Mamma Mia! (CAST RECORDING)

Put together by ABBA's own Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! manages to cram over 20 of the Swedish supergroup's songs into a threadbare plot. It goes a little like this: Young Sophie is getting married and she's trying to identify which of three men is her father. That's about it. Wisely, the musical doesn't mess around with the songs, save for the insertion of some dialogue or for having some of them performed by a man (it works amazingly well). ABBA fans will jump on this import of the London production, but traditional fans of musical theater should consider it as well. After all, Andersson and Ulvaeus's songs have always felt as if they were more than isolated pop gems and actually belonged to a longer narrative. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Mamma Mia! (CAST RECORDING)

"Mamma Mia" Tickets

Custom review from Amazon

Reviewer: A music fan from Tenn
When I was fortunate enough to see the original production at the Prince Edward
Theatre in London in the summer of 1999 I knew I was witness to something great. I had not had that much fun in a theatre ever. But sometimes a great show does not a great recording make. This however is not the case here.What the brilliant cast has done is transport the listener perfectly to the world they create every night on stage. This album has been produced to induce the uphoria the live show creates. There is a perfect blend of dialouge and and music thats allows the listener to be able to grasp just enough of the plot and get the full enjoyment of the classic ABBA score.For me personally the show is filled with very good performances. The British Musical Theatre as a whole, in my opinon, contains far fewer "legit" voices than contemporary Broadway and that is evident here. But there are wonderful exceptions. As Donna "I am woman here me roar" Sheridan, Siobhan McCarthy is incredible. She has made a career of understudying and replaceing Elaine Paige. But here she makes it her own. Listening to her you hear the similarities between her and Ms. Paige and I wonder if Ms. Paige wasn't offered this first. But the grity and true vocal performance she gives will be hard pressed to ever duplicate.