Mamma Mia! @ the Winter Garden Theatre

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The Play: Mamma Mia!; a Broadway stop for the national tour of the crowd-pleasing musical about a girl who invites three of her single mom’s former lovers to the Greek island where she grew up because she wants to find out which of them is actually her father so that he can give her away at her upcoming wedding

Music and Lyrics by: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus    Book by: Catherine Johnson      Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd

One good thing: The head-bopping music by the ABBA duo is pretty much irresistible and the crackerjack cast, clearly delighted to be on Broadway, infuses each of the 22 numbers with unabashed joy

One not-so-great thing: The book is silly and now anachronistic (a DNA test would easily solve the parentage question) but some uplifting silliness is welcomed in these too-often depressing times even by a jukebox-musical grinch like me

 

 


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