When my brother-in-law tipped us that her daughter will act a role in her school production of Mamma Mia, we couldn't resist the thought of reliving that one steamy evening in the English capital. And I'm sure my boys will not mind seeing their cousin on the stage again. You see, my niece has always been inclined towards the performing arts. I'm certain she did not take that after the parents because I know my sister and her husband do not play any musical instruments or have starred in any musicals before. On the contrary, their only offspring has got a few shows under her belt already such as Rubiah the Musical, Sparks of Broadway, Dancing Thru Broadway, Christmas Carol, The Ruler, a number of voice-over and children's TV programme hosting jobs. And she's only 16. Not bad right? We know we are in for a treat.
As usual, we arrived at the venue in good time but the tickets were held by the actor's parents so we couldn't go in the hall as yet. As the ushers went around to inform the guests to make their way to the hall, there was still no sign of my sister and her husband. I never like to be late for anything but especially so when it comes to movies and things like this. Not only we would interrupt the other guests by our finding our way in the dark, more crucially is we would miss the opening which sometimes can be a key scene in the story. So I approached this sweet girl (one of the ushers, not just any sweet girl) and explained to her the predicament we were in. She said it shouldn't be a problem to bring us in, the least she needed were the seat numbers. So guys, if you are reading this, I did not speak with the Principal about our problem. Gotcha!
The show began promptly as the organiser said it would and thank goodness we were already settled. But shortly before it did, my sister, my brother-in-law and my mother walked in. So technically-speaking, they did not interrupt the guests.
Donna, who is the leading character in MM was played by this very talented young lady and so was the character of Sophie, Donna's daughter. My niece played Lisa, one of Sophie's girl friends. Briefly this, MM tells the story of Sophie who is getting married soon but wishes for her dad to give her away at the wedding altar. The problem is, she grew up without and not knowing who her father is so she invites three of her mother's old flames to attend the reception, hoping that in the process she would be able to identify one from that lot. Her mother is not appreciative of what she has done behind her back. Andddd... I shall stop here. Why don't you do me a favour and google Mamma Mia to find out more.
I have to reconfirm this with my niece when I meet her next but it felt like the school production stayed true to the original MM scenes and sequence. I can't really tell if there were omissions or major amendment: all I heard was the phrase KL added to the script during a scene where some of the young islanders talked about where they had been and up to. Throughout the two-hour ABBA song fest of course there were the occasional shortness of breaths, hit-and-miss audio quality, sporadic out-of-pitch solos and props that could have been slightly more elaborate but they don't matter to us because the cast and production team had done an utterly brilliant job and they did it like bona fide professionals. Who are we to talk about the technicalities anyway. Bravo to all who were involved and that includes my niece!
And that pretty much wrapped up an otherwise ordinary weekend. It's back to work tomorrow.
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