Happy ABBA music in Mamma Mia!

I do not understand it when people say they do not like the music of ABBA. I think, what is there not to like? ABBA songs have pretty melodies with great hooks and clever lyrics that the group recorded with lilting harmonies. The worst that can happen when somebody hears an ABBA tune is he will smile. You are lying if say you don’t like that or you must really be one pathetic grouch.

It was love at first sound for me with ABBA. That was long before they got to be a worldwide sensation. I was given this LP of the new Swedish group that had just won the Grand Prix at the Eurovision Song Festival with the original composition Waterloo. The album was not only interesting, it was fun, with lots of happy tunes.

Even more remarkable was the fact that although the songwriters who composed the songs knew English only as a second language, they did great. They did so well that 20 years later there were more than enough hit songs written by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson for ABBA to make up a full-length musical. That has now earned over $2B at the box-office and been seen by over 45 million people. Sad to say though that Hasta Mañana is not in the soundtrack.

I am not really complaining about that though. I still have the LP anyway. Besides, I am sure that anyone who beefs about the show will surely get it from the jubilant audience that attended Mamma Mia!’s opening night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo last Tuesday evening, Jan. 24. They really swooned at the intros to the familiar songs and got into their best ’70s dance moves at the end. I am sure that they went home with ABBA songs playing in their heads.

Mamma Mia! is simpler than most musicals. Nothing eye-popping about the sets and nothing by way of special effects. But it is a lively, very well-written piece with gags that work. The story is set in a Greek Island to which Sophie has invited her mother Donna’s three former lovers to find out which one is her father. The nightmarish situation that this brings to Donna makes up the fodder for the comedy.

Playing Donna in this touring production is Sara Poyzer. She glows on stage and has the sort of singing voice that holds the audience even during its softer tones. Her moment with The Winner Takes It All is a show-stopper. She is the anchor of the performance, bathing the whole cast with her sparkle and casting memories of Meryl Streep’s Donna off to the wind.

Meryl, et al is the only problem I see with Mamma Mia! at the CCP. Don’t go there thinking you will be watching the film version. The musical is the original from which the movie was adapted. There were changes made. As in the sun, sea and sand on the stage are all simulated and there are no Meryl or Pierce Brosnan or Colin Firth. Get rid of this baggage and you are in for a truly enjoyable time.

There are Richard Standing as Sam, Charlotte Wakefield as Sophie and David Roberts as Sky and all the other cast members who do very good jobs with their parts. Jennie Dale and Kate Graham as Donna’s friends and singing mates steal the show each time they are onstage.

But of course, the real stars of the musical, bigger than anybody else, are the songs of ABBA. Mamma Mis! is a delicious feast of one hit after another of superior, heartfelt and most of all, memorable songs. I Have A Dream; Honey, Honey; Money, Money, Money; Thank You For The Music; Mamma Mia; Chiquitita; Super Trouper; Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Voulez-Vous; S.O.S.; Does Your Mother Know; Knowing Me, Knowing You; Our Last Summer; Slipping Through My Fingers; Take A Chance On Me; I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.

Mamma Mia! runs from Jan. 24 to Feb. 12. Tickets are now available at all TicketWorld outlets and at the CCP box-office. A bit pricey at P7,000, P5,500, P5,000, P4,500, P4,000, P3,500, P3,000, P2,500, P2,000, P1,500, P1,000 and P750 but it is first-rate entertainment.