Money money money, must be sunny, in the ABBA world.
The prospect of Meryl Streep singing has cash registers ringing: "Mamma Mia!," the Abba jukebox movie musical based on the stage phenom, has made $331 million -- and counting -- worldwide. And Universal is betting that the pot will grow even larger when it releases a Sing-a-Long version this week at selected theaters, including the AMC Neshaminy, Showcase at the Ritz in Voorhees and the Wilmington Regal.
Having recently ferried a car full of 12-year-olds who sang, loudly and lustily, along with the movie soundtrack all the way to the Jersey Shore, I can vouch that an Abba sing-a-long is a most buoyant means of getting tweens to express that restless energy. But much as I enjoyed their impromptu chorus -- something primal about group singing, yes? -- I don't now nor have I ever "got" Abba. For me, the lyrics sound as though translated from the Esperanto, the music a muchness of marimba and the message a xerox of a fax of an e-mail of a feeling.
As I wrote in my review of "Mamma Mia!," although I was born with the gene for loving musicals, I lack the DNA sequence that permits Abba appreciation.
Are there those out there who can make an eloquent case for why the supergroup plucks their heartstrings? Haters pithier than I who can explain why hearing songs like "Honey Honey" and "Money Money Money" and "Super Trouper" makes them super droopy?
Carrie-- I'm not embarrassed at all to confess that I'm a sucker for ABBA. Not just the melodies and the lyrics, but also - especially - the wild, over-the-top, nearly deranged orchestrations that have always set the group's songs apart and made them singular, unique. And I also liked the movie, which I found to be a hugely satisfying hodgepodge of old Hollywood staples and conventions, taking a plotline reminiscent of the 1968 Melvin Frank-Gina Lollobrigida comedy, "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell," adding a middle-aged Gidget to the mix (named Donna and played by the very game and pert Meryl Streep, seemingly in tribute to pert Sandra Dee herself) and giving it the giddiness of the grand "let's-put-on-a-show" movie-musical tradition. Only in this case, it's a wedding that's put on, not a show. Frankly, the reviews confounded me. I found them disporportionately harsh. What with the gorgeous scenery, those songs (that dare you not to bob and smile), that cast (having the kind of fun that's contagious) and the joy of discovering a talented new star (Amanda Seyfried, who shrewdly plays Streep's daughter as a kid who's way more mature and stable than her mother), "Mamma Mia!" was like taking a tiny vacation. I'm with the 12-years-olds. Very wise kids.— Pash- It is a challenge, but also indicative of the shift in perception: movies used to be considered part of a theatrical experience, you went out and sat in a theater with an audience. But now, so much "entertainment" has become part of the home experience, and "movies" have now found "platforms" (VOD, DVD, cable broadcast, online streaming, etc.) that have removed them from the theatrical experience that people no longer have the same type of attention. Movies, video games, karaoke: it's all the same. So MAMMA MIA! is being re-released in this "interactive" format. It's a bit sad (whatever else, the movie did represent a lot of work on the part of the cast) but it's not unexpected. What's unexpected is the amount of time: it's not a year or even half a year. At some point, movies will start being released with these interactive elements already in place.— darylchin53
- Pash and Daryl: Last night I re-saw the film in its "sing-along" iteration and I enjoyed it a little more than I did on first viewing. The karaoke prompts made it more of a diverting drinking game -- like the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" -- where the audience trades winks with Streep and Firth. Christine Baranski is divine, likewise Amanda Seyfried. They have pipes and pep.— carrierickey
- I am interested in seeing the sing-a-long version in Philadelphia but can't find info on it specifically. Where did you go to see that version? What theatres are showing it?— slalish
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