Chicago Tribune: Lighten up, Paramount Theatre in Aurora. You're doing "Mamma Mia!" I'm all for truth in storytelling — even with a song whose musical treats, and I mean that sincerely, includes the immortal lyric "Super trouper, beams are gonna blind me," a line so full of Euro-pop non sequiturs, only ABBA could possibly have pulled it off. Heck, I even subscribe to the theory that "Mamma Mia!" — which I have seen about 4,323 times and relished the prospect each and every time, is actually a very important show in the evolution of musical theater. This was the first successful show to take a blockbuster pop catalog and insert it inside a story — in this case, a silly yarn of a once-wild baby boomer, whose daughter wants her one-of-three-candidates dad at her big, fat Greek Island wedding — that had nothing whatsoever to do with the lives of the original artists.
2 comments:
Wow. I cannot decide whether this is a refreshingly honest critic giving her outspoken truth, or a person too quick to judgement and borderline bully. I'll go ahead and address both sides of my thoughts. For one, I have not seen this show at Paramount so I have no frame of reference for the author's truthfulness, but for the sake of the article, let's say she's absolutely correct about her statements. Those statements are not ones to be said lightly. I don't feel like anyone wants to go to the theatre and have one of their favorite shows ruined, so I don't think the author says this out of random malice. Her words are hilariously funny, equating one of ABBA's most famous songs to "Sunrise Sunset". However her humor comes from putting down others. This is where I am conflicted. It is one thing to not like a show, but to write an article about how bad she deems this production is just borderline cruel. Not everyone is in the Tony winning show. Our best work is not always achievable every single time. Even the greatest of actors/directors/designers have a had a show that they look back on as "eek". But that is part of art. Failure is part of art. While coming to terms with an unsuccessful experience is okay, it does not feel right for this writer to just relentlessly criticize the show. We've all been at that point, do we really need more people to point and laugh? I think this review lacks common curtosey where if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.
I think it's a little ridiculous how biased and opinion driven this article is, especially for a newspaper article. The author writes in first person and uses an arsenal of negative words to trash the famous Broadway show. While the revival of the show at the Paramount could have actually been of lower production value, the show should not be critiqued so inappropriately. The author attacks the director's vision and the performance of the actors--they are more serious hence the comparison to Greek tragedy. However, it is hypocritical to say the show is a copy but also a different take on the London performance that the author attended in 1999. It seems like he's not OK with other takes on one of his favorite shows based on one of his favorite music groups. However, this is what happens in the theater industry; it's simply a different vision.
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