Reviewed by Paul Treasure
Mamma Mia! is, without a doubt, one of the greatest and most accessible of all the jukebox musicals, as such it is an inspired choice for a school musical. The show is full of well-known and well-loved songs that give the entire cast lots of opportunities to have fun on stage. While at the same time, the plot has just enough drama to give the leads something to do. St Mark’s have certainly given us a very high energy and joyful production.
The band was exceptional. They played well and were very well-balanced. Apparently, apart from two players, the band comprised mostly current students at the school. They are to be commended for being able to play an entire musical so well, and St Mark's Music Department must also be congratulated for being able to produce enough student musicians of the calibre to undertake this task.
The ensemble were vibrant and bursting with energy, just what this musical needs. The singing was enthusiastic and the choreography was attacked with gusto. Special notice must be made of the male ensemble, who were an absolute delight with their scene-stealing rendition of ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’. I was delighted to see they chose to do it with flippers, as in the original production, and if their timing was occasionally off, they more than compensated for it with the amount of fun they were obviously having, which made it even more fun for the audience to watch.
The principals were very well cast and were all able to play to their strengths. Rhianna Cole as Sophie Sheridan was very assured in her central role, as she attempted to manipulate what was going on. She was especially strong at the end of the first act as she tried to deal with the ramifications of all her plans failing around her. As her fiancé, Sky, Toby Green complimented her well. The three potential dads were all uniformly confident and bounced off each other well in their scenes. With the amount of colour and movement that goes on in this show, Joel Smith as Harry Bright was a refreshing counterpoint to the chaos with his soft and centred rendition of “Our Last Summer”; Seth Wilkin as Bill Austin lent a very nice air of worldly experience in his scenes with Sophie; and, Luke Carter was entirely believable in the role of Sam Carmichael, the role that comes closest to being the male romantic lead of the show.
Ashlyn Cole as Rosie and Lara Whitwam as Tanya were given the chance to play to their comic strengths and did them well. Their extended scene with Donna was masterful, we could feel the camaraderie between the three characters, especially in “Dancing Queen”. Ashlyn was suitably comical in her duet with Seth: “Take a Chance on Me”. Lara impressively managed to imbue her version of Tanya with an assured cougarish physicality, which came especially to the fore in “Does Your Mother Know That You’re Out”.
No matter how strong the rest of the cast is, the success of any production of Mamma Mia! will inevitably lay at the feet of the performer playing Donna Sheridan. She is the character that has the most work and the most complex emotional journey. In such an important role, Philippa Kapp couldn’t help but stand out. The role suited her natural register beautifully, never seeming to have to stretch or push to hit notes. Her understanding of a character way older than her was impressive, and if you closed your eyes and listened to her perform you could almost forget how young Philippa actually is. It is Donna who gets the most difficult song in the show to pull off well, “The Winner Takes It All ‘, Philippa showed an understanding of the words she was actually singing and gave us a powerful and considered rendition, both sung and acted to absolute precision and perfection. It was a performance I was not expecting from a High School Production, and it was thrilling to experience.
Director Chris McRae and his entire team have done an excellent job pulling together such an assured, enjoyable, and above all fun production of this gem of a musical. Congratulations to all involved and a huge Thank You to St Mark's for allowing the performing arts to thrive in their school.
Reviewers Note: Chris McRae, the shows director and Head of Drama and Production at St Mark’s is a reviewer for Theatre Reviews Perth, but had no part in this review. Tickets for this review were provided by the school.
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