| Last Sunday, The (Wilmington, Delaware) News Journal used the Philadelphia "Mamma Mia!" as the cover story for its Sunday Magazine section. I haven't seen it, and since I've never been a fan of the MM concept I don't plan to, but since there hasn't been any articles on the list about Philly, I thought I'd share it with everyone... Thanks to ABBAMAILer Jeff Thorpe Magnolia, Delaware USA ABBAsolutely Hooked Get caught up in '70s music all over again as "Mamma Mia!" plays in Philly By Gary Mullinax, Staff reporter The producers of the ABBA musical "Mamma Mia!" have sent instructions to publicists about how to "position" the show. "The show should NEVER be referred to as 'the ABBA musical,'" they write. [my note: what did this reporter do in his first sentence, eh?] Furthermore, "'Mamma Mia!' is not: * "about ABBA; * "a 'revue' featuring ABBA songs; * "a 'seventies' musical." All true. Unlike a revue, the show does have a story. And it is not precisely about the Swedish pop group that brought ruffled shirts, white suits, elephant bell-botoms and platform shoes to magazine covers everywhere during the 1970s and early 1980s. This story, set about a decade ago, involves a mother whose daughter gets married on the Greek island where Mom lives. She is not sure which of three men is her daughter's father, so all are invited. So are Mom's old friends from the singing trio they had back in the '70s. But it's hard to think about "Mamma Mia!" without swamping your brain with the hook-filled melodies of "Dancing Queen," "S.O.S.," "Take a Chance on Me," "The Name of the Game," "Chiquitita" or one of ABBA's many other infernally catchy songs. Let's face it. No ABBA, no "Mamma Mia!" The show presents 22 ABBA hits - the group has sold almost 400 million recordings worldwide - and its story is derived from the lyrics of ABBA songs. ABBA is surely the reason why "Mamma Mia!," which just opened in Philadelphia, has ben a smash in London, Toronto and several American cities, including New York, which the producers avoided until it had clicked elsewhere. "I've been in some hits on Broadway, and I've never seen a show where people have such a good time," said Dee Hoty, a three-time Tony nominee who plays the mother in the national company now at the Forrest Theatre. "Sometimes they stand up, wave their arms and dance in the aisles. I can't tell you what it is. It's like some strange alchemy." What it probably is, is ABBA. Reports from earlier tour stops speak of audiences that react loudly as soon as the first notes of an ABBA tune sound and the performers prepare to break into a song that illustrates their thoughts and feelings. Since members of the audience do not know when each song will be presented, they often break into titters of outright laughter when a familiar ditty pops up. The team behind the show at first worried about this response. Were they laughing at ABBA? At the show? Or was it just delight in the anticipation of ear candy? "I had no idea the audience would react like that," said Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book for the musical. She was talking from her home in Bristol, England, where she writes mostly serious fare for stage and TV. "That first night I was slightly concerned," she said. "I thought if they laughed all the way through or sang along, they wouldn't connect with the story. When we want to put a song across in a serious way - like 'Knowing Me, Knowing You,' which is about a relationship breaking up - we always get an immediate giggle when we start. "But you have to allow space for that. The actors are very good in allowing the audience a laugh of recognition and then repossessing the song." The audiences for "Mamma Mia!" are not only former 1970s disco dancers, fans of old Top 40 songs or members of the gay subculture who have embraced ABBA the way they once did another flashy disco-pop group, the Village People. Teen-agers and even pre-teens have joined the ABBA bandwagon, inspired partly by such ABBA cover bands as the A-Teens and Björn Again - a name that pays homage to Björn Ulvaeus, who composed and produced the show along with fellow ABBA member Benny Andersson. After all, groups like 'N Sync have proved that slick, studio-savvy pop will draw a teen audience - though those fans might be interested to know that ABBA wrote and produced their own songs. Actress Hoty, speaking from Detroit, where the show was playing, sees another reason for the retro appeal of ABBA. "I think there's a fascination with an earlier, perhaps safer time," said Hoty, who starred in "Footloose" in her most recent Broadway role. "The parents figure it's OK, the kids can listen to that. Oh sure, go to the ABBA show, honey. You won't get hurt or pierced all over. We get little kids, high-school kids." The teen cover bands are just part of a decade-long ABBA revival that has also included the liberal use of ABBA music in the movies "Muriel's Wedding" and "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and the release of two greatest-hits albums, "ABBA Gold" [sic--sorry Graeme!] and last year's "ABBA: The Definitive Collection." And those who still don't have enough ABBA, take note: The DVD of "The Winner Takes It All," the story of ABBA, is due Feb. 26. But ABBA has not pleased all the people all the time. Not even Johnson, who wrote the story for "Mamma Mia!" She worked in a record shop in the 1970s, when her attention was fixed on punk-rock bands such as the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks. "ABBA was very poppy," she said. "I did like some disco, so something like 'Dancing Queen' was OK. But all those yucky songs about relationships were not for me. And ABBA seemed very middle-aged." Nonetheless, she moved a lot of ABBA product at that shop. "There were people buying music worse than that," she said. "But when they wanted to listen to the song first, I used to think, 'My God, don't you know tis song already?' Just take it home with you. I didn't want to be around while they played it. I think they could tell from the expression on my face." That might have come back to haunt her in the 1990s when producer Judy Craymer asked Johnson to write a book for "Mamma Mia!" based on ABBA's lyrics. But Johnson was a trouper. "Those lyrics are not as shallow as you'd think," she said. "I was surprised. We used to listen to those ABBA songs with their Swedish accents and in the back of my mind they seemed a bit of a joke. But when I started reading them i realized the lyrics to a song like 'The Winner Takes It All' are really very poignant." After "Mamma Mia!" opened in London in 1999, the cast recording began to make the rounds among actors in this country. They knew it was just a matter of time before the show came to this side of the ocean. "I had never listened to a lot of ABBA," Hoty said, "but I listened to the soundtrack one day at a friend's house in the country and thought, 'Oh, this is very sweet. I could do this.'" Hoty replaced Louise Pitre, who left the national company to take the role of the mother on Broadway. That reverses the usual process, by which shows open first on Broadway and then the producers put together national companies to tour. Ulvaeus, who with Tim Rice wrote the musical "Chess" after ABBA stopped recording, thought that show was unfairly doomed by negative New York reviewers. He wanted to give the show a chance to gain favor before throwing it to the critical lions. He made Toronto the first North American stop, since America did not fall for ABBA as hard as the rest of the world. Now "Mamma Mia!" is a success all over America. But why be surprised? After all, it is the ABBA musical. (reach Gary Mullinax at (302) 324-2888 or gmullinax@delawareonline.com ) | 
