What's the story with Mamma Mia?

[WiCkEd4LyFfE]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 10:47pm

I have heard mixed reviews. Some either love it or absolutely hate it. So what is it? Do you think it deserved the 2002 Tony or not?
*Posts?*

Updated On: 6/21/04 at 10:47 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 10:48pm

It's a fun show. It lacks, depth, IMO but it's a really good show if you're just looking for a simple good time. I've seen it twice. The first time I paid $100, which, IMO, it's not quite worth, and I did SRO the second time. It's definitley worth checking out.

[BillyLawlor]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 10:52pm

I agree- I happen to love the show. It's hysterically funny and you're in for one of the most fun experiences you'll have in the theater of all the shows currently on Broadway. Great dancing, singing, lighting, and sets.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 10:52pm

It lost the 2002 Tony to "Millie" (and "Urinetown" deservedly collected all the other big awards and should have gotten best musical).

Saw the road tour in DC and it was probably the most laughable excuse for a show I've ever seen (thank god I was comped). So awful I could barely believe my eyes or ears.

Updated On: 6/21/04 at 10:52 PM

[Matt_G]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:01pm

Oh, Margo. You are the lucky one. That happens to be one of the only shows I have ever paid full price for. Had I been comped I would have been out the door faster than you can say Waterloo.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:09pm

I went to see it with a few friends when it came by on tour, mostly to see if I would like it. Well, I didn't. I don't like ABBA to start with, and I *really* did not enjoy sitting in the last row of the balcony (they didn't offer rush tickets so we got stuck with literal nosebleed seats) because I'm terrified of heights, so that certainly did not help. By the time the way-too-long encore rolled around, I was more than ready to leave. It really helps if you're an ABBA fan to start with. My reasoning is, why go to an ABBA concert without ABBA?

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:17pm

Mamma Mia! is a very unique theatre experience. People go to the show expecting to see a 'Broadway musical,' but they need to know that they were going for more of the fun type of show. It worked...the World's #1 show and a very fun night at the theatre. Can't wait until next Tuesday.

[Here_I_Go_Again]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:17pm

I think MAMMA MIA is great... I have seen it Several times and every time I walk out I am soo HAPPY. Its a feel good show. I suggest you go see it and make up your own mind. I think you will be very happy...

[cvapb]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:23pm

I love it! It's a very up beat show with fun music!

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:36pm

It is brainless fun. I enjoyed myself but I didn't go expecting a Parade or A New Brain sort of material.

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 6/21/04 at 11:58pm

Exactly how I feel, sumofallthings. As a lighting designer, how can I NOT love the truss full of intelligent lights!?

[Sumofallthings]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 12:01am

The lights are great especially the Intel Lights and I especially enjoyed the blinding 'into the audience' lights, no idea what you would call them.

[mmFan]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 8:25am

Mamma Mia is a great play. It's upbeat and fun and it's one of the few plays that gets the audience dancing along at the end. I've seen it 10 times so far and I'll keep going as long as it's around. Incidently, I wasn't an Abba fan either, but I think just recognizing the songs and seeing how each one fit into the play made it super enjoyable for me. When I walked out of the theatre the first time, I knew that I wanted to go again. That doesn't happen too often.

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 9:06am

As mentioned, it's been deemed the "world's most popular musical"... (tis true, but don't ask me for the quote.) Also mentioned is that it's a cute, fluffy ABBA concert with the plot built around the music. To me it's comparable to CATS, also one of the "world's most popular shows" in the sense that the plot is very simple and predictable and the music and dancing is fun and is designed to grab the audience. Obviously it has!

As Dee Hoty (Bd'w's Donna) said in a recent interview. " It's not Les Miz...check your brain at the door".

Personally, I think it's one of the cutest shows to relax and smile waiting to see how they'll build a scene around some of fun music. Being an ABBA fan is a plus. Or at least be open to the music. The finale alone is one of the worth the ticket price.
Just my opinion.

Updated On: 6/22/04 at 09:06 AM

[judy_in_disguise]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 10:32am

In Toronto, there are usually only two big musicals that have extended runs at any time.
Right now we have Hairspray and Mamma Mia......but for a while it was Lion King and Mamma Mia.
Therefore, I've seen Mamma Mia 8 times over the past few years.
I don't think it's brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. But it's entertaining. It's one of those musicals where, if you can stand ABBA, you'll most likely have a big stupid grin on your face the whole time.
So did it deserve the Tony? That depends. If you think the Tony should be awarded for brilliance, then no. If it should be awarded for entertainment- then I think Mamma Mia is deserving!
The Producers won it too, after all.

