MAMMA MIA!

[Jim Colyer]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:19pm

Mamma Mia! is billed as The World's No. 1 Show. Catherine Johnson took about 20 ABBA songs and wrote a mother/daughter story around them. Her book is appropriate as women's issues are a major theme of songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. Detractors like to call Mamma Mia! a jukebox musical. If nothing else, it is a means of perpetuating the ABBA catalog, 110 songs that rival The Beatles in quality. Indeed! ABBA was the Swedish Fab Four! Mamma Mia! stays on tour. It has a permanant home in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. It is refreshing to see a show whose every song is a recognizable hit. Dancing Queen, Take A Chance On Me and Waterloo transport us back to the late 1970s, that halcyon interlude between Vietnam and the War on Terrorism. We will never relive that period but Mamma Mia! offers an over-the-shoulder glimpse. I write about ABBA: ABBA And Their Music>http://jimcolyer.com/papers/entry?id=35 ABBA Revival>http://jimcolyer.com/papers/entry?id=29
Jim Colyer

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 5:56pm

It's not refreshing to go see a show where every song is a hit because they were written 30 years before - it's depressing and irritating.

[Brandon]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 8:40pm

Mamma Nia is the best show ever i've seen it 22 times

[bronxboundexpress]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 8:58pm

MAMMA MIA! is the best show on Broadway.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 9:14pm

munku...im with you. not really a broadway show...i would call it a review instead.

[whatyouown223]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 9:15pm

you mean a *revue

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 9:29pm

I saw it, so I can officially say that I did not like it. What passes for theatre these days...

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 9:55pm

I saw the national tour in DC a couple of years ago while on vacation (I got a comp from a friend) and thought it was one of the most amateurishly assembled pieces of "theatre" I've ever witnessed. Shockingly lazy in construction and execution -- why on earth would anyone use a terrible movie like "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" as the basis of the book of a Broadway musical? And just randomly cram songs into the paper-thin plot. It's as if, as soon as the producers got the rights to the ABBA catalogue, they didn't even TRY to create a professional and competent show. They just didn't care knowing the ABBA name would sell the product no matter how crappy the overall show was.

Just laughably awful (and from my box seats I could look out and see a good chunk of the audience and my god, they looked SO bored ...several were asleep for most of the 2nd act until the big DISCO finale).

Updated On: 2/4/05 at 09:55 PM

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 11:20pm

Margo, I agree with everything you said tenfold, except for the last part.

Both times I've seen Mamma Mia (both in the West End and here), I've been disgusted at the audience, not bored at all, dancing and declaring Mamma Mia "even better than that show we saw with those angry war people in France!"

(I actually overheard someone say that.)

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 2/4/05 at 11:21pm

I've been immensely disgusted at these people, who are the ones extinguishing all art from theater.

[alterego]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 12:09am

The Australian Mamma Mia opened here in Melbourne a few months before it arrived on Broadway. It played a year here before touring the country and is to reopen a farewell season in Melbourne next month.While I didn't like the show much I did admire the clean looking set and costumes. Which is more than I could say for most of these 'Jukebox' shows.

The original setting was actually going to be outback Australia (ABBA's first international hits were here)but it was decided that to have the 'friends' or whoever they are fly in at short notice really didn't make much sense.

Good call Margo,the Buona Sera Mrs Campbell connection hadn't occurred to me.

[VonTussleGirl]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 12:20am

I've seen it. Once. I enjoyed it. For the most part. (Liz McCartney was out, but otherwise, I thought it was okay.)

The book was a little lacking... not exactly Les Mis or anything, and I thought the talent of the performers and the music far overshadowed the plot... but overall, I didn't hate it. I dunno, it got me all happy, I wwas a bit bouncy coming out of the theatre. Y'know, it's not my absolute favorite, but I didn't think it sucked as bad as most make it out to.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 12:56am

"Just laughably awful (and from my box seats I could look out and see a good chunk of the audience and my god, they looked SO bored ...several were asleep for most of the 2nd act until the big DISCO finale)."

Margo, your audience was bored? When it came to Denver, I sat in the very last row of the Buell's balcony--full view of the house--and everyone seemed to be pretty into it. Of course, I was zoning out a lot (and I may have nodded off) so my memory may mot be entirely accurate.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 12:57am

It's not a dreadful piece of crap, but my point was that it's sad that the "#1 show" is MAMMA MIA. What does that show about the future of musical theatre in America?

