September 10, 2001
Mamma Mia!
Broadway Bound A musical about a young bride-to-be and her single mom with 22 shimmery disco tunes by ABBA.
Whoa, did you say ABBA? Björn Ulvaeus and Bennny Andersson - the songwriting half of the Swedish seventies supergroup - wrote the score.
Sounds dubious Okay, ABBA's 1988 Broadway musical, Chess, flopped. But Mamma Mia! uses all the band's most resplendent mirrorball hits, including "Dancing QUeen." Productions in London, San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago, and Los Angeles have all seen record ticket sales, great reviews, and, yes, boogying in the aisles. This is going to be big. Trust us.
Take a chance on me In about two months, Canadian Tina Maddigan is going to be a star. Three years ago, she was turned down for an usher position at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre. Then last spring - ABBA-cadabra! - she returned to the same theater as one of the leads in Mamma Mia! "My aunt was an ABBA freak, with the hair and the outfit," says Maddigan, who is all of 26 years old. "When I was 4 or 5, we'd bounce around on the chesterfields with hairbrush microphones.""