Mamma Mia - Novello Theatre

Saw this last night and enjoyed it. It's easy entertainment, nothing to think too deeply about.

The only ever time I've seen Mamma Mia was on the tour a couple of years ago. I remember the bad audience more than the show itself.

I picked up a front row centre seat with a recent ticket offer and the view is perfect. Right behind the conductor, who enters his booth going across the front row, having a nice chat with the people around.

This definitely picks up a tourist audience and not necessarily people who speak English. There was humming, talking and someone who kept tapping the back of my chair vaguely in time to the music. But it wasn't too bad. It may have been worse sat further back.

The current cast are enthusiastic. They have picked men who look good in trunks, especially recent Arts Ed graduate Danny Nattrass (and he coped very well when his shorts split across the crotch). The three lead ladies playing Donna, Rosie and Tanya are all excellent. The sound quality is perfect.

It took me some time to track down a cast board (it is on a high screen in the area where you go through security checks, almost impossible to stop and look at it when being ferried in). All of the leads were on.

This is never going to be a high brow musical, but it has a place and sells tickets. I won't leave it another 20 years before I visit again!

From what I know, the alternate Donna is usually a Friday evening, and cast change should be some time in June but I’m uncertain of the date.

Does the alternate doing Fridays usually happen on the tours too?

Desperate to see Sharon Sexton....

LOL - ditto! Booked for a Friday in Birmingham as Friday eve for most shows with alternates is not an alternate night!

Sharon Sexton + Rob Fowler singing ABBA (and wearing those ABBA style outfits) is going to be a great night out. Booked for the opening night with the ATG Card offer for Liverpool.

Interesting night at the Novello last night. Hadn't been for a few years and it's a show I love (one of the few genuinely well written jukebox musicals) and managed to get row N stalls for 40 quid with GILT.

The show holds up well and remains joyous. Was sorry not to see Mazz Murray, but Caroline Deverill was excellent. We had a second cover Sophie, Lauren Hampton. She was lovely and very likeable. Nice voice too but quite a few missed notes unfortunately. Undeniably talented though so may just need more performances under her belt.

I do think the show has slimmed down over the years and is not as spectacular as it was.

Can anyone with a better memory than me recall what the main set differences were in the original at the Prince Edward? I am sure the floor lit up different colours and also that there was a jetty that rose up for the final scene with all the dry ice beneath it? Also the main set of the white Greek walls, was this three pieces rather than the current two?

Show itself aside, the audience really was barely concentrating. A constant low level muttering and talking (so many people that I couldn't single anyone out), singing along, eating, rustling, drinking, texting. Woman in front of us alternating between talking to husband and texting on phone. Two quite extraordinary lads in the box nearest the stage who were absolutely hammered. Waving arms out of the box, grabbing each other, coming and going constantly from the box especially in the second half, returning with more drinks. No idea how they were getting served. Security man came into box halfway through Act 2 but made no difference. Very distracting as they were so near the stage!

Is Mamma Mia normally this bad? I mean I know it's jukebox and prime fodder for a difficult audience experience, but I don't recall it being this bad and am sure behaviour has got worse? But perhaps I am just getting older....

Anyway, if I were to go again I'd want row A aisle, so can just block out everything behind me.

Interesting look up on Wiki on way home. Mamma Mia currently 5th in the all time West End long runners. In April will overtake Cats and become 4th. And will soon overtake Blood Brothers and be 3rd.

So the 3rd longest running musical in British theatre history. Not bad, eh?

I don't think it will outrun Les Mis and Phantom but guess time will tell!

Bookings open from 7th June 2021 x x x

Fridays used to be the alternate night, not sure if that will change when it reopens.

Ah thank you so much! We’ll book our tickets for Monday 6th Sept and keep our fingers crossed! :-) x

Amazing! I'm not sure if you've booked tickets already, but TodayTix are currently doing discounted seats for that performance with London Theatre Week :-) And I would love to see Mazz in this, I saw her a couple of times in WWRY years ago and she was incredible! Fingers crossed! x

PS. I also see that you're from Bristol... we've just moved here back in July! :-)

What irritates me about this more than anything is that when I saw Heathers at the end of last month, very few people were wearing masks. The stage manager appeared on stage at the start of act 2 and asked everyone to put masks on. 80% of the audience did so. 

Why aren't these shows, at the very least, asking for masks during the "turn phones off" announcement?!

When theatres started announcing their reopenings I went on somewhat of an Unstoppable Ticket Booking Spree and thus ended up with a ticket to see Mamma Mia for only the second time ever. It's still a fun evening - clearly a cheap show to keep open, selling itself on the hits alone rather than any particularly impressive staging or effects. You can't fault the energy and enthusiasm of the cast, for sure. That finale looks exhausting as anything. The current Sophie is very sweet, and whoever I saw as Donna had the best voice of the night - I don't actually know who it was, though. The cast board was listing someone who, according to the website, isn't even in the cast? Very confused!
There were definitely sound balancing issues. I don't know if it was just where I was sat (Grand Circle slips) or they're trying to drown out the caterwauling from the audience, but the band was way too loud and it was difficult to hear the cast most of the time. Which of course brings up the other problem - the audience. Regardless of how much I did enjoy the show, this one falls into the same category as Lion King and Jersey Boys. I simply cannot stand the audience singing along and talking throughout; it drives me up the walls! A shame, really, because this is still an easy watch, a lot of fun and, despite how cheesy some of the dialogue is, ultimately a good night out.