TAKE A CHANCE ON THIS ONE
Mamma Mia!, the musical glued together by 22 of Abba’s hit tunes, from "Dancing Queen" to "Take a Chance on Me," was a runaway hit when it played Boston’s Colonial Theatre last year. Now the return engagement, which is set to open January 25, has proved such a draw that the show has been extended for six weeks; it will camp at the Colonial Theatre through April 26. Extension-week tickets go on sale December 8, through Ticketmaster (617-931-2787). If you didn’t catch Mamma Mia! first time ’round, it’s worth a look: this tale of a young woman who invites the three strangers she thinks might be her father to her wedding on a Greek island where her once-swinging mom runs a taverna is fun, it’s infectious, and it winks like mad at its own accomplishment. And let’s face it, it can’t have been easy to shoehorn that many tunes made famous by a defunct Swedish pop group into the plot of a West-End-to-Broadway show.
ONE LESS MOMMY
Songstreet Productions has canceled the Friday December 6 performance of Faith Soloway’s folk-opera cum Nativity pageant Jesus Has Two Mommies. The two performances scheduled for Saturday December 7 — at 4 and 8 p.m. at the Somerville Theatre — will go on as scheduled. Last year, both performances of the show sold out, so this year a third was added. "We bit off a little bit more than we can chew," said Rick Lamacchia, Songstreet’s one-man operation, citing a slow fall season for Songstreet in particular and other music venues and promoters in general. "It’s quite a bit more expensive than our usual concerts. There’s the extra rental for the theater the day before the show for dress rehearsal, and the technical costs such as sound, lighting, video equipment, and labor add up." Given the slow sales, Lamacchia decided to cut his budget and focus on the Saturday performances. Friday-ticket holders can get refunds at the point of purchase. Or call (617) 628-3390 for ticket-exchange and other information.
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Given the number of first-class museums and galleries in the Boston area, not to mention the Worcester Art Museum, the Rhode Island School of Design, and our proximity to New York, it hardly seems necessary to trek up to Montreal for an art exhibit. Then again, if you don’t see "Voyage into Myth: The French Avant-Garde from Gauguin to Matisse from the Hermitage Museum" at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, you’ll have to go all the way to St. Petersburg. The Hermitage is one of the world’s great art museums — and best-kept secrets; this show will have 75 works by the likes of Bonnard, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, and Rodin. As with the big MFA shows, you’ll need tickets in advance, but they’re just $15, or $7.50 for students and seniors, and admission to the museum’s permanent collections is free. Hours for "Voyage into Myth" are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (9 p.m. on Wednesdays); the show opens January 31 and runs through April 27, so if you go in April, you can also catch an Expos game (unless, of course, they’re playing in Fenway Park). The address is 1379 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal; for tickets call (877) BEAUX-ARTS, or for more information, call (514) 282-2000, or visit the Web site at www.mmfa.qc.ca.
HAVING HER SAY
Emily Mann’s plays are, at one time, both theater and journalism. She asks the easy questions: who, what, when, where, and how. Then she asks the harder ones: Why? So what? What do we do with what we know? The Tony and Obie Award–winning director and playwright turns history into drama. "Anulla: An Autobiography" is based on the experiences of a Holocaust survivor; "Having Our Say" is the chronicle of the real-life Delany Sisters; "Greensboro (A Requiem)" commemorates the murders of five anti–Ku Klux Klan demonstrators during a march in North Carolina in 1979. She has also turned the McCarter Theatre Center, in Princeton, New Jersey, into one of the nation’s premiere regional theaters, helping it to earn a Tony Award in 1994 and raising season-ticket sales by 80 percent over her last 12 seasons as artistic director.
On Monday December 9, Mann will talk about documentary theater as part of the Radcliffe Institute Dean’s Lecture Series. The Guggenheim, McKnight, and NEA Playwright’s Fellowship recipient will speak about her playwriting style and the merits of the documentary theater genre, and why she chooses it over other more conventional theatrical forms. That’s at 4 p.m. at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street in Harvard Square, and it’s free; call (617) 495-8600.
MOVING TO THE SOUTH END
Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery in West Newton is the Boston area’s only gallery dedicated exclusively to sculpture. And after 10 years and 90 shows, the gallery group are whittling, molding, casting, carving, and yes, sculpting a new space for themselves. This spring, Boston Sculptors at Chapel Gallery will re-emerge as Boston Sculptors Gallery in the South End’s SOWA Arts and Media District. High ceilings, natural light, and outdoor installation opportunities await at the new 486 Harrison Avenue location.
The final show at Chapel Gallery, a group exhibition and fundraiser to help with moving expenses, runs through December 22. This exhibit features both large and small work; anything you want to buy you can take with you. Boston Sculptors invite the public to bid farewell to their West Newton home with a "Closing Reception and Dessert Buffet" on Sunday December 15, from 3 to 5 p.m. The Chapel Gallery is at 60 Highland Street in West Newton; call (617) 244-4039.
