Imagine the stage:
Spartan yet scenic, conveying the sense of a sea-side locale
Throw in 65 energetic prancing and dancing men and women
Cue some of the biggest hits of the seventies from ABBA
Add dollops of funny one liners around the story of “Donna the Dynamite” played by Chioma Odimba whose dalliance with three men has left her unsure of who the father of her about-to-wed 21 year old daughter is.
Enlist Najite Dede to direct the proceedings and you have yourself a wickedly delicious piece of theatre that will have you laughing and if you are of a certain age, singing along.
Musicals are beautiful things…if you get them right and Najite Dede working in tandem with the choreographer Uche Ona and Music director Dupe Ige delivers a showstopper. The infusion of Nigerian percussive elements lends it a decidedly African flavour serving us a sumptupous fare that throws up an example of Glocalisation at its finest.
Ireti Bakare, the moving spirit behind Jarin Seriki made it all happen with support from First Bank, Amstel Malta and Bet9ja all of whom had the foresight to bet on this wild and uproariously funny horse.
Jarin Seriki got the licence in 2021 for the adaptation of the original musical created in 1998 by British theatre producer Judith Cramer, who engaged British playwright Catherine Johnson, to write a story woven around the multiple hit songs of Swedish pop group ABBA, composed by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.
Chioma Odimba as Donna is the heart and soul of the musical. Her acting is controlled and paced, her elocution is on point and her pipes, glory! She sprinkles the ABBA classics with the ash of novelty transforming them into something transcendental and utterly hers.
