JAPANESE ENGLISH

5-8 January 2005, Osaka, Japan Pre Opening

Almost a month had passed since the last paformance of Mamma Mia! in Tokyo. At HARBIS ENT Osaka(Mamma Mia! in Osaka opened the newly-completed Shiki theatre at HERBIS ENT.), of course, we noticed some changes to the play and enjoyed them. The actress who plays Sophie at the moment is my favorite out of 4 who have played the part, her voice carries well just like Agnetha's. One thing that I noticed today - it was not the conductor but the actor who played the priest at the church who took the picture during the 'I do I do I do' scene. I found I could not see an orchestra pit. Also, I had some doubts and I thought the sounds lacked the same dynamism as the Tokyo performances. I thought that they may have used pre-recorded music, because today was pre-opening performance. Anyway, I was excited at this stage, while about half of audience who were invited guests, grew livelier. Here everybody in the audience stood up ready for 'Mamma Mia' as first song at cartain call. I'm sure that it's entirely different from that pre-performance in Tokyo 3 years ago.
  

9 January 2005, Osaka, Japan Opening

the press conference was held in Osaka(Real Player)

TV Commercial(Mamma mia)(Real Player)

TV Commercial(Dancing Queen)(Real Player)

Anyway I was happy that I was in the 5th row. I was exhausted from obtaining better tickets through the internet auctions sites. Of course we could hardly get a reservation for the premiere(first) day on the web with limited sale for Shiki membership, you know. They say it was sold out in only 9 minutes. I was amazed that all expensive tickets(selling at an exorbitant price) were unsold and I saw 3 empty seats in front of ours. luckily, today's 'Honey Honey' are my favorites members, Asami Higuchi as Sophie, Yuki Morizane as Ali and Kae Igarashi as Lisa. Yes! the same original members as premiere of Mamma Mia! in Tokyo. It's just the perfect musical for me. The singing today beats that of Mamma Mia! in Korea, I guess. To my regrets, there is no orchestra bit, nor ex-ABBA members. Under the stage where orchestra bit should have been was covered with a black curtain and I tried to ask the staff. So there's no orchestra bit in Mamma Mia! in Osaka. I don't know why. In pre-recorded music you can heardly hear the same sounds which is produced by Michael B Tretow. His sound is necessary for ABBA sound. Oh! the ABBA sound's is flat. If Bjorn was here in this situation, what would he say about that? In the interval, I happened to see Keita Asari as Shiki director and I asked him directly why Bjorn or the other members of ABBA don't appear in the ending on the stage in Japanese Mamma Mia!. He didn't give his answer but was so surprised to hear me talking about Mamma Mia! in Korea, and asked me "Did Bjorn attend Korean Mamma?". I know he is busy and is not much interested in other countries' musical. After the show, I also happened to see Andrew Treagus as Asian Mamma Mia! director and told him that the Japanese ABBA fans has almost lost their patience in this situation - no Bjorn nor Frida nor Benny. Again, I told him to convey our request to Bjorn. I remember well his big smile saying "You've got tickets for Sweden? Oh, you are lucky! indeed!". Though I could not see ex-ABBA members again today, I was able to see better performance of Japanese Mamma Mia! and since I had travelled to Osaka and had a chance to try KUIDAORE(Osaka is well-known to spend a lot of money on eating).
 
You can see the pictures on "PHOTO GALLERY".

Dear ex-members of ABBA, we really wanted you to come to Japan

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