To the cinema : Mamma Mia!

It should be about 5 to 6 years since Mamma Mia! musical came to Singapore. I could still remember how it was like in the Esplanade theatre, the atmosphere was highly charged and I could feel the pent-up energy of the people around me, trying hard to curb the urge to just jump up from the seats and dance along to the familiar and groovy ABBA songs. But being Singaporeans, we obediently stayed in our seats, not wanting to be the odd one out and risked people saying that we “action, action only” behind our backs. However, I’m sure that inside, everyone was imagining themselves up and about dancing and singing along to the songs. Well at least for me, my foot suddenly had a will of its own and started to tap along to “Dancing Queen”.

So, imagine my excitement when I realized that Hollywood had taken the musical and made it into a movie. Yun, Qing and I made a date to watch it together since the guys are totally not interested.

Honestly, the storyline for Mamma Mia! is not very strong. I believe it’s the lure of ABBA hits and how each song is cleverly injected throughout the plot that made it such a hit. It seems like each song is suited just for that moment of the story as it goes along. I wondered if the producers thought of the storyline first, then decide to use ABBA songs? Or did they thought of the story while going through the list of ABBA hits?

Anyway, if you are more of the movie fan than a musical fan, this is not the movie for you. Most of the acts are more theatrical-like, e.g. chasing one another among the trees, 3 middle-aged women jumping on the bed, and then the whole village singing and dancing together, etc.

Well, it would be quite unfair to compare with the musical as each has its own plus and minus points. It's the live performance vs actual scenery, professional musical cast vs all-star Hollywood cast. But personally, I much preferred the actual musical, even though the ticket may cost about 14 times more, and we had to squint our eyes to see how the performers look like, nothing beats hearing live singing and feeling the lively energy from the stage as well as the people around you.

- Mamma Mia! homepage

- Mamma Mia! movie official site