Friday, Feb. 27, 2004 | 8:28 a.m.
It's as youthful, refreshing and energetic (and as sold out) as it was at its premiere.
For those who haven't yet seen "Mamma Mia!" -- and the number shrinks dramatically every week -- here's the soap opera-like plot:
Donna Sheridan falls in love with Sam Carmichael on a tiny Greek island. They have sex and then Sam returns home to his fiancee. Broken-hearted, Donna has two quick flings, one with an Australian adventurer/author, Bill Austin, and one with a businessman, Harry Bright.
One of the three men impregnates her, but she doesn't know who.
Twenty years later Sophie, Donna's daughter, is planning to get married. Three months before the event she discovers the names of the three men in her mother's diary. Hoping she can learn which one is her father, she secretly invites each of them to her wedding, signing Donna's name.
It is a contrived plot. In real theater that's a no-no. But since this isn't real theater, rather a pseudo-pop-rock concert disguised as theater, it's OK. The story, written by Catherine Johnson, is brilliantly manipulated to justify stringing together 22 of ABBA's biggest hits of the '70s and '80s.
The result is a seamless fusion of a simplistic, romance-novel kind of love story and the music of ABBA, including "Thank You For The Music," "Mamma Mia!" "Dancing Queen," "SuperTrouper," "S.O.S." and "The Winner Takes It All."
If you aren't a big ABBA fan, the musical may not be to your liking, but based upon attendance records being set by this franchised production all over the world, there aren't many who don't like the Swedish group's songs.
"Mamma Mia!" is produced by Judy Craymer, Richard East and Bjorn Ulvaeus, with music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Ulvaeus. It was directed by Phyllida Lloyd and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast.
Not much has changed since the musical's debut at Mandalay Bay, but for a few new cast members -- Suzie Jacobsen Balser is now Sophie, Lewis Cleale is Sam, Michael Pemberton is Bill and Reyna Von Vett is Tanya.
Balser brings different dynamics to the production than her predecessor. With Balser in the role, Sophie is a stronger character, more assertive, in possession of an independent personality on par with her mother, who not only raised Sophie alone but at the same time managed a resort on the Greek island.
Pemberton, a veteran of Broadway and television commercials (his latest is for TUMS), is perfect as the adventurer who ends up being the love interest for one of the cast's most popular secondary characters, Rosie (Jennifer Perry).
Cleale is too stiff as Donna's former beau. Whether it's the director's fault or the actor's, he needs to loosen up. His motions don't flow smoothly as he moves about onstage and interacts with the other characters.
Von Vett was a member of the ensemble last year. She was plucked from obscurity and given the spotlight as Tanya, a close friend of Donna's and a former member of Donna's three-piece disco group in the '70s -- Rosie was the third member.
Von Vett obviously relishes the role of the wealthy, thrice-married divorcee. She has fun with the character and the audience has fun watching her, especially during one hot dance number.
Danielle Ferretti plays a minor role in the production (one of Sophie's two closest friends and a member of the ensemble), but she is so dynamic and throws herself into her duties with such delight that she stands out from the crowd. Maybe one day she, too, will be plucked from the masses.
Tina Walsh (Donna), Jennifer Perry (Rosie), Victor Wallace (Sky) and Michael Piontek (Harry) have returned in their respective roles for the second year.
Walsh and Perry shine.
Wallace and Piontek are adequate, but they suffer the fate of all men in this feministic fable -- they are minor characters, there for a cast of strong-willed women to dominate as they assert their independence and their self-worth.
In the end, we never learn the identity of Sophie's father.
But in this Amazon world, it doesn't matter. All of the men are merely donors.
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