Ever since Mamma Mia! opened Oct. 18, 2001, at New York City’s Winter Garden Theatre and closed Sept. 12, 2015, after 5,758 performances, elbowing its way into international theater annals, it’s likely the property has been playing somewhere every single day.
What on earth accounts for that? Easy. The already beloved songs by Swedish quartet ABBA, written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus sometimes with Stig Anderson, had been worked—most of them cleverly, a few awkwardly—into a sufficiently cute Catherine Johnson book.
Just what is the winning, winsome musical comedy setup? A 20-year-old woman, raised on a Greek island by a single mother, wants her biological father, one of three candidates, to walk her down the aisle. Without her mom’s consent, she has invited the unwitting maybe dads to the event taking place the day after the frantic action begins.
By now audiences of all ages, shapes, and sizes have been genuinely entertained by this entirely unobjectionable folderol, and who’s to say they shouldn’t have been? Only fogies and perhaps melody aficionados who’ve inexplicably resisted ABBA ingenuity over the past four or five decades.
Okay, you millions (billions?) of ABBA–Mamma Mia! devotees, your fave-rave musical gift is back on Broadway in a first local revival at, appropriately, the Winter Garden. It would be a pleasure to say it’s every bit as good as it ever was. Unfortunately, that cannot be reported. Rather, this new production can be described in two words: severely cheapened.
All but forgotten Variety editor Abel Green (1900–1973) is the man associated with a wise showbiz admonition that goes something like “Never futz with a hit.” Perhaps the group billed as the “North American Production Team” have never heard Green’s advice, or if they have, merely dismissed it as a 20th-century curmudgeon’s silliness.
Because, you see, they’ve not just tinkered with Mamma Mia!, they’ve tackled it, seemingly suspecting that the now 25-year-old property may have lost its initial charm.
[Read Michael Sommers’ ★★★☆☆ review here.]
They may have noticed that musicals today—too many of them—have become in 2025 what might be categorized as screamusicals. They may have noticed that today’s audiences have been trained after decades of amplification to expect musicals to be loud, first and foremost, to be blasted through speakers. They may have noticed that singers who once needed no amplification (yoo-hoo, Ethel Merman!) now are assumed to need it, badly, and get it. Do they get it!
That this results in lyrics often obscured doesn’t faze current creators, just as long as theatergoers are continually jolted from their seats, doting on every exploding decibel moment. For example, in “Voulez-Vous,” from start to finish the only comprehensible lyric is “Voulez-Vous.”
How quickly does the racket commence? The very second the orchestra, under conductor Will Van Dyke, begins playing—braying, slaying. Worse, the second-act overture gives the impression it’s introing a World War III drama.
Then there’s the treatment rendered the ABBA songs, arrangements on their recordings forever lush, pristine, irresistible. It may be that these charts are all the originals, though musical advisor Martin Koch is listed as providing additional material and arrangements.
Nevertheless, all but two or three of the inclusions, even if they begin softly, don’t climb in volume and vocal gymnastics before the final notes. Shame on the unremitting adjusters. And, say, what do Andersson and Ulvaeus think, notwithstanding the royalties surging in from the revisal?
The area where this Mamma Mia! is far from deficient is in the cast. While there’s not a single Broadway marquee name among them, not a one isn’t giving an outstanding performance, not a one undeserving of marquee status. They prominently include Christine Sherrill as single mom Donna Sheridan; Amy Weaver as bride-to-be Sophie Sheridan; Jalynn Steele and Carly Sakolove as Donna BFFs Tanya and Rosie; and Rob Marnell, Jim Newman, and Victor Wallace as possible fathers Harry Bright, Bill Austin, and Sam Carmichael.
There are two instances, sorry to say, where players are held back from rising to potentially higher performing heights, both occasions when the arrangements get in the way: Sherrill delivering “The Winner Takes It All” and Wallace on “Knowing Me, Knowing You.”
The problem? The arrangements feature offstage backup enhancement, whereas no one associated with the production apparently understands that in the script’s circumstances these songs aren’t intended to be absorbed as Top 40 chart hopefuls—unlike, for instance, “Dancing Queen,” which is surely the revival’s highlight number.
Onstage, “The Winner Takes It All” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You” are performed as character songs. Donna and Sam, respectively, are painfully revealing private thoughts and should be allowed unsweetened solos to maximize their acting. As a result, they do well but not transcendently.
Note that Phyllida Lloyd is credited as director, as she was for the premiere bow, the same for choreographer Anthony Van Laast. But is their billing strictly contractual? Martha Banta, listed as associate director, and Janet Rothermel, listed as associate choreographer, have done most of the current company work, though now the dance routines often look like aerobic exercises.
The only thing left to say about this Mamma Mia! is: Mamma mia!
Mamma Mia! opened Aug.14, 2025, at the Winter Garden Theatre and runs through Feb. 1, 2026. Tickets and information: mammamiabway.com
