Mamma Mia!

Sharon Sexton owns the role of Donna Sheridan, the Greek island taverna-owning unmarried mother whose daughter Sophie (a bright and effervescent Emma Mullen) is about to be wed, in this new touring production of Mamma Mia! which opens at the Edinburgh Playhouse before an extensive UK tour.

Sexton provides the backbone to a production which generally allows the plot and story to guide its course, not the original versions of the Abba hits from which it is constructed. Her own takes are particularly focused on making this appear to be an original sung-through musical, rising to a magnificent and heart-rending performance of The Winner Takes It All.

Helen Anker as boy-eating Tanya and Nicky Swift as uncommitted Rosie provide great comic diversions as her pals from the old days when they were in a band together. Rob Fowler (Sam), Daniel Crowder (Harry) and Jamie Kenna (Bill) give articulate performances as Sophie’s potential fathers.

Toby Miles has the presence for Sophie’s intended, Sky, but their duet of Lay All Your Love on Me is the production’s only weak musical moment. The ensemble is as tight as the lycra in the Act Two opener Under Attack, with real drive and enthusiasm all the way through the cast.

Cleverly updated lines for this 20th anniversary tour place it firmly in contemporary times, with Kenna’s dad-dance flossing particularly well placed. Strange, then, that Donna’s line about being disowned for being an unmarried mother in the Seventies has not been changed. It jars, both with the narrative and with the tone of this otherwise punctilious and lovingly staged production.

The Crucible review at Edinburgh Playhouse – ‘triumphant and elemental’