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 1:00am

That it's going down the tubes. Although, as long as I have my Sondheim I think I'll be okay.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 1:19am

I can't speak for the reaction of any other audience to this show, but the night I saw the national company at the National Theatre in DC, from my box seat next to the stage, as the second act dragged on and on, my friend and I looked out at the expanse of bored audience members in front of us and, in an effort to entertain ourselves (since nothing on the stage was doing it) we decided to count the number of people in the audience who were clearly asleep (we could see nearly 80% of the faces and the nodding heads) -- there were more than two dozen. Only when the lights came up and the disco ball start spinning did the sleepy folks wake up and show any signs of alertness.

[magruder]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 1:27am

Margo writes:
>why on earth would anyone use a terrible movie like "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" as the basis of the book of a Broadway musical?<

And yet, Mamma Mia is the second musical to be based on that film. Carmelina (1979) got there first. (And in spite of a clunker number or two, Carmelina is a pretty damned good score).

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:09am

OK, that's the last time I try to get away with anything while Magruder's around.

Yes, I remember Carmelina and still think it's a bad idea to base not one, but TWO shows on a lame Gina Lollabrigida movie, no matter how good the score.

Updated On: 2/5/05 at 02:09 AM

[wildcat]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:22am

"Shockingly lazy in construction and execution"..."songs randomly crammed..."

And yet despite countless attempts at creating another "jukebox" smash hit, MAMMA MIA is the only one that seems to work. Even if you do hate the show, one cannot negate the thought and craftsmanship that went into it. The placing of the songs is part of the fun, it is a proven crowd pleaser and, although the second act does indeed drag, it surely doesn't deserve to be written off as a lowly piece of garbage. Wait until you see something truly dreadful like "We Will Rock You" before deciding that this piece heralds the end of musical theatre as we know and love it.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 2:44am

I absolutely do negate the "thought" and "craftmanship" that went into it -- they're nonexistent. The entire show is a thoroughly cynical expression of these producers' greed. They didn't bother to insist on a better show or think that we as an audience deserved REAL craft and thought and creativity. They simply slapped the name ABBA on an artistically bankrupt enterprise and marketed the crap out of it and that why it's a hit -- not for anything that's on the stage.

It is the lowest ebb of the theatre rungs I ever hope to witness. I leave "We Will Rock You" and other such meritless "entertainments" to you and others who apparently have nothing better to do with $100.

[sanda]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 9:12am

I like it. It is so much fun.
It is not a masterpiece. The story is silly. Not worth watching for a second time.

However, it is funny, simple and full of energy.

Not all the people and all the time need serious, brilliant theatre works. We enjoy the classic movie, but also need that kind of silly yet make you laugh to death comedy. Simple as that.

Mama Mia is one of the later. I enjoy it a lot.

[Greekmusicalfan]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 9:49am

I mostly agree with sanda. I don't think we can call Mamma Mia "theatre" or even more "art". It is not. But it is a party and there is nothing wrong with that. And I think that the people going to it are fully aware that they will not see a stimulating and thought provoking piece of modern theatre. It is pure fun and I think it succeeds on every level. I had a great time watching it, but that could be because I am a huge ABBA fan and I love their music and that has a lot to do with the appreciation of the show !(Of course, being set in Greece didn't hurt me either LOL) The thing that surprises me is the success of the show in the U.S. I knew that ABBA were huge in Europe and Australia, but I never thought that a show based on their hits would be so big in America ! Which means that maybe the flocks of people who rush to it are not familiar with the music, but nevertheless have a great time !

Take care

[magruder]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:02am

When the York did Carmelina as a part of their Musicals in Mufti series, under the title of Someone in April, I wept not once, but twice as I was so moved by Lerner's wonderful lyrics for "Someone in April," and "One More Walk Around the Garden". I shed a few tears at Mamma Mia! too, but for other reasons.

[SallyBrown]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:15am

grr I hate Mamma Mia
I'm really not a fan of musicals like Mamma Mia, Movin Out, Good Vibrations, etc...... can't you make new music??

[lovettespies]

Posted: 2/5/05 at 11:24am

Not to go against anything you said Margo, but from my experience, audiences at the National Theater are ALWAYS asleep or dead no matter how good the production is. All the musicals I've seen there have been wonderful, or decent, but I swear the audience hardly laughs or applauds or responds unless it's the end of a scene or REALLY obvious. Maybe the seats are just really comfortable?