Mamma Mia Live performance at Hyderabad
Aimless meandering around the booking sites like BookMyShow.com surely helps once in a while. Last Wednesday I came across this advert for a live musical being organised in an auditorium near my home in Hyderabad (India) – Mamma Mia, based on the hit – world’s most successful musical by same name.
The show was performed by newly floated Hot Shoe Entertainment Company, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the legendary Greek fable-based musical Mamma Mia. The show is a veritable treat for Abba fans who slip into nostalgia, courtesy pop favorites like Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Money money money and a whole range of ABBA hits. The energy and enthusiasm with which the crew performed, showed they haven’t taken audience gratis a bit. You could see the enjoyment on the faces of crew members as they danced away the play and showered the euphoria, being part of it. The very face of the lead lady here (on the right) who played Sophie, the bride, says it all! Am impressed beyond limits young lady, hats off to your enjoyment of the career, for many lesser and higher mortals miss it. The way she could dance, act and sing at same time, reminded me of a friend from Nagpur who has similar skills.
And to make sure the energy gets siphoned in the audience too, crew invited audience too to be the part of the all time famous Mamma Mia song, which saw about 50 people taking stage and stairs to join the troupe in singing and dancing on the song. As Jeffrey Vardon, co-producer and choreographer, put it this evening – “Mamma Mia has history of running house full and still having 50% of seats vacant as public could not keep their feet from dancing along!“
For those who do not know about ABBA, they were the legendary group of Pop culture of 70s. Mamma Mia just collected their songs and threaded a musical play around it, tweaking the songs a bit. Over here the troupe has made sure the dresses and play’s flow matches the actual movie. The songs, which are sung live by the way, captured that charisma of ABBA. The lady who plays Donna (mother) also happens to be single mother in real life. I must admit I was lucky that I had not seen the original so could take a fresh look at the performance, rather than compare it all the while.
After the play ended on lines of original musical, the two producers came on stage to give a damn neat performance dripping with elegance and panache. The control that beautiful Varalaxmi Sarathkumar showed here, stamped her élan over the final sequence. (see below)
Another thing that happened was that I could not convince any friend of mine to shell Rs.770 for a musical play, so I was left all alone over there (with other families, essentially two fat ladies in post 50s to accompany me on either side!) to savor the performance. And do I regret it? No way! Maybe one of the best Sundays I have spent in Hyderabad!
Psst.. next performance of the crew is in Banglore, then Mumbai before they leave for Dubai and Colombo.
Lovely post man! The images are very lively and even I cant help appreciating this young girl in first pic! Amazing zeal she is carrying!!
Must’ve been a spectacular show,Jas…and I’m glad it was worth the money because I end up regretting to have paid for expensive tickets,many times!Thanks for putting up some great pictures!
ahem…next time let me know in advance pls, before u book the ticket and then not to crib online on unwillingness to come..
Thanks Abhinav, I agree with you. Infact you can select to view the image of this girl and see the pic in actual size!!
@Sara: Yup it was spectacular, thanks to the effort put in by the crew. Though this show was not that expensive, but then art is very much a subjective food. If we go with expectations, we should assure that it better be worth it! (And I know its not easy to please you
)
@Don: Okay, you were willing but came to know later
. But then everybody excused, so I had to take a decision on if I had to go myself or not! Will call you up next time.
Lovely review Jas. Came across it from Digg. Must add that the pictures have increased the reading experience here. Keep it up!
I enjoyed reading your blog. In fact I have linked it one of my own impresions of the show!
Here is the link to my blog!
Regards
http://nidhibenagaluru.blogspot.com/
Thanks Nidhi. I was at home for a long time, so couldnt reply to your comment. Your blog is also a nice collage of events in deccan India and around your life, a great read. Keep it going!
Hey Jas…
A friend told me about this review of yours and it surprised me, to say the least! This was my first ever theatre performance and it’s amazing to know that there was someone like you there who really appreciated the effort our team put into the show! Thanks a ton!!
Sophie
P.S. the photo you used is one i absolutely hate tho!!
Whoa! Now this is unbelievable! The splendid performer of the show, the lead lady herself drops in with a courtesy.
@Sophie: First I was impressed by your onstage performance, you had the centerstage and you made most of it. Then the pic (which you hate
) captures the involvement of yours in the act, which really impressed me. And then you come on the blog and are nice enough to write few lines! Well what can I say, where do I become a fan of yours 
Thanks for the visit, and if you want me to change the snap to some other, you can send it to me. There were not many available and I wanted my readers to feel the vivid themes and the energy you people had, so had to put the pics.
Also for a maiden performance, it was too great. No doubt you would have prepared a lot, it seemed so perfect!
@Jas
quite scary lookin at that pic of mine online 
gimme a couple of days will try to find a decent pic to send you! And thanks a ton for the many compliments 
Will do that Jas