4 reasons 'Mamma Mia!' will be remembered as a Broadway classic — seriously
If you ask a theater critic to list the greatest musicals of the past two decades, chances are slim that “Mamma Mia!” would make the cut.
But it should.
No, really.
With a feel-good, woman-powered story set to radio hits by ABBA, “Mamma Mia!” is the most successful “jukebox musical” in history. It lasted nearly 14 years on Broadway and is still running in London, where it premiered in 1999. The show returns to Tempe’s ASU Gammage on Tuesday, Dec. 6, as part of a farewell tour. But that doesn’t mean it’s going away. It will have a long life in regional and community theater.
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“I already have the rights,” says Michael Barnard, artistic director of Phoenix Theatre, Arizona’s leading producer of musicals.
Of course, popularity is not the same thing as quality. Britney Spears sells a lot of records, but that doesn’t make her Bob Dylan. Yet “Mamma Mia!” has a lot more going for it than just nostalgia for a guilty-pleasure pop band out of Sweden. Here’s why it has earned a place among the greatest musicals in history.
1. It’s hugely influential
“‘Mamma Mia!’ is an original because it set the course for a lot of other shows like it to follow suit,” Barnard says. “It opened up a different category that we didn’t have before. And because of it, it opened up the door for a younger audience to become interested in musical theater. I always love when that kind of thing happens, like a ‘Hamilton’ today. It’s a great introduction to musical theater, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that it’s just a lot of fun.”
The different category that “Mamma Mia!” defined was the jukebox musical. This is a distinct genre from the musical revue, which functions as a “greatest hits” showcase for a particular songwriter, because jukebox musicals pair pre-existing songs with a full-fledged story.
It wasn’t the first jukebox musical. Earlier examples include “Buddy — The Buddy Holly Story” and “Forever Plaid,” which repurposed music by ’50s “guy groups.” But “Mamma Mia!” kicked off a craze that shows no sign of slowing down.
Since 1999, we’ve see musicals drawn from the recording careers of Queen (“We Will Rock You”), Billy Joel (“Movin’ Out”), Elvis Presley (“All Shook Up”) and Green Day (“American Idiot”). Plus there are the various-artists shows like “Rock of Ages” and “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.”
2. The storytelling works
Despite this proliferation, the only jukebox musical to rival “Mamma Mia!” in popularity is “Jersey Boys,” featuring the music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. And unlike “Mamma Mia!” it doesn’t offer an original story but instead serves up a “Behind the Music”-style biography in the tradition of “Buddy.”
Indeed, most of the popular jukebox musicals fall into this category, including “Beautiful — The Carole King Musical” (which played at Gammage last month) and the current Broadway hit “On Your Feet!,” which tells the story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan.
But “Mamma Mia!” isn’t ABBA’s story. It’s about a 20-year-old bride-to-be who discovers there are three men who might be her father, so she invites them all to her wedding on a Greek island, much to the chagrin of her bohemian mom.
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Fluffy? Sure. But songs such as “Take a Chance on Me,” “Thank You for the Music” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You” are so expertly woven into the story — by book writer Catherine Johnson, an English playwright — that they almost seem like they were written specifically for the show.
In fact, some theatergoers who don’t know ABBA have thought exactly that, says Kevin Casey, who, as music director for the national tour, has conducted hundreds of performances. But he’d never even seen the show when he was first offered the job.
“I think I was the snootiest one of all,” he says. “Without having seen it, I had decided that it wasn’t important. It wasn’t Sondheim. …
“It just seemed like a lazy way to make a musical, get some songs and shoehorn the story around it. But when I saw it on Broadway, my eyes were opened. I said, ‘This is why people like it.’ So now I’ve become a big fan both of the show and also of the band.”
3. Its winning formula has yet to be replicated
Johnson’s feat — using ABBA’s songbook to create what feels like a traditional book musical — is all the more impressive because no one since has done it quite as well. Producer Judy Craymer, who persuaded ABBA to sign over their tunes in the first place, tried to re-create her success with a Spice Girls musical called “Viva Forever!”
“It didn’t work,” Casey says.
Casey notes that “Mamma Mia’s” my-three-dads story was based on a 1968 film called “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell," which had already been adapted as a musical, 1979’s “Carmelina.”
“It lasted for 17 performances,” he says. “Take that same story and add the ABBA music, and it’s lasted for — more than 17. (But) without that story, it’s just an ABBA tribute show.”
Newer musicals in the same vein just haven’t managed to feel as organic and complete. Not “Movin’ Out,” which was a great showcase for Twyla Tharp’s choreography but was pretty thin on story and character. Not “All Shook Up,” an entertaining farce but not a show anyone would passionately identify with.
“It’s a really difficult thing to take existing music and try to fit it into a story,” says Broadway star Judy McLane, who spent a whopping 11 years starring in the New York cast, first playing boozy sidekick Tanya, then the lead role of single mom Donna.
“I think they did a lot of magic, with that, actually. And one of the keys is that there is someone in the musical that everyone can relate to.”
4. The songwriting holds up
Some musical-theater buffs may be tempted to dismiss the music of “Mamma Mia!” as unworthy of an artistic tradition that has given us “West Side Story,” “Cabaret” and “Sunday in the Park With George.” But “Mamma Mia!” actually wasn’t the first foray onto Broadway for ABBA songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. They also collaborated as composers on the ’80s musical “Chess.”
“‘Chess’ is one of my favorite Broadway scores,” says Tim Shawver, a Valley actor and director who co-founded A/C Theatre Company, which produces alternative musicals.
“The book is bad, but the music is incredible. So these guys have some chops.”
Sure, “Dancing Queen” and “Super Trouper” might rightly be labeled bubblegum pop. But a tune like “Thank You for the Music” resonates onstage with as much emotion as anything by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Valley actress Kelli James — who played on Broadway in “Les Misérables” — says she was skeptical about the jukebox musical formula before she saw Louise Pitre in the original Broadway cast of “Mamma Mia!”
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“She was magnificent,” James says. “Her ‘Winner Takes It All’ just burned me down to the ground. …
“By the end of the show, the audience had reached a rock-concert fervor. People had their lighters out. People were in the aisles singing and dancing, and I hadn’t seen that since I had done ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ with Donny Osmond.
“So I thought, yes, this kind of piece has a place on Broadway.”
Reach the reporter at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896. Follow him at facebook.com/LengelOnTheater and twitter.com/KerryLengel.
Broadway Across America: ‘Mamma Mia!’
When: Tuesday through Sunday, Dec. 6-11.
Where: ASU Gammage, Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard, Tempe.
Admission: $20 and up.
Details: 480-965-3434, asugammage.com.
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