Theater review: 'Mamma Mia!'

The easy answer, for Sophie, who wants to know the identity of her father, is a paternity test. But if she had any sense of logic, there wouldn't be a story and certainly not an excuse to bring more than 20 ABBA songs to the stage.

A movie version of "Mamma Mia!," a musical based on ABBA songs, is due next month, but there's always something wonderful about seeing a show live, the way it was conceived. Sure to please fans, "Mamma Mia!" is at the National Theatre through July 13.

In "Mamma Mia!" Sophie, a young bride-to-be invites three men who might be her father to her wedding, without telling her mother. The mother, Donna, is a former disco queen who slept with three men about 20 years ago, qualifying all of them -- an Australian travel writer, a British banker and an American architect -- for fatherhood. The events of the musical takes place in the 24 hours leading up to the wedding, on the Greek island where Donna runs an inn.

Everything in "Mamma Mia!" seems to come in threes. Three older women (Donna and her two friends). Three older men (the possible fathers). Three younger women (Sophie and two friends). Three younger men (groom-to-be Sky and two… friends or hotel workers, it's not terribly clear). If you can't see the general direction of where this is all headed… well, it's predictable but not that obvious.

Rose Sezniak, who plays Sophie, puts every drop of humor and emotion that she can into her role. Even singing the songs, which were originally written for non-musical theater purposes, she's still the uncertain bride-to-be. The entire cast is fantastic -- watch for a jaw-dropping dance solo from supporting Anthony Michael Kaokept, whose Pepper character is trying to woo an older woman in one of the show's unnecessary subplots.

Much of the plot -- the former disco singers, the unrequited romance, the unnecessary subplots -- seem to exist only to shoehorn in as many classic ABBA songs as possible. The jokes aren't terribly funny either.

"Tell me," the British banker asks Donna's friend, convinced he's Sophie's dad. "What would the father of the bride do?"

"Well, he'd usually pay," she retorts.

Still, it's kind of an amusing story, if ABBA songs didn't interrupt it every few minutes.

But ABBA fans won't care. "Mamma Mia!" is just as much about the music (if not more so) than carving a story around an amusing, if improbable narrative.

Besides, take away the disco beats and there's not that much difference between ABBA and show tunes.

Musical theater fans will enjoy the production, the costumes (especially for "Super Trouper"), the dancing and the catchy numbers (which, truth be told, seem to run together toward the end). For those folks who like neither ABBA nor theater… well, you're probably not seeing it anyway, which is for the best.

Staff writer Josh Eiserike is not nor has ever been a Dancing Queen. He can be reached at 703-878-8072.