Get out your disco boots and spandex as Cupcake Theater gives L.A. audiences their very first chance to enjoy the international megasmash Mamma Mia! up close and personal.

To be sure, Mamma Mia! has played the city of Los Angeles multiple times before, beginning with its pre-Broadway engagement at the Shubert Theatre back in 2001, followed by its initial National Tour stop at the Ahmanson two years later, and after than every two or three years at the Pantages.

But its Cupcake engagement is the first within city limits since regional rights became available a couple years back, and the show, even scaled down, remains not only a crowd-pleaser but 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.

Perky Paige Stewart is Sophie, who informs her two best friends (vivacious duo Lexi Eiserman and Jackee Frome as Lisa and Ali) that according to her mother’s twenty-one-year-old diary entries, there were three different men who made her Mamma swoon to the words and music of “Honey, Honey.” (“He’s a love machine. Oh, he makes me dizzy.”)

Even bigger news is their impending arrival at the taverna for Sophie’s wedding to Sky (scruffy charmer Mickey Layson).

There’s American Sam (Luis Marquez doing suave), Brit Harry (a prim-and-proper Brayden Hade), and Texan Bill (Benjamin Perez in Ewing-family mode), each of whom dilly-dallied with young Donna over the course of a single month way back when.

Meanwhile, the object of their mutual affection (feisty Erin Eichberg as Donna Sheridan) has her own invitees arriving—single gal Rosie (Stephanie Lesh-Farrell giving the man-hungry bachelorette plenty of oomph) and thrice-married, surgically enhanced Tanya (Deanna Anthony, reinventing the role), her longtime best friends and former Donna And The Dynamos groupmates.

Before long, Donna has come face to face with the three men who might have fathered Sophie, memories have rushing back, and the title song has Donna wondering out loud, “Mamma mia, here I go again. My, my, how can I resist you?”

Mamma Mia! works best when the cast plays it authentic and real, and as things stand now, director Michael Pettenato would do well to reign in performances (facial reactions in particular) delivered as if to the back row of the Pantages compounded by volume levels set so high they make all spoken dialog sound shouted. (Amplification is just right during songs.)

Still, with a bit of fine tuning, this intimate Mamma Mia! has it in it to deliver the goods, and there’s already not a weak vocal link in its hard-working cast.

Eichberg sings the living daylights out of “The Winner Takes It All,” Anthony’s high notes hit the stratosphere in “Does Your Mother Know” opposite Christopher Jewell Valentin’s hot spicy Pepper, and Lesh-Farrell’s power pipes make “Take A Chance On Me” duet with Perez’s Bill an Act Two standout, with musical director Lauralie Pow Ghahremani and her live band providing topnotch acompaniment throughout.

Choreographer Tor Campbell backs up just about every song with music-video-ready dance moves performed by an energetic young ensemble—Nikk Alcaraz, Melvin Biteng (Eddie), Brianne Campbell, Savannah Ludwig, Asia Ring, Steven Duncan Sass (Father)—who may look more like American college spring-breakers than townsfolk populating a Greek island, but hey, it’s Mamma Mia!

Rich Kirchhoff’s set captures the look of a Grecian taverna in shades of white and blue, though it’s hard to imagine Donna seating her outdoor guests on straight-back black office chairs. Costumer Page Ridgeway has designed an abundance of colorful, skin-revealing summer wear and some nostalgic ABBAesque concert outfits. Lighting design is in the capable hands of James G. Smith III.

Mamma Mia! is produced by Pettenato. Reyhan Rivera is assistant director. Huck Walton is sound engineer and Catherine Mak is lighting engineer. ThurZday Lyons is production stage manager and Michael Ojugo is assistant stage manager.

With regional rights to Mamma Mia! now available across the land, expect to see theater after theater jumping on the ABBA bandwagon in the months and years to come. Thanks to Cupcake Theater, Los Angeles theatergoers don’t have to wait.

Note:  Some roles are double-cast.

Cupcake Theater, 11020 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood.
www.cupcaketheater.com

–Steven Stanley
January 13, 2019

Tags: ABBA, Cupcake Theater, Los Angeles Theater Review