and Dianne Miller, respectively.
The plot actually is built around Donna’s daughter, Sophie (Nichole Riffenburgh), who is about to marry Sky (Bodhi Bourbon). Since she knows her mother has had (at least) three men in her life and wonders which one is her father, Sophie has invited the three she knows her mother has lived with to the wedding so that she can finally learn who her father is. The men, played by Nigel Chisholm, Smitty West and R. Shayne Bourbon, arrive on the island as a total surprise to her mother. Which one, if any, is her father is hinted at late in the play. But the men, bewildered about the situation, play their roles with pleasant singing and dancing as part of the cohesive action of the musical.
A large and well-trained group of dancers appears frequently onstage and along the aisles in the theater, buoying the show as they dance and sing with never failing energy under the direction of Smitty West.
Accompanying the singers and dancers with impeccable support is a small band in a space at the back of the stage, with Andrew Street as music director and pianist. Theater fans who saw Ojai’s recent production of “The Miser” will recognize that while the shape of the scenery is similar to that of the classic comedy’s version, clever touches of paint and a few minor changes have deftly adapted it for “Mamma Mia!”