No matter how many times you’ve seen Mamma Mia!, you have never seen it as excitingly performed, expertly directed, thrillingly choreographed, or gorgeously designed as it is under Vista skies in its Moonlight Stage Productions SoCal regional debut.

Here’s why.

 During Mamma Mia!’s 14-year Broadway run and its 15-year National Tour, every single American audience has witnessed the same direction, the same choreography, the same design, the same everything as the West End original save the performers bringing the ABBA musical to life, and had Mamma Mia! followed the traditional regional route, theaters like Moonlight could have opted to rent the Broadway sets and costumes and/or recreate original direction and choreography, giving audiences little more reason to revisit Mamma Mia! than the chance to see local talent singing iconic songs in now iconic roles.

Fortunately, regional rights to Mamma Mia! come with one major proviso. Producers are forbidden to replicate the Broadway version, and Moonlight audiences reap the benefits of this contractual stipulation.

But first a look at what has made Mamma Mia! the ultimate jukebox musical, i.e. one which takes a bunch of hit tunes and finds ways to string them together as if they had been written for the musical and not the other way around.

 Inspired by the 1968 Gina Lollobrigida comedy Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, book writer Catherine Johnson adroitly squeezes one hook-blessed, lyrically stilted ABBA hit after another* into the tale of a Greece-residing young American who invites a trio of strangers to the seaside village she and her inn-keeper mother Donna call home in hopes of finding out which of her free-spirited mom’s long-ago loves planted the seed which grew into twenty-year-old Sophie Sheridan, about to marry the man of her dreams.

The first thing audiences will notice about Mamma Mia! at Moonlight is how gosh darn gorgeous it is, and however you might describe the show’s Broadway/National Tour design, gorgeous is not a word that would come to mind.

 Not so at Moonlight, where scenic designer Stephen Gifford has created an intensely-hued wonder of a set that bathes the audience in Mediterranean blues and greens and terracotta oranges and golds reflected in Alexandra Johnson’s equally colorful costumes (including some nostalgic ABBA-wear) under Jean-Yves Tessier’s ultra-vibrant lighting.

 The second thing you might notice are how thrillingly original director-choreographer John Vaughan’s dance numbers are, especially as performed by a gifted, indefatigable ensemble given even more to do at Moonlight than on Broadway. (For example, “Does Your Mother Know?” now makes use of just about everyone in the cast and not a mere handful.)

 As for those who might have poopooed the Mamma Mia! book as slight or superficial, they might just have a change of heart considering the dramatic stakes Vaughan has given Donna, Sophie, and the rest, especially as performed with authentic acting chops by a couldn’t-be-better bunch of leading players.

Not only does SoCal treasure Bets Malone dig deep into Donna’s past heartbreak, the fact that said heartbreak was caused by her Sweeney Todd/Next To Normal costar Robert J. Townsend’s swoon-worthy Sam adds romantic, sexual sizzle to their coupling, and it goes without saying that Malone’s and Townsend’s vocals are simply sublime.

 As Sophie, the exquisite Katie Sapper takes what could in less stellar hands be a throw-away part and makes her Mamma Mia’s heart and soul, and her fiancé Sky (a super sexy Nicholas Sloan) is everything a girl could wish for.

 The fabulous foursome of Nicholas Alexander, Hanz Enyeart, Janaya Mahealani Jones, and Kylie Molnar merit their own individual sidekick snaps, the gents as aspiring ladies’ man Pepper and his easygoing right-hand man Eddie, and the ladies as Sophie’s besties, the vivacious Lisa and the equally bubbly Ali.

As for the grownups, Barbara Schoenhofer and Karyn Overstreet bring Donna’s former fellow “Dynamos,” acerbic, much-married, nipped-and-tucked Tanya and brash plus-sized feminist Rosie to exuberant, scene-stealing life, and Jason W. Webb and Lance Arthur Smith do the same, but with testosterone, as British head-banger-turned-financier Harry and Crocodile Dundee-like travel writer Bill.

 Superlatives are in order for Mamma Mia! ensemble stars Beth Alison, Kalin Booker, Deborah Fauerbach, Danny Hansen (Father Alexandrios), Julia Alessandra Martinez, Sebastian Montenegro, Koda Montoya, Dylan Nalbandian, Jacob Narcy, Joy Newbegin, James Odom, Amy Smith, Chad Takeda, and Andrea Williams, not only for acing dance number after dance number but also for providing life offstage backup vocals throughout where touring productions have relied on prerecorded tracks.

Credit for the latter is shared by master musical director Lyndon Pugeda, who conducts the ABBAmania-ready Moonlight Stage pit orchestra, vocals and instrumentals pitch-perfectly mixed by sound designer Jim Zadai.

Additional kudos are shared by makeup designer Gabe Nunez, hair designer Peter Herman, and properties designer Bonnie Durben. (Sets, costumes, and props are provided by 3-D Theatricals.)

 Costuming is coordinated and executed by Carlotta Malone, Roslyn Lehman, and Renetta Lloyd. Stanley D. Cohen is stage manager.

I’ve seen half-a-dozen incarnations of Mamma Mia! on tour and enjoyed them all. Still, none of the six can compare with (or had the emotional impact on me) of Moonlight Stage Productions’ Southern California Premiere. Mamma Mia! makes for one stellar moonlit Moonlight night.

*Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, some songs co-written with Stig Anderson

Moonlight Amphitheatre, 1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista.
www.moonlightstage.com

–Steven Stanley
June 24, 2018
Photos: Ken Jacques

Tags: ABBA, Moonlight Stage Productions, San Diego County Theater Review