Mamma Mia

Ten years on, Mamma Mia, which is a love story set to Abba songs, still doesn’t feel shopworn. It remains as stonkingly, wonderfully, and unbelievably good as the first time I saw it. I noticed some differences post last year’s Meryl Streep film version; the audience was quicker to pick up on the show’s several layers of irony and the occasional smutty line. I had to stop myself singing along to every song and saved myself for the audience singalong at the curtain. But what is it that makes the show so appealing? Well, quite apart from having some of the finest pop songs ever written, Mamma Mia is the ultimate feel-good tale of love conquering all. It is completely unequivocal and consistently compelling. It’s the perfect show for someone who says they ‘don’t like theatre’, or who ‘doesn’t do musicals’. I’ve seen the show a few times in various locations and, with the exception of last night and the first night in 1999, have paid top dollar for the privilege, which is a real testimony to its attraction for someone used to seeing shows for free.

Take a theatrical phenomenon with a guaranteed hit soundtrack, cast some large stars, and hampray your heart out. The film of Mamma Mia! should have been a breeze. Instead, it’s more like a fearsome gust blowing at you by wind machines. I like Abba; I love Meryl Streep, and I can’t get enough balmy Greek island holidays, yet somehow the combination of these elements left me feeling more guiltily battered than entertained. Top three reasons why: the singing, the dancing, and the acting. Only one performer in this cast – Christine Baranski – is really a pro in the first two camps, so no wonder her big number on the beach is the hands-down highlight. The way the movie rounds up an array of international talent for frolics on the Med calls to mind Evil Under the Sun without the throttling, or Captain Corelli’s Mandolin with a regrettable lack of firing squads. It’s not that Phyllida Lloyd’s film won’t please the right people – it’s pretty much a raucous hen night in a box – but it sets the bar disappointingly low for actual quality.

They’re not dancing in the aisles at Mamma Mia! anymore. When this jukebox musical, about a wedding weekend on a Greek island, opened at the Winter Garden Theater back in the fall of 2001, I remember laughing along with seemingly mature adult couples, leaping out of their orchestra seats, flashing big smiles and bouncing and swaying like giddy teenagers to the 20-year-old Abba tunes that made up most of the show. But, shows do fade. I could swear that the Greek sun no longer shines as brightly as it used to. The taverna looks flimsy and cramped on the Broadhurst stage. But the show’s real appeal, beyond those songs, has always been its innate sweetness. The 2008 movie adaptation, with Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, managed to bury much of that in adolescent humor and slapstick, which was surprising because it was directed, like the stage version, by Phyllida Lloyd. The Broadway production maintains the sweetness, and that’s a joy.

The show Mamma Mia! features Abba songs which are cleverly integrated into the story written by Catherine Johnson. Young Sophie who lives with her mother on a small Greek island is about to be married to Sky and wishes for her father to walk her down the aisle. However, she has a problem. Who is her father? Her mother does not want to tell her, and so Sophie reads her mother’s diary, and discovers the name of three men who could possibly be her dad. Sophie secretly invites all three men to the wedding. The fun starts when the three men arrive on the island and discover why they have been invited. The show bounds along with endless energy and enthusiasm. The mixture of Abba songs, camp dance routines, platform boots and Lycra costumes, all based around a soppy romance comedy script, creates a delightful evening of sheer fun and pleasure, which is sure to thrill all who choose to see it. This is pop music set to pop culture with pure unapologetic seventies tackiness that makes for a great evening’s entertainment.