As part of the Trips For Free invitation we had a chance to visit today Mamma Mia musical at Raimund Theater of Vienna. Centrally (two metro stops away from the ESC Arena) located theater was very convenient location and the tickets have already been awaiting with friendly volunteer at the entrance to the building.
One thing that we would specially like to notice is that unfortunately we're hearing that a lot of Trips For Free that are listed as fully booked, are not fully attended. People booking free tours are not bothering to unsubscribe themselves in case of not planning to go, and thus not giving any one else a chance to step in their place. Same had happened today, when at least 3 seats near us seemingly booked for international press/delegates/fans as well, remained empty, while we know some people would love to attend, but had no chance to book in.
Well, I will not be going into the details of the complete show. I would just mention that it runs completely in German, but for the convenience of the foreigners in Raimund Theater are 4 screens with English translation of the dialogues and songs. The text there is a bit small, and from the 1st floor (rang) of the hall where we got press tickets, you needed to have really good eyesight to be able to read English text. Anyway, probably every Eurovision fan knows Mamma Mia musical in details and it won't be a problem to watch it in German.
The songs in German haven't lost their magic at all, so to me there was practically no difference from listening them in original language.
The cast we had today included Ana Milva Gomes as Donna (by the way first black Donna in the history of musical), Madeleine Lauw as Sophie, Susa Meyer as Tanja and Jacqueline Braun as Rosie. In other roles were playing original actors Livia Wrede, Boris Pfeifer, Peter Kratochvil, Andreas Wanasek, Pierre Damen and several covers as Carolin Schönemann, Raphael Dörr and Nicola Gravante (who danced for Conchita Wurst at Life Ball). Herbert Pichler was leading Popband of Orchestra of the United Stages Vienna providing music part.
I totally felt in love with Madeleine Lauw as Sophie. She appeared a bit strange to me from the very beginning because of her pretty unusual vocal technique, but in the end felt ideal for the roles, a little beast as Sophie should be and not a homegirl as often portrayed. The other actors were really good in their roles as well, so I would rate the show with 5 stars easily.
In the venue you can buy loads of souvenirs, which ended with me buying (of course in addition to the official program and German language CD of Mamma Mia with Hamburg cast) 5 CDs of musicals with Thomas Borchert! (coming in September to Vienna for new run of Mozart). There were so many on offer, so I had no chance to touch ones with Uwe Kröger and Drew Sarich (fresh from Jesus Christ Superstar performances in Vienna on Easter), so a comeback to Austria (or to that extent to Germany) in next couple of years will have its reason. Take a look on other available souvenirs here: https://secure.musicalvienna.at/shop/index.php/mamma-mia-1.html
We wish those attending the show on two further Trips For Free screenings on May 15th, 07:30pm and May 16th, 07:30pm to enjoy it as much as we did. Madeleine Lauw will be off on both of those days, and it will also be the last chance to see Franzisca Schuster as Sophie and Tim Hüning as Sky on Saturday. To the people who had no chance to book Free trip, but would like to attend the show, there still are tickets available, including for such a low price as 49 Euros and it runs every day except Mondays.
You can find more about the musical on it's official pages:
http://www.musicalvienna.at/index.php/en/spielplan_en/production/148927
https://www.facebook.com/MammaMiaMusicalWien