Review: Flowerchildren, The Mamas and Papas Story

Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story
Magnormos
22 May 2013
The Comedy Theatre
flowerchildren.com.au
to 23 June

Magnormos's 2011 premiere of Flowerchildren: The Mamas and Papas Story sold out at Theatre Works, got rave reviews (here's mine) and made it onto favourite and award's lists. It's since been developed and has opened its first professional season at The Comedy Theatre. If it doesn't sell out, get rave reviews and awards, there's something wrong with the system because it's as close to perfect as music theatre can be.

The story spans 1965 to 68, the years that The Mamas and The Papas, an American folk rock quartet,  recorded and performed as a group, sold millions of records and ensured their place in music history. The music, mostly written by John Phillips, is still as memorable today and epitomises the sound of hippy California.

But it wasn't all flowers and free love. Peter Fitzpatrick wrote the (immaculately researched) book and has been working with Aaron Joyner (director, producer and musical arranger; and founder of Magnormos) since 2009 to develop the work. With its four narrators, it focuses behind the hits and public adoration, and the genius moment is making the storytelling about the songs; leaving it hard to ever hear some of them again without feeling the love, pain or bitterness that created them.

Joyner's arrangements weaves the music around the narrative, letting it to be heard as more than a final product, but the highlights are the recreations of their recorded sound. Music director Sophie Thomas creates a live sound that's got be as amazing as sitting on a bean bag with a huge pair of stereo headphones and a special cookie while listening to them for the first time. Their studio recordings with eight-part harmonies are created with four more singers who sing as ensemble characters and from backstage. I think they were more visible in the original version and I missed seeing how the four created a live eight-person sound.

It's naturally a much bigger show, with a new design and extra ensemble, but it hasn't lost any of its intimacy. So much that it feels like it's still finding out how to fill so much space – which they needn't worry about because the sound and the stories are huge and the cast make the group so real that its feels weird watching the real Mamas and Papas on YouTube.

Casey Donavan (Cass), Laura Fitzpatrick (Michelle), Matt Hetherington (John) and Dan Humphris (Denny) tell the four individual stories and the group's story like it's theirs. What makes this production so much more than a bio-show is performances that embrace all the atrocious behaviour, addiction and ability to hurt each other without losing the any of their character's heart. They let us see that everyone believed that were doing the best thing, even if it was obvious to everyone else that it wasn't.

And they can sing. Wow, can they sing. While they sound like the group, each brings enough of themselves to make it sound fresh. And, although it feels wrong to single out anyone in such a consistently sensational ensemble, gorgeous Casey Donavan makes sure that Cass Elliot hears and shares Casey's cheer for "Dream a Little Dream of Me".

If you don't know the music of The Mamas and The Papas, you will be in love with it before the interval. If you've loved them for years, discovering their story can hurt, but nothing takes away from that music. And it might be best to not google too hard to learn about composer John Phillips. He was a far from perfect man, but he created music that's outlived him and will take a long time to fade.

It's kind of odd that a small independent music theatre company from Melbourne has created such a perfect telling of such an American group, but it's one that's going to travel far from Melbourne. (Is somebody flying Michelle Phillips out to see it?) And if we can create such stunning music theatre in Australia, why can't some of the money that goes to re-creating American productions be spent on developing more work like this?

I'm also aware that this is a pricey ticket show and that there doesn't seem to be any concession priced tickets. Hopefully there will be deals and offers, because it would be more than a shame if people who have supported Magnormos in the past can't afford to see this and take everyone they know.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Flowerchildren

Flowerchildren:the Mamas and Papas Story

Magnomos

Theatre Works

1 September 2011

to 10 September

www.magnormos.com/flowerchildren.htm

I don't think there's a seat left for Flowerchildren. It's worth ringing and trying for no-shows, because this mix of nostalgia, honesty and revelation is a show you won't forget.

I'm not a fan of the jukebox/tribute musicals, but working with the Magnormos team, writer Peter Fitzpatrick has taken all that he knows about great musicals (he's directed five Sondheim's) to create one that is loving, painful and wonderful.

I'm a product of the 60s, and have always loved The Mamas and Papas's music with those close harmonies that speak of love, but are underpinned with a melancholy that draws you deeply into the heart and truth of the song.

Their music is still glorious, but Flowerchildren reminds us that it was a product of many no-so-nice stories. Older John married teenage Michelle, Cass never got over her brief relationship with Denny, John never accepted Cass for her size, each had health-threatening addictions and Denny and Michelle has an affair. Underpinning their fame and sudden money, it was unhappiness, anger and drugs, that led Phillips to write some of their greatest hits.

The story is told in four parts, each narrated from point of view of one of the members, starting with Cass when she decided in join the group and ending with Michelle, who's the only member still alive. It also leaves their stories in the 60s and leaves Michelle to tell what she wants to about their deaths. Some of the urban myths are debunked and other more damaging accusations, particularly about John, are left for Oprah and the tabloids.

Flowerchildren succeeds where so many tribute pieces fail because the narrative is inseparable from the music and it uses the truth of their personal relationships. Phillips freely used his music to express his how he felt. In the early days, his "Words of Love" were for Michelle, "Creeque Alley's" "no one's getting fat except Mama Cass" still feels mean and the pain of Denny's "genius" mistake in "I saw her again" was recreated every performance to ensure that Denny remembered just how much he hurt John.

Working with the spot-on design (Christina Longan-Bell and Emma Kennedy), Aaron Joyner's direction captures the mood of the flower power, hippy movement of the late 60s.  It was a time of hope and new beginnings, but he doesn't let us see it with mass-produced fashion-conscious rose-coloured glasses.

Sophie Thomas's musical direction captures the unique sound of this group so well that it feels so close to seeing them live that it's easy to forget that we're not in San Francisco in 1967, and their recorded eight-part harmonies are re-created by using a mirror ensemble of four (Tim Carney, Jessica Featherby, Jack Feehan, Zuleika Khan).

And the cast couldn't be more perfect. Laura Fitzpatrick (Mama Michelle) brings the complexity that is so often missed in discussions of pretty Michelle, Matt Hetherington (Papa John) isn't scared of John's demons, Dan Humphris (Papa Denny) isn't scared of Denny's cowardice and Casey Donovan (Mama Cass) shows how Cass hid her pain, and masters Cass's dance style.

Flowerchildren will get another season. It's so good that it has to be seen more and must find it's way to the homeland of this group.

This review originally appeared on AussieThearte.com