You know when you are secretly a huge fan of ABBA, but are just too afraid to admit it? Well, Mamma Mia is still playing at Teatro Citi. It’s time to bring down the wall of shame people. Do not be afraid.

Every year, this grand theatre in the centre of Buenos Aires puts on a mass musical – recent spectacles have included The Sound of Music and Beauty and the Beast, while The Little Mermaid, The Lion King and Mary Poppins are rumoured to be on the way.

The musical has had an enormous impact around the world. After the production dazzled the West End stage in 1999 and Broadway in 2001, racking up more than 50 million viewers since, an additional burst of fame for the show came when Phyllida Lloyd’s film version was released in 2008. Starring the likes of Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried – to name a few – it became so popular at the time in the United Kingdom that it topped the charts becoming the highest-ever grossing film.

Since Mamma Mia’s arrival on Avenida Corrientes earlier this year, local media has lapped up the rendition of the Scandinavian quartet’s 20+ hit songs, taking you through the lead up to a young woman’s wedding day and her grand search for her real father – all sung in almost completely porteño Spanish.

Just a month and a half after the show premiered, it hit a record of 30,000 viewers, taking it to the top of the BA audience ranking for musicals. Dubbed, “The Magical Musical,” and “The Only Winner,” as well as being a favourite in the running for a “Hugo” award (the Argentine version of the Tonys which takes place in August) this production’s capability to capture porteño hearts was clear from the beginning.

Porteño Production

As is standard with shows brought from Broadway and beyond to the Buenos Aires stage, the musical tries to remain true to its worldwide counterparts (Mamma Mia is currently playing in London, New York and Paris as well as enjoying huge success on Japanese, Korean and International tours). Therefore, the set, costumes, lighting, staging, choreographies, etc are kept almost completely identical to the original West End show. The script and song lyrics are the only things that change, translated into Spanish.

Even so, for a story set on a Greek island, the scenery on stage really isn’t particularly that exciting, with two white walls on trucks, and a few extra props, much is left to the imagination. Luckily enough, the action taking place was, at least for the most part, interesting enough to light up the stage.

Paula Reca plays the character of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried’s part in the film version), and while she gave it her best, it was quite clear that the casting was a mismatch. Often singing off-key and really quite unconvincingly, the cheese factor that already comes with the show plus this general over-acting left me tuning out during nearly every performance she was involved in.

In contrast, the real stars were the likes of Marisol Otero as Donna, (played by Meryl Streep in the film) who I last saw in Bella y Bestia as Mrs Potts, as well as Silvana Tome who plays Rosie, (Julie Walters in the film) who I last saw as the hilarious Chow Fan in Avenida “Q”.

In fact the interaction between Rosie (Tome), Donna (Otero) and Tanya (Gabriela Bevacqua) saw some of the most entertaining moments in the musical, including on songs like “Super Trouper” where the ladies came out dressed in silver and white shiny flares.

“Voulez-vous” was another tremendous piece, full of energy and electricity. Otero’s rendition of “Hay solo un ganador” (“The Winner Takes it All”) was also breath-taking. In contrast, “The Name of the Game,” or “Como hay que jugar” as it is translated, was a little bit unconvincing and off time.

Unfortunately, the overall performance of the male cast was a little uninteresting, with their song renditions particularly lax. The leading male part out of the three possible dads is Sam, played by German Barcelo, who really failed to capture anyone’s attention at all. All three male parts were upstaged by Otero and her team, who completely stole the show. The only leading male who vaguely entertained was Luciano Bassi, who plays the character of Sky (Sophie’s hubby-to-be). The diving scene was particularly hilarious, even if for the more slap-stick elements of it.

Crucial Learning

With all of this in mind, the reality is that, ABBA fan or not, this glittery extravaganza and seventies song festival is a wonderful opportunity to practice your Spanish. Listening to all these songs translated is not as cringeworthy as you might think; in fact, at times it is very entertaining. There’s ´Dame, Dame, Dame un hombre esta noche…´ (“Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie a man after midnight…”), and ´Quiero dar las gracias´ (“Thank You for the Music”) just to name a couple.

Some of the titles were not translated (“Money, Money, Money” for example), but in these cases, the title is sung in English and the rest of the song lyrics in Spanish. I figure that was a choice made based on longer words not fitting into the musical phrases, which could have made the songs sound really odd. (“Dinero, Dinero, Dinero”, for example, might not have worked very well).

So, there you have it folks. If you are in need of a song-filled Spanish lesson, head down to Corrientes and grab yourselves a ticket. You will not be disappointed by this big, sparkly and very entertaining show. By the end of it the entire audience was up and dancing, and with the rave reviews it’s received, I do believe the night I went to see the show was definitely no fluke performance.

