Musical Review - Toronto - Mamma Mia!

*Warning: there is semi-nudity and a lot of mimed fellatio in this musical. And I mean the good kind of semi-nudity, not the weird kind where a guy runs offstage in his boxers for 2 seconds as the lights are dim*.* And the mimed fellatio was awkward given the fact that only about 10 audience members were inside the 18-49 demographic.*

Note that characters are referenced in terms of the movie-actors who played the
roles.

First half:
It became very clear that Meryl Streep couldn't sing her lower register. So the first half was largely a version of Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia where the only thing you hear is the lead mumbling some low notes. Clearly you should only cast someone after menopause in this role. It also became clear that the lead boy Dominic Cooper was not super-cute. He was pretty tall, kind of looked like a rugby player, not really fat but not something I'd want to hit. Meryl Streep's best friends, played by Rosie Perez and Christine Baranski, could sing and were hilarious.

Rating: 1.5/4 stars for the singing, 3/4 stars for the comedy

Second half:
The singing got way better when Meryl Streep starting singing ballads in her higher register. Unlike the movie, Colin Firth, Pearce Brosnan and the other guy could actually sing. While the main boy wasn't very cute, the guy that played Colin Firth was SUPER HOT. Because of this, I'm pretty sure they added an awesomely gratuitous scene where he "comes up from the beach" in his short bathing-shorts as he has some conversation with Christine Baranski. I don't remember the conversation, but this was one SEXY 38 year old:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004138/

If you're creepy like me and scroll through the screen credits, you'll notice that he played "Prince Darian" on Sailor Moon. That's right, the best part of the Mamma Mia production was a voice in Sailor Moon.

Rating: 3/4 stars for the singing, 3/4 stars for the comedy, 4/4 stars for the gratuitous semi-nude scene

Good job, Mamma Mia, for capturing what disco music was really about. Bad singing, funky costumes, and doing anything to make the gays appreciate you. And if you're going to get tickets, you should sit on the RIGHT side of the theatre, since a lot of scenes happen on the left hand corner of the stage and it can be hard to see.

It also helps if you prepare for this by watching the BRILLIANT movie Muriel's Wedding instead of the much worse movie Mamma Mia!

Captain Awesome