"My, my how can I resist you" indeed! Mamma Mia! is the theatrical equivalent of an armchair journey to an island with a bluer than blue sky and a fuller than full moon -- a mythical land where young lovers live happily ever after and older lovers get a second chance at love.
Yes, Mamma Mia! is kitsch, but irresistibly so since its feather-weight all's well that ends well story keeps bursting into songs by the disco era's Swedish super group, ABBA. As a good sob story brings out the tissues, so this bouncy kitschical sets shoulders swaying and arms waving joyously (that includes all ages and the most , buttoned-down types).
Those ABBA hits, twenty-two in all, are the foundation for this phenomenally successful musical that has settled in at the Winter Garden after already wowing audiences abroad and in other cities. Catherine Johnson has proved herself a master at custom-tailoring a story to transform a golden oldies concert into a valid musical. She has fashioned a book (with a little helping from the 1969 movie Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell) soaked in a bright and cheery atmosphere and with enough characters and incidents to neatly and naturally accommodate the songs as production numbers.
The plot can be summed up to fit into a seashell from the mythical Greek island where it spins out: Donna Sheridan (Louise Pitre) is a forty-something single mother and owner of a small island hotel. Her twenty-year-old daughter Sophie (Tina Maddigan), about to marry a hunky guy with the color-appropriate name of Sky (Joe Machota), yearns for her unknown dad to walk her down the aisle. Mom's diary leads to three potential dads (Dean Nolen-Harry Bright, Ken Marks-Bill Austin, David W. Keeley-Sean Carmichael). One almost expects a number called "Dad, Dad, Dad, I Want to Know My Dad" to go with such favorites as " Honey, Honey", "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "Money, Money, Money". At any rate, Sophie is convinced she'll recognize her true father and so invites all three men to the wedding (telling neither mom or fiance). This serves as the basis for exploring some genuine relationship themes and also puts enough people, of various ages on stage to create the possible setups for the songs. In addition to Donna, Sophie, Sky and the three maybe dads, there are the young couple's pals, the hotel employees, and two other invited guests -- Donna's sidekicks from her wild and wooly days as the leader of the band, Donna and the Dynamos -- the much-married Tanya (Karen Mason) and roly-poly cookbook writer Rosie (Judy Kaye).
