The Kings Theatre. Southsea – until 23 June
Review by Nicky Wyatt
5*****
Quite simply the best feel good, funny and uplifting night out. F ABBA ULOUS
A little bit of Greece comes to Southsea. Most girls want their dad to walk them down the aisle on their big day, Sophie (Lucy May Barker) is no different. Brought up in a Greek paradise by her mum the brilliant Donna (Shona White), not knowing her dad and her mum not telling she decides she wants to find him and does some research. She finds not one but three possible dads! They all get an invite to the wedding of her and Sky (Phillip Ryan) and they all arrive on the island thinking they are the guest of Donna, she of course knows nothing about it nor does Sky it’s Sophie’s secret.
It’s a funny fast paced story with some great characters.
Dads to be all suddenly realising they could be the one, switching between panic and pride mixed with the nostalgia of their time spent on the island with Donna making each one a plausible dad.
Sam (Tamlyn Henderson) the architect that stole Donnas heart and sketched the plan for the taverna before he left to go back to the states.
Bill (Matthew Rutherford) the travel writer and adventurer that back in the day was the headbanger
Harry (Daniel Crowder) the banker that was on a backpacking trip when he fell for Donna
We are treated to so many well known and loved ABBA songs with fantastic dance routines and more than a bit of comedy.
Tanya (Helen Anker) is hilarious in her rendition of ‘Does Your Mother Know’ some great moves. I have to say the male ensemble in the Wetsuit stag night were fab as were their Abs!
A hugely talented cast with some fantastic voices for me Donna, Sophie and Sam stand out.
Clever scenery and scene changes really capture the essence of a Greek taverna along with fab costumes and the music from ABBA played by the extremely talented band there was a whole of foot tapping going on and you could tell that the audience wanted to join in and boogie. This is show is 2 and half hours long and it goes by in a flash culminating in a well deserved standing ovation from many in the audience. The only good bit of it ending was the whole cast doing 3 encores that allowed us all to have a boogie to Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Waterloo.
Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus did an amazing job writing this, the cast delivered it beautifully . We played the CD all the way home so only thing left to say is ‘Thank you for the music’