AltWeeklies Wire
Middle-Aged ABBA Musical Not Quite as Cringetastic as Those Words Implynew
1994's Muriel's Wedding used the title character’s obsession with the '70s Swedish quartet's glittery lady-music to underscore Muriel's disconnected idealization of romance, glamour and marriage-centered happiness, an obsession that leaves her struggling to construct a true sense of self. Mamma Mia!, on the other hand, features ABBA as a way to ... sing along to ABBA songs. And dance.
Weekly Alibi |
Erin Adair-Hodges |
07-29-2008 |
Reviews
Why Aren't There More Musical TV Shows?new
Like RENT or Carousel or Pippin or Moulin Rouge or whatever, but in televised episodic form.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Caralyn Green |
07-28-2008 |
TV
No Thank You for the Musicnew
Pierce Brosnan's crooning in Mamma Mia! will have you desperately sending out an S.O.S.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
07-24-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia!
'Mamma Mia!' Cast Sings Much Evilnew
Like those freakish deep-sea creatures living happily in a toxic soup of methane brine miles beneath the water's surface, the cast of Mamma Mia! is unaware they're living in an equally noxious ABBA-rich environment.
Baltimore City Paper |
Violet Glaze |
07-22-2008 |
Reviews
'Mamma Mia!': For the Dancing Queen Withinnew
This film adaptation of the Broadway adaptation of a catalog of Swedish disco hits retains all the fun but remains astonishingly silly.
Austin Chronicle |
Kimberley Jones |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia!
'Mamma Mia!' Big-Screen Musical Drains the Fun Out of ABBAnew
For all its halfhearted stabs at catering to the transatlantic youth market (with a little gift tucked in for the stage show’'s voluminous gay following), Mamma Mia! is a (Shirley) valentine to 50-something we're-not-done-yet broads.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
ABBA's Pop Goes Head-to-head with the Darker Rock of 'Lou Reed's Berlin'new
Both Mamma Mia! and Lou Reed's Berlin reveal what impact pop music has on the aesthetics and sensibilities of filmmakers, pointing to a bigger issue: What meanings do people take from pop music?
New York Press |
Armond White |
07-17-2008 |
Reviews
A Big Fat Greek Wedding Features the Songs of ABBAnew
Whatever else you think of ABBA, you have to respect great cross-programming. Mamma Mia! opens just as the world's boyfriends and husbands are going off to see their secret boyfriend Batman.
Metro Silicon Valley |
Richard von Busack |
07-17-2008 |
Reviews
From Greece With Abba and Streep
Once it gets past its high-pitched squeals of estrogen-fueled excitement in the opening sequences, director Phyllida Lloyd's screen adaptation of the popular Broadway play based on Abba songs, settles into a harmonically pleasing musical comedy set amid the extraordinary beauty of the Greek isle of Skopelos.
