Cast: Amanda Seyfried (Sophie), Meryl Streep (Donna), Pierce Brosnan (Sam Carmichael), Colin Firth (Harry Bright), Stellan Skarsgard (Bill Austin), Julie Walters (Rosie), Christine Baranski (Tanya), Dominic Cooper (Sky)
For complete info, see IMDb's Mamma Mia! page.
If you've seen Mamma Mia! on stage, clearly that's a better show than the movie version. However, they did a great job with Mamma Mia!. I was worried, since Colin Firth had pointed out that they never asked any of the actors if they could sing before they got their parts, but for the most part they did a good job. The weakest singer in the cast is probably Pierce Brosnan, who unfortunately sings more than any of the other guys in the show. Of course, they cover by having the ensemble and backup louder than it would be normally to compensate for the weak voice and it works pretty well for the most part.
I knew they would have to cut some songs, but I noticed that my two favorites from the show (oddly enough, not my two favorite ABBA songs) were on the CD. Unfortunately, one of them was used in the credits instead of the show, but they used the full version and it's such a great recording of it that I'll have to download just that song from Amazon. The rest, I don't need to have, since I have the original cast recording of the show.
If you like musical theatre, this is a great fun show. It's very funny and the cast is great. Sure, it's a cheesy show, but they wrote a show to go around songs that already existed. Like all jukebox musicals, the plot is thin, but it's not about the plot. The plot merely exists to bring the music to you. Anyone who liked ABBA's music should enjoy this cute movie.
Grade: B+
Labels: 2008, ABBA, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, comedy, Meryl Streep, movie, musical, Pierce Brosnan, romance
Reviewed by Kat at the 4:30 PM show | 0 screams