My Very First Post!!!

To start off the maiden entry of this blog, I will give you my two cents' worth about the fantastic West End musical, Mamma Mia which opened in Istana Budaya 2 days ago. I caught the performance during SP Setia’s Corporate Night on Thursday.

Though the acting of most of the cast can be improved, it was overall a fantabulously awesome musical and definitely well worth watching.....over and over and over and over again. Unfortunately, since money doesn't grow on trees, most of us can only afford to watch it once, and how much you see of the stage also depends on what seats you buy.

I'm not a hardcore fan of ABBA (if I am, I'd be admitting that I'm older than I'd like people to think I am!) but I am definitely a bona fide fan of Mamma Mia - both the musical and the movie. I’ve seen the movie at least 10 times already, but my Mom has beaten my record because she has seen it 12 times…..and counting!

To compare Mamma Mia to the other musical that I have seen, Saturday Night Fever in 2004 I would say that Mamma Mia takes the prize overall in terms of keeping the audience captivated by their glittery, colorful costumes and different scenes throughout the entire performance. The stage props were very, very simple; only 2 movable erm, huge contraptions but the lighting and glitzy, sequined costumes brought the stage to live. But the dances moves and choreography of Mamma Mia is nothing like that of SNF.

The storyline of SNF is a little dull, but the dances and dancers were way better than of Mamma Mia's. The performers in SNF had some serious and impressive twirly and complicated moves that, sad to say, put Mamma Mia’s dance scenes to shame! Awwww……Then again, what else can we expect from the movie that catapulted John Travolta to fame and made the simple index-finger pointing move famous?

Anyway, back to Mamma Mia. The person who played Sophie in the musical is my favorite. She was very natural and enthusiastically bouncy in playing her role and really threw herself into it. Tanya and Rosie were also good, but unfortunately, Donna was a little stiff and uh, dry. Hmmm…...my opinion could be due to the fact that I have high regards for Meryl Streep as she played Donna so well in the movie that I automatically expected a similar stellar performance from the Donna in the musical.

I managed to sneak in a few shots and a very short video during the performance while getting dirty looks from the security personnel before he finally came over and tapped me on the shoulder…...but is that going to stop me from contemplating that feat again? Hell NO! I’m fortunate enough to have the opportunity to catch the musical again in 2 weeks’ time, and I really can’t wait for that….to sneak in more shots and videos :-)