We are officially Mamma Mia! fans.
Logan in front of the Broadway poster (2014)
and a few years before…
Logan in front of Broadway Mama Mia! poster (2007)
We went to see Mama Mia! for the fifth time last night at National Theater in Washington DC. The show was fabulous! My daughter leaned over after the third song and whispered “It never gets old!” We all agreed we liked it even better than the Mama Mia show we saw on Broadway in January 2014. In fairness, the Broadway show had just recently changed out almost all of their cast except for “Donna.” Unfortunately, the chemistry hadn’t developed yet among the new actors.
The musical is campy, funny, and you can’t help but start tapping your feet when the music begins. Mamma Mia! is based on ABBA songs. ABBA was an internationally popular Swedish pop group that started in 1972. They won Eurovision in 1974 with the song “Waterloo” The play was written by British playwright Catherine Johnson and opened in London in 1999. It’s currently ranked as the 9th longest running Broadway show.
Admittedly, I was not an ABBA fan before seeing the play in 2007 but there’s just something about the play that makes me smile and I can relate to most of the songs. I’m glad John likes it too ~ makes it more fun for the whole family to enjoy.
We each have our favorite songs and mine is “Does Your Mother Know” It’s sassy and, last night, “Pepper”(P. Tucker Worley) and “Tanya” (Gabrielle Mirabella) did a great job with the song and dance. P. Tucker Worley did a back flip and some killer toe-touches. Fun, fun, fun!
There is a sad part of the play that causes both myself and my daughter to shed a tear. It’s the song “Slipping Through My Fingers” It goes right for the heart. Here’s a video of ABBA singing the original.
One of the best parts of the show is at the very end when everyone stands up to sing and dance along ~ it becomes a feel-good party.
I’m glad we went on the closing night or else we might have been tempted to go again before the show left town. If it comes to your town, be sure to go. You won’t regret it. Since some people consider us groupies at this point, we might have to travel down to Atlanta in September and see it there at the beautiful Fox Theater.
Displaced Beachbums 