“Mamma Mia,” reopening today on Broadway after a ten-year absence, is much the same confection: same silly plot, same disco-era earworms by the Swedish pop group ABBA, same high-energy choreography, same outlandish costumes, and little-changed blue and white set. This is not a reimagined production; it’s the Broadway stop on a 25th anniversary North American tour, which has been on the road since 2023. (After six months in New York, the show will go on in March 2026 first to Wilmington, then Fort Myers, then Chattanooga.) The production seems indistinguishable from the original (which opened on the West End in 1999 and Broadway in 2001), except for the cast: They are a more diverse group of performers, all but five of whom are making their Broadway debuts. But they are going through the same moves as their predecessors.
The producers surely figure: Why tinker with the most successful – which is to say the longest-running — jukebox musical in Broadway history? The only question is: How much will current Broadway theatergoers be nostalgic for an old show that relied on even older nostalgia to begin with? The answer to that will be found at the box office (which in previews has been good, grossing in the top five.)
Personally, I found this “Mamma Mia” at its most exciting at the curtain call. This is when the long-retired girl group, Donna and the Dynamos, make a comeback in their neon-colored, spandex spacesuits from the 70s, backed by the ensemble’s calisthenic-like choreography, while the audience gets to sing along with ABBA’s catchiest hits, “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo.” This is not something you can do while watching the 2008 Meryl Streep-Amanda Seyfried-Pierce Brosnan et al film adaptation (currently on Netflix) without feeling foolish. The other advantage of the live show: Nobody onstage at the Winter Garden Theater sings like a moose.
All three of the Dynamos are among the standouts on Broadway.
Christine Sherrill as Donna largely carries the show, leading the trio and the entire ensemble alike, belting out her solos with deep feeling and a magnificent voice.
Portraying her two long-time friends, Jalynn Steele as Tanya makes the most out of one of the best comic numbers in the show – “Does Your Mother Know” opposite Justin Sudderth as Pepper – while Carly Sakolove as Rosie does the same with the other comic number — “Take A Chance on Me,” opposite Jim Newman as Bill Austin.
.Donna, who now runs a taverna in the (fictional) Greek island of Kalokairi, is a single mother who raised Sophie (Amy Weaver), whose impending marriage at age 20 to Sky (Grant Reynolds) drives the plot. The couple’s relationship barely registers; Sophie seems instead obsessed with having her father walk her down the aisle at the wedding. The problem is she doesn’t know who he is. She reads her mother’s old diary and invites three possibilities to the wedding: an American architect named Sam Carmichael (portrayed by Victor Wallace) , an Australian writer and adventurer named Bill Austin (Jim Newman), and a British banker named Harry Bright (Rob Marnell)
She presumably planned to figure out which one was her father based somehow on their presence, although they themselves didn’t even know she existed. I’ll confess I wondered why Sophie spent the time and effort to get these men to a remote island, when she could have just asked them to take a paternity test. But it’s pointless to scrutinize a show that has an Italian title but is set in Greece; “Mamma Mia” does not have what you could call a weight-bearing plot. It’s light on purpose, its resolution fun, feel-good and completely farfetched.
Book writer Catherine Johnson deserves credit for trying to make the mother-daughter relationship resonate, although she is more often lauded for having worked in twenty-two ABBA songs into the story in sometimes clever ways, without changing almost any of the lyrics. But the lyrics don’t always fit snugly with the narrative; and some of the melodies – all of which were already oldies when the musical debuted – aren’t really evergreens. A reimagined “Mamma Mia” could have benefitted from dropping some of the songs, and making the show shorter.
This is not to say that the “Mamma Mia” song-writing duo of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (the two B’s in ABBA) are over-the-hill, albeit 79 and 80 years old respectively. They are actually on a roll, about to see a revival of their other Broadway musical, “Chess.”
Mamma Mia
Winter Garden Theater through February 1
Running time: two and a half hours, including one intermission
Tickets: $139 – $322. Lottery and general rush: $45
Music & lyrics by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, book by Catherine Johnson
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. The production is designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Andrew Bruce & Bobby Aitken, and musical supervision, additional material & arrangements by Martin Koch.
Cast: Christine Sherrill as Donna, Amy Weaver as Sophie, Carly Sakolove as Rosie, Jalynn Steele as Tanya, Rob Marnell as Harry Bright, Jim Newman as Bill Austin, Victor Wallace as Sam Carmichael, and Grant Reynolds as Sky. The ensemble includes Lena Owens as Lisa, Justin Sudderth as Pepper, Ethan Van Slyke as Eddie, Haley Wright as Ali, Sarah Agrusa, Alessandra Antonelli, Caro Daye Attayek, Adia Olanethia Bell, Emily Croft, Madison Deadman, Andy Garcia, Jordan De Leon, Nico DiPrimio, Patrick Dunn, Danny Lopez-Alicea, Makoa, Erica Mansfield, Jasmine Overbaugh, Gray Phillips, Blake Price, Dorian Quinn, and Xavi Soto Burgos.