“Chiquitita dime porque,” there is no way you can deny it. Check it out.

Have you been seeing posters about town exhibiting wafting colourful fog coming out of what appear to be magical hands recently? Well, it’s not your imagination, but an ad for the latest musical to hit the Av. Corrientes theatre strip: Excalibur.

This new production has not been done before; or rather, it has, but not in a musical format. The dynamic Cibrian-Mahler duo, the creators of the Av. Corrientes-hit ´Dracula´, make their 2012 return to the Buenos Aires stage with a reworking of the mythical tale, featuring Dracula´s star: Juan Rodo.

Forget whichever version of the medieval legend – King Arthur, round table, knights, etc – you may have come across before in books or films (including the Disney classic ‘The Sword in the Stone’). The only thing you really need to remember is that Excalibur is a sword and it’s powerful.

The Verdict

Bearing in mind this is a new musical, and a new take on the story itself, the programme for Excalibur is unhelpful even by Buenos Aires standards. It offered nothing but a few unexplained character names, members of the orchestra, and a brief lacklustre synopsis. The rest of the blanks were filled with irrelevant advertisements. No song-listing, no extra help. Everyone was going in blind.

The show begins with a confusing opening scene involving two kings, Arthur and Guinevere, that had me totally baffled. Were there two kingdoms? Did Arthur and Guinevere already know one another?

This feeling of uncertainty was a recurring theme for throughout the show, as the audience was transported into different worlds and time-periods, having begun somewhere around the year ‘medieval.’

The underlying story was pretty simple: sword, crown, baddies, goodies, you know how it is. Following the storyline as it went from scene to scene, however, was a little harder to piece together.

The songs were not clearing things up either, mainly because they were difficult to understand, not only for an
English-native ear, but for Argentines too. At the end of songs, I heard many audience members speaking out loud, questioning who was who and what was going on.

On a more positive note, the quality of the set design was wonderful. The cog-wound backdrop surrounding the stage was beautifully detailed and as the show went on, impressive trucks were rolled on, similarly to how they were in Dracula, using many levels and containing skillfully painted props.

Perhaps the most impressive part was when Emilio Yapor –who plays Arthur- sent his Excalibur sword in flight up to the dress circle. It was a little bit rickety as it went up the wire, and I was a little worried it might fall on our heads, but it made it safely.

The costumes, however, did not match up quite the same way. They were often pantomime-like and distracting, particularly Rey Algac -played by Leonel Fransezze- and Rey Verix -played by Pablo Rodriguez- who looked like they had been dressed from a school play costume closet. Most of the time their wonky crowns were about to fall off, off-putting enough to make it difficult to concentrate on what they were singing.

Arthur’s costumes were odd too, at least when standing next to the rest of the cast. He was dressed sort of like Romeo in Zeffirelli’s version of Romeo and Juliet, but with a more impressive colour palette, while Morgona and her clan of chorus supporters were many times dressed in something that looked like a clash of Rocky Horror versus Xena WarriorPrincess clothing. At times small tributes were even made to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I’m pretty sure, unintentionally so.

Morgona’s character, played by Candela Cibrián, was an odd choice in every way. Not only was she given bad songs to sing, her screeching calls to ‘Merlin’ made you want to run for the exit. Physically she was set to portray a ‘baddie’ but her singing and the costumes she was put in were so off-putting, it was hard to be convinced by the character in any way.

But it was Merlin who was the oddest character in the show. In my book, Merlin is a magician. He should have been wearing a crooked wizard’s hat and looking something like Gandalf. Instead, the part played by Rodo was given a strange pink and purple stripy drawn-back wig. This included stripy sideburns and a beard, which looked like a bristled out-of-control lions mane stuck to his face.

His presence on stage was not very magician-like either. His movement was sloppy and heavy footed, perhaps intentionally so, but it made him look more ogre-like than anything else. Rodo is actually a sound actor and singer, but even in his grand solos, his voice was drowned out, swallowed up by his accompaniment. Dracula definitely gave Rodo a better chance to shine than in his role as Merlin.

Also, his world was set in the ice age, or somewhere close to the North Pole, which was also distracting, due to his strange clown-like mime-artist disciples who mimicked every bad line read by the character. It worsened as they later returned to the same place, but pulled out the He-man style costumes.

To conclude, the musical is described as a ‘leyenda musical,’ yet I regret to say that it was not at all. The music was often ruined by poor sound and scratchy speakers, paired with uninspiring songs, lyrics and 80s style cheesy melodies. For a musical with bad music, it’s unsure how long lasting it can be. That paired with a weak, muddled-up storyline and a poor use of a talented cast calls for what could end up being a short stint along Corrientes.