Before the Super Bowl I went and saw Mamma Mia! at the Orpheum in scenic San Francisco. (Sometimes I use these phrases to get the text to fill up a line in BBEdit, even if in HTML it doesn't matter. I still want it to look right when read as a plain text file. Hence the "scenic".) A quick ride on the BART and right outside the Civic Center stairwell there it was, a line of people already there and going in.

The theatre crowd is a bit different than the crowd at a concert. Well-dressed older people mixed with well-dressed adults with some well-dressed kids. Ok, so I felt a bit underdressed as I mingled in with the crowd. This place has a cocktail bar, for Goddess' sake! Anyway, I made my way to my seat and looked around. Nice upholstered seats, less than 2500 seats with 500 being in the two balconies. Greek classical motif in the designs on the walls, big vase in an alcove on each side of the room, orchestra pit filled with synthesizers (this is ABBA music, after all).

The curtain opened, revealing what looked to be some sort of industrial park. A young woman was contemplating by herself when her two friends barge in. We soon learn that Sophie Sheridan is the young woman, about to be married in a couple of days to Sky. Sophie's one great regret is that her mother, Donna, has never told her who her father is. But Sophie did find her mother's diary and has narrowed the possibilities to three men, so she invited all three to her wedding.

Meanwhile, Donna Sheridan is frazzled with the wedding plans. At wit's end, she is happy to see her two old friends, Tanya and Rosie, as they arrive at the seaside inn that Donna owns on this small Greek island. The three men returning to her life upsets her balance once again, as she has to face her submerged feelings for Harry, Bill, and Sam. Those are the two basic plots: Sophie looking for her father, Donna's unresolved feelings.

The set is composed of two big curved wall sections. In between each scene the walls twirl around and rearrange themselves to represent the new area (there are grooved tracks on the floor). There are only three configurations: outside, courtyard, bedroom, plus a dream sequence that has no walls. Other props include tables and chairs, things that hang from the ceiling like trees and clouds, a rowboat, a bed, and spotlights to simulate the sun and moon.

The music itself is great. Lots of singing and dancing, the songs smoothly interweaving into the story. There are 22 songs, some not sung fully but most are the whole. Plus there are 3-4 songs after the story ends. Two acts with a 15 minute intermission in between make for a just-over-2-hours performance. It has laughs, drama, pathos and is a great way to spend a few hours. Seeing a musical live (and this is my first one, if you don't count the one opera I saw, which is different in style than a musical) is better than on film or tv.

That said, I'm not sure if I'd watch another musical. Mostly I'm thinking that something like Cats or Phantom of the Opera has original scores, so there's no guarantee that I'll like the music. At least in Mamma Mia! I knew that I'd like the music even if I didn't like the story. On a sadder note, I'm not going to do the cultural thing anymore, because I really can't afford to spend that much money, Maybe next year.

In the meantime though, the musical did give me a yen to get an ABBA CD. But they're a bit old for me so I'll probably get the A*Teens album as the next best thing. It's hard to get the music out of my mind...