You can’t help but have a good time at Mamma Mia. The ABBA musical is simply just a lot of fun. I’ve seen maybe four of the Australian productions over the years and this is the best so far.
It’s a simple plot. Sophie Sheridan is about to be married but her mother Donna has never told her who her real father is. She finds her mother’s diary and discovers it could be one of three men, so she invites them all to her wedding expecting it will be obvious when she sees them … but it isn’t.
Lets throw to George Constanza to fill in the middle part. “So yadda yadda yadda …”. Thanks George, excellent summary. So, yadda yadda yadda, the show ends and we still don’t know who the father was.
I don’t think we are giving anything away. Every ABBA fan on Earth has already seen the show and the movie and the second movie (which also doesn’t answer the question).
The cast starring Sarah Krndija as the daughter Sophie Sheridan and Elise McCann as her mother Donna drive the action in every song in Act 1 and all except three songs of Act 2. That is an incredible spotlight to be throw on two performers in a musical featuring a main cast of 13.
Martin Crewes, Drew Livingston and Tim Wright, the three dads keep the “whodunit” aspect of the story flowing.
The customisation was clever too, with the reference to the Melbourne suburb of Oakleigh.
Fans don’t go to ‘Mamma Mia’ for a Hollywood drama, they come for a Swedish musical. The plot is designed to loosely tie the ABBA songs together and like the new ABBA Voyage, give Anna, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid immortality. If you want eternal life, write a couple of dozen hit songs and then turn them into a musical 30 years later. The music of ABBA will genuinely live forever with this show and the ABBA Voyage event.
The songs are not all obvious ones. ‘Lay Your Love On Me’, ‘One Last Summer’ and ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ are most likely known by the core fans.
The second movie repeated many of the songs. ‘When I Kissed the Teacher’, ‘I Wonder’, ‘One of Us’, ‘Waterloo’, ‘Why Did It Have To Be Me’, ‘Kisses of Fire’, ‘Andante, Andante’, ‘Angel Eyes’, ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’, ‘Fernando’, ‘My Love My Love’ and ‘The Day Before You Came’ make an appearance in the movie sequel ‘Mamma Mia Here We Go Again’. So far that hasn’t been made into a stage show.
There are a few that didn’t make the musical or first and second movies. ‘Ring Ring’, ‘Hasta Manana’, ‘Rock Me’, and ‘Eagle’ could be used for a third movie. You would have to think with a whole new album in ‘Voyage’ (2022) and ten brand new songs that a third movie isn’t seriously being considered.
Meryl Streep says she is up for it, telling Vogue in September 2023 “”I told [producer] Judy [Craymer] if she could figure out a way to reincarnate Donna, I’m into that. Or it could be like in one of those soap operas where Donna comes back and reveals it was really her twin sister that died.” But right now that’s all just rumour and innuendo.
ACT ONE
Prologue/I Have a Dream (from Voulez Vous, 1979)
Honey, Honey (from Waterloo, 1974)
Money, Money, Money (from Arrival, 1976)
Thank You for the Music (from ABBA: The Album, 1977)
Mamma Mia (from ABBA, 1975)
Chiquitita (from Voulez Vous, 1979)
Dancing Queen (from Arrival, 1976)
Lay All Your Love On Me (from Super Trouper, 1980)
Super Trouper (from Super Trouper, 1980)
Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie (from Greatest Hits Vol 2)
The Name of the Game (from ABBA: The Album, 1977)
Voulez Vous (from Voulez Vous, 1979)
ACT TWO
Under Attack (from The Singles The First Ten Years, 1982)
One of Us (from The Visitors, 1981)
S.O.S. (from ABBA, 1975)
Does Your Mother Know (from Voulez Vous, 1979)
Knowing Me Knowing You (from Arrival, 1976)
Our Last Summer (from Super Trouper, 1980)
Slipping Through My Fingers (from The Visitors, 1981)
The Winner Takes It All (from Super Trouper, 1980)
Take a Chance On Me (from ABBA: The Album, 1977)
I Do, I Do, I Do (from ABBA, 1975)
I Have A Dream (from Voulez Vous, 1979)
4th October 2023 – 3rd December 2023
Princess Theatre
Official Tickets: ticketek.com.au
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