Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! is a musical built around the songs of ABBA, staged in Washington at The National Theatre. It turns the Swedish group's catalogue into a story set on a Greek island.

ABBA was formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and the group's songs, written mainly by Andersson and Ulvaeus, became some of the best-selling pop recordings of the 1970s. Mamma Mia! takes that catalogue as its score. The book by Catherine Johnson follows Sophie, a young woman preparing to marry on a Greek island, who invites three men who might be her father without her mother's knowledge.

The score draws on hits such as "Dancing Queen," "Money, Money, Money" and the title song, woven into the plot rather than presented as a concert sequence. The show opened in London's Prince Edward Theatre in 1999 and has been staged in many countries since. Its appeal rests on the familiar ABBA songs, which are sung in character throughout.

The National Theatre is a Washington venue for concerts and shows, and this production is a musical theater piece. It suits audiences who know the ABBA catalogue and those who want a story-driven musical with a pop score.