[WiCkEd4LyFfE]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:12am

How come the people who hated this show their reason is that they didn't like the score. Don't they know that it is ABBA music before they come?

[mominator]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:22am

Here's another vote for I loved it. It was fun and fluffy, and in the wake of 9/11 a gift of escapism (it opened 10/03 and was in final rehersals at that time) So I vote if you enjoy the music of ABBA go check your brain at the door and have a blast!
B

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:28am

It's a fun show. I've seen it three times and will probably see it again. I'm a big fan of ABBA music and the story is silly, but cute. If you just want to have a good time without anything overly dramatic or heady, then it's a good show to see.

[shlamdiddly]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:32am

It's like an ABBA concert with a plot. I didn't like the show. I don't like how a plot is loosely fitted around music instead of music made for a plot. The singing and dancing was great though.

[SamIAm]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:39am

WHAT IS the story with Mamma Mia? I'm sorry but I just don't GET this show and why it has lasted as long as it has. In my humble opinion (and it is merely that...an opinion) these are the kinds of shows that are killing good, well written musicals on Broadway and making it the land of pap and pablum (and I don't mean JOSEPH PAPP)

[AnothaPartofMe]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:44am

I love Mamma Mia! I've seen the show in New York, Baltimore, San Francisco and Las Vegas... what a phenomenal experience. Yes, it's not Les Miz, but not every Broadway show is a 'gripping, dramatic piece'. I saw Dee Hoty in the Broadway cast... my favorite leading female. But still, when is Olivia Newton-John going to realize that Donna is an absolutely PERFECT role for her!

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:50am

If you check my post you'll notice that I didn't say a word about the score. I knew it was ABBA music -- I remember the original songs when they came out. The problem with the show was the pathetic excuse for a book and the utterly incompetent way the ABBA songs are shoe-horned into it. That anyone thought it was a good idea to take a lame unfunny Gina Lollabrigida movie from the '60's ("Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell") and use it as the basis for a musical is beyond me, but then to randomly toss moldy ABBA tunes into it with all the skill and dramaturgical ability of a blind and tone deaf monkey was simply jaw-dropping. The book writer didn't even TRY to fashion a book in which the ABBA songs could be used to advance plot and/or inform character (Oscar Hammerstein II is probably turning over and laughing himself silly in his grave).

Understand, there are plenty of revues and light entertainments that I've thoroughly enjoyed over the years, but they at least were put together with care and expertise and sense of professionalism. What I saw at "Mamma Mia" was laughable incompetence. Perhaps great singing would have helped to cover up the flaws, but the cast they haad for the road company sounded like a bunch of folks they grabbed from a local karaoke bar (and, no exaggeration, I've heard MUCH better singing -- of ABBA, no less -- in karaoke bars). That they were charging $90 for that crap was criminal (thankfully my friend and I were comped).

The funny thing is, I wasn't alone in my feelings about the show. From my side box seat at the National Theatre in DC, I had a clear view of all the folks sitting in the orchestra section as well as the mezzanine and wow, there were a LOT of bored looking people in the audience. I counted a couple of dozen people who were asleep in the second act and all sorts of folks who looked pissed off as lame joke after lame joke landed with a thud (there was very little laughter from the audience during the whole show and only perfunctory applause after each number). By the time the "concert" rolled around at the end, I was one of dozens fleeing out the exit doors into the street -- it was a damn stampede of people trying to get OUT of that theatre. A truly terrible waste of an evening.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:51am

SamIAm - Be glad you don't live in London. It's far worse there. The shows are not killing musical theatre any more than musical reviews of a pop catalogue. It's just fluffy fun like other book musicals with original scores that are fluffy fun.

[tkts]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 11:53am

"What's the story with Mamma Mia?"

Silly story, high school choreography and music that barely fits the story line. The show is boring unless the mother and her friends are onstage. I did like the sets just fine though.

Oh, and they they practically beg for a standing ovation at the end.

The show is a lot like Wicked in the respect that the younger you are the more you think it’s a masterpiece.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 12:22pm

It's def. not as bad as some of these peole say it is...it can be "blah" at some points and a few songs are a little out of place but it is so happy and you literally leave dancing. And it cannot be compared to Wicked...they are on totally different sides of the spectrum. Wicked is much more sophisticated while Mamma Mia is just fun.