I can't help it but for some reason I'm wary of anything that seems to have given itself an exclamation mark. It automatically makes me consider whether or not I think it deserves additional punctuation in a way that punctuation-less titles don't. It's trying to enforce an excited tone from me when I say its name, without giving me a chance to get excited on my own –
as if it doesn't trust me. But for some reason in the case of
Mamma Mia!, the musical based on the music of
ABBA it works. The music is so chirpy and excitable and the band, in the early years, seem like such clean livin' kids that I think of it as being Euro-pop-endearing.
In fact I think it should be pronounced ABBA.
The song from the title is just the tip of the ABBA! catalogue iceberg: the writer of this show, in collaboration with
Björn Ulvaeus and
Benny Andersson (from ABBA!), has also managed to include
Take A Chance On Me, SOS, Super Trouper, Thank You for the Music, Money, Money, Money, The Winner Takes It All and
Dancing Queen. Which is especially impressive when you're told that the musical doesn't tell a biographical story of the band.
The 'Mamma' from Mamma Mia!
Just like the band, the storyline for the musical isn't quite as clean living as you might expect. It's set on a Greek island for starters instead of in Sweden. I'm not suggesting that the bit about the Greek island is the not-clean-living-bit, just making a point about the storyline being a surprise – if you haven't seen the
film of the musical of course.
So, Sophie, a young woman and the star of the show, is getting ready to get married on this lovely Greek island, and she wants her Dad to walk her down the isle on her big day. Only her Mum hasn't told her who her Dad is. Sophie finds her mother's diary and sees entries about three different men that her Mum was dating about the right time, so she writes to them, under her mother's name, inviting them to the wedding. They all accept and arrive the day before the big day. None of them know why they've been invited but they all catch on eventually and confusion, drama, a bit of hysteria and some love ensue. But this is an ABBA! musical so it all works out all right in the end and they all come on and do an encore of
Waterloo - as apparently they couldn't crowbar it into the show.
While dating three men at the same time might not be considered squeaky clean living, the atmosphere of the show – the bright whites of the costumes and sets and the good humour and enthusiasm for life of the characters – make this a sunny, funny production rather than an examination of the welfare of society. And of course in the end everyone dons disco gear and goes crazy with the dancing queens.
