| The musical Mamma mia! now also in Russian 22 ABBA songs are connected by a simple plot, translated into Russian and perfectly sung - screenings of the musical Mamma mia! have begun in Moscow. The plot that holds together songs from different years and different intonations was invented by Katherine Johnson: on a Greek island, a woman named Donna owns a tavern and single-handedly raises her twenty-year-old daughter Sophie. The daughter is getting ready to get married, but almost more than going down the aisle at all, she wants her own dad to lead her to the altar, and there are problems with that. Mom doesn’t want to tell Sophie who is responsible for her birth, and the daughter, having stolen her mother’s old diary, finds out that based on the dates, three men are suitable for this role. After which, on behalf of his mother, he sends them all invitations to the wedding and meets on the island a violent extreme journalist, a slightly embarrassed architect and a good-natured banker. Within twenty-four hours she will have to try to find out who her dad is.
It is amazing that despite the obviously minor role of the plot (everyone goes to listen to the famous melodies, and not to find out who is whose relative), the musical does not fall apart and does not turn into a concert. The songs were distributed to various characters (Dancing Queen went to my mother and her two friends, who once, it turns out, formed a pop group with her, The Winner Takes It All - a duet between Donna and an architect, etc.), and each of them of these characters, in addition to these given songs, the characters, behavior and outfits are clearly thought out.
The lyrics were translated by Alexey Kortnev and coped with the task quite well: they do not irritate the ear or mind, and there were no poetic revelations in the original. Everything fits well and is easy to sing, and “I'll Say Thank You for the Songs” is quite adequate Thank You For The Music. By the way, this is the principled position of Stage Entertainment, which stages this play all over the world (since 1999, from the London premiere, it has been staged in 130 cities around the world): the text is everywhere translated into the national language so that people understand and the dialogues are understood. a performance, not a concert. Even in their native Sweden, where ABBA sang in English, their songs are now sung in Swedish. Of course, in the Russian translation, some emphasis has shifted towards the national mentality: if in English they sing “The winner takes it all,” then in Russian “Whoever wins is right,” but there is still a difference in these points of view. The translation of the play itself, made by Natalia Fedorova, is not bad, there are quite cute jokes, for example, the dialogue between the luxurious mother’s friend and the Greek brat, the groom’s friend, who was stunned by her: “I’m fit to be your mother! “Oh, then call me Oedipus!”
But the main thing in a musical is how they sing and dance (although how they act and what they say is also important). There are not many dances (but they are very funny, like the corps de ballet of the groom's friends dancing in flippers), and the songs are the main success of the Russian version of Mamma mia!. This luck's name is Natalya Bystrova, she is twenty-two years old, and they found her, a graduate of the local theater institute, at a casting in Yekaterinburg; she sings to Sophie. Big, free, happy voice. A magnificent illusion of the absence of his boundaries - yes, ABBA's songs do not imply an operatic range, but they still demand a lot from the singer, and here there is a feeling that Bystrova is able to cover all these demands with ease. Elena Charkviani, who plays the role of Donna, compensates for her slightly less singing freedom with her unconditional acting skills: her heroine had the most experiences in the plot, and all their shades, from the sadness of her mother, who, in her opinion, is too early to marry off her daughter, to the commanding mood of the hotel owner, transmitted without pressure, with pinpoint precision. The men fade into the background a little in the performance, although everyone - both the groom (Andrei Kozhan) and the three supposed fathers (Oleg Taisaev, Vladimir Khalutrin, Andrei Klyuev) - has their own color. But the disco era, the nostalgic memories of which should ensure a long run for this musical, is connected with the present day through the “mother-daughter” line, and women are the main ones here. They understand this - and easily assure us that this is the best production of musicals in the last five years. Anna GORDEEVA |
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