I’ve seen two Broadway touring shows in the past few weeks. The first was The Drowsy Chaperone in San Francisco, and the second was Mamma Mia in Cleveland, which I saw this evening.
My friend E. is obsessed with The Drowsy Chaperone (TDC). He has seen the touring show numerous times and gave me the soundtrack at Christmastime. It is always stressful when friends love something so much – if I don’t like it as much, I tend to feel bad. But, since I knew it had the same writers as Slings and Arrows (my all-time-favorite TV show – Canadian – brilliant – go watch it NOW), I was really looking forward to seeing it. And TDC lived up to expectations, even more so in retrospect. I found myself thinking about the show days later for its book, lyrics, and production design. It is a 95-minute inside joke for theater people or fans of musical theater (but it would be entertaining even if one doesn’t fall into either of those two categories). Plus, it was a treat to see Georgia Engel in the role she originated, and Man in Chair was played by Jonathan Crombie, who played the role of a neurotic playwright in the second season of Slings and Arrows (yes, I am nearly an obsessed super-fan).
I had low expectations for Mamma Mia; when I heard the premise for the book a few years ago, I laughed. I do like Abba, I have to confess, but it mainly stems from nostalgia (my sister and I wearing out our Abba albums, or my junior high best friend and I singing “Chicquitita” in harmony, circa 1981). The show was fun, though, and I was surprised that some of the songs actually came across as deeper and more substantive that I would have imagined. The book is flimsy, but the sheer entertainment value of the show makes it forgivable.
