Brain Waves

Mamma Mia! at the Ahmanson Theatre:

25-year-old spoilers below:

Of the shows eligible this season, I only saw Liberation, Chess, and Ragtime, and I was particularly happy to see that Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy won.

That was a pretty great opening number.

Show performances, personal ranking based on the videos available on YouTube:

Cats: The Jellicle Ball: I appreciated Cats in its original form so the revival was already the only thing i haven't seen that I wanted to see from this season, and this performance reinforced that opinion. Costumes looked cool and the concept is interesting.

Ragtime: What a great cast. The Prologue was pretty good though there were some obvious cuts. Considering the sound issues present in every performance, the fact that they managed to sound decent is impressive in itself.

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York): Wasn't expecting very much so this performance was surprisingly charming, and it provided enough of a progression to see the developing dynamic between the two characters.

Rocky Horror Show: Seems like it would be fun, if only to see this on stage with a good cast. For some reason it was Rachel Dratch as the Narrator that really hooked me in this performance.

Chicago tribute medley: Alex Newell was a great Mama Morton, really liked the audience segment of "Cell Block Tango," and Pink was again impressive.

Schmigadoon!: As a production it looks fun, the ensemble looked good, and Ana Gasteyer was funny in her brief spotlight. But to be honest the premise of the TV show never really interested me and that remains true for the musical.

The Lost Boys: Not sure how it was shown during the broadcast but it seemed odd at first that this was the only video that had a recorded intro with voiceover. Though after seeing the performance I imagine they couldn't do any of the more striking effects live, and the performance felt a little flat despite the energy that perfomers were attempting to convey onstage. Unfortunately the music was pretty unappealing to me both melodically and lyrically.

The Book of Mormon: It is not one of my favorite shows but I do remember it for being the first time I saw Gavin Creel on stage (in the national tour). He seemed extremely well cast in the role of Elder Price.

Titanique: Yikes; sound was quite uneven, singers seemed off and the performance felt disjointed. John Riddle in sunglasses helped a little, but if I didn't already have an idea of the premise of the show this performance would not make me want to see it.

A caveat - I don’t know Korean so cannot accurately comment on meanings or nuance and will probably get romanizations wrong. If I refer to a line it’s the English equivalent based on the Broadway version, not a literal translation.

Cast: Park Hye-na as Tamara, Lin-a as Rafaela (cast wall below):

Park Hye-na was particularly good at expressing Tamara’s pain, the reactions every time to “what did you do to get me out?” were particularly effective (like repeated stabs to the heart). She also does a great Old Tamara and I was pretty surprised at how a particular raise of an eyebrow and twist of her mouth suddenly turns her into an old woman. I am not sure some of the comedic bits quite landed though; it was sort of hard to tell because some of the things that usually got played for a laugh on Broadway (like Tamara being unable to stop herself from commenting on the random street painter’s perspective) seemed to get no reaction.

Also thought Lin-a’s Rafaela and Jo Hyung-kyun as Marinetti were good. Cast was strong across the board but I am tired so may add more later.

The staging largely replicates the Broadway version including costumes, visuals, sets, lighting/projections and choreography. The most obvious difference is the addition of “Stillness” (!!!) and the subtraction of “I Will Paint Her” and “In the Blasted California Sun” (two of my favorites) as well as “Here lt Comes” (not so much). Weirdly I missed “Blasted California Sun” more even when they also added in a brief scene at the end with adult Kizette. Maybe it’s a version of what they used pre-Broadway; I will have to look up how to say “throw my ashes into a volcano” in Korean because there was definitely a line Tamara said that had that spirit. I also enjoyed the split-screen projection of the orchestra as they played the entr’acte.

This week they are allowing people to take photos and videos at curtain call. I did take a video but to be honest I’m not a fan of doing so personally; I want to clap for people and see the actors receive their acclaim with my own eyes. May post it later once I get some time to edit.

There was a couch for people to take photos of themselves on:

The show’s art and graphics were all over the theater, including:

By the escalator wall inside the theater

By the elevator going up from the ground floor

On the elevator wall inside the theater

On the columns in the lobby

Audience seemed to be largely young women

It's interesting to me that this is an increasingly common thing, because I see most plays and musicals by myself, and have done so since well before the pandemic. It makes maintaining a theater habit way easier; for one thing, I'm willing to spend time and money seeing things which I may not end up liking very much but wouldn't expect the same from most others, and it is also logistically much, much easier to schedule things based solely on my own schedule (especially if I want to see something multiple times).