Review: MIMMA THE MUSICAL, Cadogan Hall

Photo credit: Danny Kaan

We weren’t ready for Mimma, “a musical of war and friendship”, in light of current events. Expecting to be moved by a story of war and the family of our eponymous character under the shadow of Fascism in Italy, it regrettably didn’t quite hit the mark.

Meant to be about “friendship”, Mimma (Celinde Schoenmaker), a young liberal journalist from Turin, is sent to escape Fascist Italy, just before WWII, to the supposed safe-haven of her Uncle Lorenzo’s (John Owen-Jones) Soho nightclub where she meets Sarah (Louise Dearman), an English jazz singer. As they bond over a drink, it was expected that the women would be a vehicle for telling the story of war and how their friendship could overcome being from different worlds. So, when despite being opponents of Mussolini’s regime, our Italian characters in London were branded enemies. We were meant to believe the women’s friendship was so strong that Sarah would risk her safety and stick up for Mimma, however it wasn’t entirely credible. We saw little formation of the relationship through conversations between the two to convince us they had a supposedly unbreakable connection or to buy that this was a story about friendship. 

The story of war is occasionally confusing as it veers between scenes in London and those depicting the fate of some of Mimma’s family. As an aid and being a semi-staged concert, the audience are shown images on a massive screen at the back of Cadogan Hall throughout. Particularly in the serious scenes, these could be deemed unnecessary. Also, rather than just projecting the inside of a cell to show the character’s location, it also stated “… a cell” on the screen, which brought a smile and distracted from the gravity of the situation. 

Advertised as a “blend” of jazz, opera and musical theatre, it isn’t consistently cohesive and is a series of songs in different styles, sometimes in English, sometimes Italian, and not hugely memorable, placed into a plot which felt like a series of unfinished ideas. Crediting the musical numbers to the performers in the programme might have helped us to follow the story a little better. 

The talent of the stellar cast was the standout of the evening and they warranted a semi standing ovation. They did a great job of delivering the songs and showing off why they are revered in their various fields. Elena Xanthoudakis gives a beautiful, moving operatic performance in the second half, whilst Louise Dearman’s jazz numbers swung nicely. It was also a privilege to be entertained by the 48-piece BBC concert orchestra led by Richard Balcolmbe. John Owen-Jones was as captivating as always when he did sing, but was somewhat underused during the second and third acts. 

Having seen reports of this as a fully staged musical in Australia, perhaps it just didn’t quite work as a concert as it was hard to follow without the appropriate staging. Perhaps it was an over-ambitious combination of musical styles, which were better in theory than practice when linked by this complicated story.

*** Three stars

Reviewed by: Victoria Willetts

100% of ticket proceeds from the evening have been donated to The Prince’s Trust.