ABBA musical guaranteed to leave you with a smile and dreams of a beach holiday.

With the end of the year fast approaching, most Singaporeans can’t wait to get away for a well-deserved holiday. But for those who aren’t able to just yet, there’s always a feel good musical that’s there to tide you over till then.

This season, that musical happens to be ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia!, presented by BASE Entertainment Asia and featuring direction by Phyllida Lloyd and choreography by Anthony Van Laast. The hit musical takes place on a picturesque Greek island, where the young Sophie is about to get married. There’s just one problem – Sophie has never known her father, and wishes he’d be there to give her away. While her mother Donna helps her prepare, Sophie hatches a plan and invites three men who could possibly be her father to the island, where hijinks ensue as Donna and these former lovers reunite.

The aim of Mamma Mia! has always been to produce as much joy as possible from the audience, using a surefire combination of nostalgic ABBA music, recontextualised in a sunny, light-hearted setting, riveting dance numbers and a light, no stakes storyline that focuses on simple but effective emotions in every song. Right from the beginning, Mamma Mia! sets the tone right with a medley of beloved ABBA songs by the live band, and we know the party’s about to get started. Segueing into ‘I Have A Dream’, Jess Michelmore, as Sophie, shows off clear vocals and enunciation that ring throughout the theatre, sung with passion.

It doesn’t take long for the action to get going, as Sophie is joined by best friends Ali (Tanisha Butterfield) and Lisa (Freya Humberstone), and it immediately fills you with a warm, welcome feeling. Singing ‘Honey Honey’ as they pore over Donna’s old diary entries and learn of her beaus and affairs, you feel their girlish, excited energy, and we’re reminded of our own youth. Watching Sam, Bill and Harry all accept the invitation to the wedding, you feel the potential and anticipation of something life-changing about to happen.

Cut to Sara Poyzer as Donna getting her tavern ready for the party, and in almost a parallel to Sophie and her best friends, Donna is joined by the ‘dynamos’ – Rosie (Nicky Swift) and Tanya (Sarah Earnshaw). You immediately understand their decades-long friendship with how easy they are with each other, trading cheeky insults and teasing. As they break into ‘Money Money Money’, it’s all a little silly, a little over the top, and most of all – fun with its fresh choreography.

Coming back to her former lovers, we’re properly introduced to all three men, each with their own distinct personality. There’s bold, safari adventurer Bill (Phil Corbitt), travelling Englishman Harry (Neal Craig), and the rather ordinary, typical bloke Sam (Richard Standing). Returning to the island after 21 years and suddenly finding themselves back where it all began fills them with emotions, as they sing ‘Thank You For The Music’, before being joined by Sophie.

Mamma Mia! wouldn’t be what it is before its title song, and with a mass number that involves almost the entire cast, with Donna leading the ensemble, it can be described as nothing less than pure joy, where every cast member is given the opportunity to do something unique as they parade down the streets while singing those iconic lines.

Friendship and support however, always remain a key theme seen throughout the show, and as the dynamos reminisce on their past, so familiar it seems like only yesterday, as they seem to be reinvigorated with a deep desire to relive the good old days, with ‘Dancing Queen’. As they say, youth is wasted on the young, but it’s all in good fun, as Sophie’s fiancé Sky (Christopher Foley) is whisked away to his stag party with ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’.

The wildness of the stag party is smoothly brought out with a cohesive transition between scenes, before paralleling Sophie’s hen party, complete with Donna and the Dynamos picking up their old act again and singing ‘Super Trooper’ in space silver disco suits. It is the chemistry between these old friends that really carries the show, and things only get even more tense once Donna’s lovers are finally revealed with “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”, coming to a spectacular whirlwind finale to Act I as all the parties clash in “Voulez-Vous”, with complex ensemble choreography done to perfection.

Who will walk Sophie down the aisle? That’s something that continues to plague Sophie in Act II, with a terrifying nightmare sequence in “Under Attack”. The neon costumes selected for this scene are particularly impressive, popping against the dark stage. It is this segment of the musical which compresses its strongest emotions here, as each woman reflects on their love life, wishing they could go back to the start, with Donna finding that rather than resenting what she’s lost, there’s a chance to make things right in ‘SOS’.

Of course even amidst the heaviness, there’s always room for more lighthearted scenes, with Sarah Earnshaw bringing sexy energy to ‘Does Your Mother Know’, when flirting back with Jaden Oshenye’s Pepper. Oshenye himself always uplifts the energy to new heights each time he comes onstage, and certainly a standout among the ensemble.

Reaching its dramatic climax, Sophie finds herself in a predicament as Sky accuses her of having the wedding just to find out who her father is, and the young lovers remain in a tiff, the wedding hanging in the air. For all the unusual methods Sophie goes through, she is still ultimately rewarded with bonding with her family, whether it’s comfort from Sam in ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’, or Donna realising her daughter’s all grown up in ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’.

In a musical like Mamma Mia!, all’s well that ends well, as Donna and Sam work out their relationship at long last, and rather than any of the men giving Sophie away, it is Donna, toiling hard as a single mother all these years, who should have the honour of doing it instead. Singing ‘The Winner Takes It All’, Sara Pyzer brings all the emotion and hits all the right notes. Love is in the air, and Nicky Swift, as Rosie, gets into the romantic mood as well, asking Bill to ‘Take A Chance On Me’, which, while unexpected, comes across as genuine and sweet.

With a beautiful wedding set up, nothing goes to waste in spite of an unexpected change in plans, with a beautiful bride and groom. Mamma Mia! reaches its end with so much more joy than when it first began, with a lot more sureness from all its characters each embarking on new phases of their relationships, perhaps akin to an adventure. As Sophie bids goodbye to Donna in a final embrace, she sails off into the distance, reprising ‘I Have A Dream’ to bring the story full circle, to keep dreaming and living that dream.

But to end on such a slow note would be a disservice to the musical, as Donna and the Dynamos reunite in full costume for one last medley, with ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’ and the impossibly infectious ‘Waterloo’, by which time the crowd can no longer resist the siren call of ABBA, and are up on their feet and dancing the night away.

There is absolutely no denying the sheer power of this eternally delightful Swedish pop supergroup, and what Mamma Mia! proves time and time again each time it’s staged is that it’s a musical that manages to somehow make all these hits work in a single cohesive narrative. This is a show that will put a smile on your face, that you can’t help but want to sing along to, in all its silly joy with genuine emotions burbling under each high energy number, as you feel the island fantasy, and want to believe in the power of love against the sun, sand and sea.

Photo Credit: Brinkhof-Moegenburg

Mamma Mia! plays from 19th October to 5th November 2023 at the Sands Theatre at Marina Bay Sands. Tickets available here