
the quite different show...
First of all: If you wouldn´t mind not to ask me how many times I have already seen the Musical Mamma Mia- I have any ideas myself.
That´s why I don´t write a review for every show- you must think me mad.
However... this story I have to tell you:
Yesterday I decided to watch again because my favourite Donna Susanna Panzner was on. Here´s the cast for Wednesday, 18th July 2007 18:30
Donna: Susanna Panzner
Tanja: Betty Vermeulen
Rosie: Alex Avenell
Sam: Kasper Holboe
Bill: Marck Meyer-Stevens
Harry: Detlev Leistenschneider
Sophie: Valerie Link
Ali: Sabine Meyer
Lisa: Reka Kovacs
Sky: Jörn Linnenbröker
Pepper: Christoph Süsens
Eddie: Michael Clauder
Femail Ensemble:
Lucy Brunt, Frances Chiappetta, Yoko El Edrisi, Patricia Hodell, Elisabeth Hübert, Sabine Schreittmiller, Jenny Woo
Mail Ensemble:
Norbert Böhmann, Lars Kemter, Harald Kratochwil, Alessandro Macri, Emanuele Pazienza, Stefan Schmitz, Siegmar Tonk
Conductor: Glenn Flavin
It was a great mix of first cast and understudies- but I like that.
The first surprise (for the theatre it was good, for me not at all) the show was completely sold out. No tickets at all.
I decided to prepare a piece of paper "ticket wanted" - and finally, after wating in front of the entrance, it worked. I got a ticket for a low price for the very last row, in the darkest corner of the theatre (row 30 of 30 rows in the stall). However, I was happy to be in. (I have told you that I am crazy)
The show started, I was happy- despite of the distance to the stage I had a great overview and a lot of space for my legs (which is not normal for this theatre).
The first part (except of some slips of the tongue of Susanna (during Super Trouper) and during the Dynamos greeting) ran quite experienced.
The secont part started- the instrumental part and "Under Attack" as well. The scene between Sophie and Donna started experienced, too, but as Susanna as Donna started to speak her first lines (the part where she tries to explain why Sophie is sleep-walking again) you could hear a big and loud bang- all of the lights on stage and in the audience, the monitor where you normally can see the conductor and everything which has something to do with electricity, went off. Power failure- in the whole theatre.
You had to see Susanna´s and Valerie Link`s (Sophie) faces- startled with a questionnaire over their heads. Then they went off.
The crew invited us for free drinks in the foyer and asked us to wait for new instructions. You can all imagine- the theatre was dark, only the emergency lighting was on.
I was sorry for those people, who had seen the show for the first time, but I had to grin all the time. Staff members from the stage (stage manager etc. and staff from the foyer ran through the theater in a hectic way... poor guys.
In a hectic way as well the office printed excuses and gave us the possibility to get our money back if we wanted or to exchange our tickets for another day. I stayed and about a half an hour later the electricity worked again- but it took time to run the computers for the stage. However, they repeated the whole scene and the show ran fluently until the scene change between Donna´s "The Winner takes it all" and Rosie´s "Take a chance on me": The 2 tavern walls collide with each other- next break!

By the end it was quite hot in the theatre... the power failure hit the air- conditioner as well. I was happy to get out.
In general the audience was very good- it laughed a lot and applauded when the lights went on again. The cast was awesome and Susanna made a great show...
That was my interesting evening in the Operettenhaus Hamburg.
LG Franka
Nachtrag: habe den Bericht mal nach Fehlern durchkämmt...