Don't think too hard--just sit back and enjoy

Articles like this one fascinate me. Why is it hard to conceive (no pun intended) that a girl who wants to know her father would invite all of them to the wedding? Why is it hard to fathom that our heroine, Donna, not want to admit publicly that she wasn't sure who the father was? Since when are affairs of the heart logical? Just because DNA testing is possible doesn't mean broadcasting her dilemna to the world is an option for either of them.

Despite the fact that many who review the musicial Mamma Mia! take it way too seriously for their own britches, I find it hard to understand why they are so critical of the characters. Growing up during the time of "the flower power" just like Stellen's character, it's certainly not hard for me to comprehend Sam being a flower poweresque Bee-Gee-like character. Any one who watches the rock opera "HAIR" would see any combination of those two characters....long as you can grow it hair, bell bottomed paints and all the rest. The Sex Pistols got their start in the mid-70s -- at the height of Disco-mania. In a range of years that encompassed flower flower, disco and punk rock -- from late sixties, 1969 through the mid-70s, it's easy to see how Donna's amorous lads could have co-existed in one era and woo her on a Greek Isle.

Less easy to explain is Sky's promise to put Donna "on the line." But if she met her beaus in the 70s and Sophie, the daughter in question, is now 20, that does put things in the realm of a budding new internet.

But Mamma Mia! wasn't meant to be studied like rocket science. It was meant to be enjoyed. For middle aged women, like me, it's a chance to recapture youth, our mistakes and our triumphs. It's a time to laugh at those flared sequined outfits, wild hair and sky high shoes (what were we thinking?) It's a time to reflect on our suddenly emptying nests and what the future may hold.

My favorite part of this article, of course the comment about Pierce: "At his age and his star power, he can do what he wants and not have to worry."

How wonderful to see that in print. Pierce, take note!

The funniest, oh Pierce. Seems no article leaves his singing prowess uncommented on. Brasor writes: "Staying on pitch appears to be more painful than those bone-crunching stunts he performed as James Bond." Gotta add that one to my top ten list.


From Aashi
Arts & Entertainment 2009:Don't think too hard--just sit back and enjoy
BY PHILIP BRASOR, CONTRIBUTING WRITER


Broadway musicals were mainly collections of songs held together by comic themes before "Oklahoma!" opened in 1943. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote the songs for "Oklahoma!" made them serve a story. This "book musical" concept has been the norm ever since.

"Mamma Mia!" is different. It has been called a "jukebox musical," meaning its story is built around pre-existing songs, which in this case were all made famous in the 1970s and '80s by the Swedish pop group ABBA. Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson wrote each ABBA song as a separate pop entity, so using them to support a unified plot is tricky.

However, the huge worldwide success of the stage production, which premiered in London in 1999, proves that the book doesn't really matter. ABBA retired in 1982, so at the time "Mamma Mia!" was as close to a live rendering of the group's music as their fans would get. Reportedly, people danced in the aisles.

That's less likely to happen with the movie version of "Mamma Mia!" It's more difficult to ignore the gaps in logic between the lyrics and the story, which is ridiculous in the first place. Meryl Streep is Donna, a middle-aged single mother who runs a dilapidated hotel on a sun-drenched Greek island. Her 20-year-old daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is getting married. Unbeknownst to Donna, Sophie has found her old diary, which reveals the names of the three men who dated Donna that summer when Sophie was conceived. Sophie secretly invites all three men to the wedding in order to find out which one is her real father.

Most musical comedies feature storylines that are just as silly. What makes "Mamma Mia!" exceptionally silly is its disregard for narrative coherence. Each of the possible fathers seems to represent a different pop culture moment. The travel writer Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) tells Sophie that he met her mother during the time of "the flower power," while divorced architect Sam (Pierce Brosnan) shows her a photo from his youth in which he looks like a disco-era Bee Gee. London banker Harry (Colin Firth) says he followed the Sex Pistols when he romanced Donna. If any of these men is really Sophie's father, they would have to have been with her mother in 1988, by which point hippies and punks were as dated as bloomers.

It would be easy to say this movie is dated, too, but ABBA's songs have demonstrated an admirable resilience to the effects of time. Ulvaeus and Andersson had an enormous talent for melodic hooks that attach themselves to the human brain so tenaciously even people who look down on "Euro pop" confess an inability to resist tapping their feet whenever they hear an ABBA song.

The lyrics, however, are very resistible. In the pivotal scene where Sam reveals to Donna that he considered their summer romance more than just a fling, the show's writer, Catherine Johnson, has decided to use the song "SOS" to explicate his regret over losing her. "It used to be so nice," Sam sings about their love. "It used to be so good."

Brosnan gives these lines an earnest delivery that's obviously meant to compensate for their strange lack of urgency. The inadvertent comic effect is compounded by Brosnan's vocal shortcomings. Staying on pitch appears to be more painful than those bone-crunching stunts he performed as James Bond.

At his age and with his star power, Brosnan can do anything he wants and not have to worry about his reputation. The same goes double for Streep, who actually has stage musical experience and signed on for "Mamma Mia!" because she thought it would be fun. She seems to be having a ball, even though the choreography makes her look as if she were auditioning for Billy's Boot Camp. Of course, that is the primary appeal of the movie. Even ABBA fanatics don't claim that these songs are deep. As an artistic experience, "Mamma Mia!" is the equivalent of a night out at a karaoke bar. Just sit back and enjoy the cheese.

Still, it could have been better cheese. Christine Baranski, who plays Donna's over-the-hill but nevertheless oversexed pal Tanya, really turns up the heat during "Does Your Mother Know" and Streep's histrionic version of "The Winner Takes It All," sung on a windy promontory without the distraction of a production number, is exhilarating.

Otherwise, all the people involved seem to be having such a good time that they can't be bothered with matters like production values. It's a proudly amateurish enterprise, not so much a "jukebox musical" as an "air guitar musical."

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"Mamma Mia!" opens Jan. 30 at Nichigeki 1 in Tokyo and elsewhere.(IHT/Asahi: January 1,2009)