Play review

IN REVIEW- "Mamma Mia" star Susie McMonagle performs as Donna. The play recently completed a weeklong run at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks. "Mamma Mia!" Theatre League's spring entry in its annual lineup of Broadway musicals, doesn't pretend to be anything but what it is: a bright and fun musical with plenty of tuneful songs and lighthearted entertainment. The show, which recently completed a weeklong run at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, incorporates a story line built around the bubbly '70s Top 40 hits by the Swedish supergroup, Abba.

"Mamma Mia!" was the first in what some theater critics call an "epidemic" of musicals based on the existing repertoire of a group or songwriting team. Dubbed "pop-sicals," these shows hearken back to a time when a Rodgers and Hart or Cole Porter musical focused on carefree, escapist stories, with songs being their main focus. The difference is that the audience of a pop-sical is already familiar with the songs, making shows like "Mamma Mia!" just one long music video.

For the last quarter-century, Broadway has been struggling to find itself. Since the heady days of its so-called "golden era" in the 1950s, trends in musical theater have included the bombastic spectacles of Andrew Lloyd Webber, a procession of revivals, and, most recently, shows built around a catalog of songs. In this last category, "Mamma Mia!" can be considered influential, although certainly far from the first to use this idea.

The show's plot deals with a bride-to-be inviting three men to her Greek island wedding; she is certain that one of them is her real father, and most of the show deals with her trying to figure out this conundrum. There's no real suspense here. All of the three men are likable, as is everyone in the show, as a matter of fact. This is the main problem with "Mamma Mia!" There's no antagonist, and thus, no conflict. The show is basically one big party.

What has made "Mamma Mia!" one of the biggest success stories in recent years is the music. Abba's songs are so tuneful, so catchy and effervescent, it's hard not to like them. The strength of the show is that it doesn't take the songs- or the plot- seriously. If the characters need to make a left turn to connect to the next song, they do it. Songs appear when they do for reasons so ingeniously dumb, they work.

The song that is the veritable theme of the show, "I Have a Dream," is made to sound like a Greek folk song, complete with bouzouki accompaniment. As far as the other songs go, it becomes a game to try to figure out which song will be popping into the plot next, whether it's "Take a Chance on Me," "The Name of the Game" or the disco anthem, "Dancing Queen." Those that didn't fit at all (for example, "Waterloo") ended up as singalong curtain call encores.

As Sophie Sheridan, the prospective bride, understudy Whitney Claire Kaufman does an excellent job filling in for the absent lead. Spitfire Susie McMonagle plays her independent, yet vulnerable mom, Donna, who juggles her former suitors like so many spinning plates.

The three- dashing architect Sam (John Hemphill), British headbanger-turned-banker Harry (Michael Aaron Lindner) and scruffy Australian scribe Bill (Martin Kildaire)- are all willing to accept responsibility for their respective hit-and-run relationships with Donna, one of which produced Sophie 20 years before. The shenanigans during the show are reminders of knockabout classics like "Anything Goes," which also featured a cast of kooky, lovable characters.

In her past life, Donna was part of a girl trio, Donna and the Dynatones (kind of like one Lucy and two Ethels), including the zaftig Rosie (a hilarious Kittra Wynn Coomer) and man-eating Tanya (a sleek Michelle Elizabeth Dawson). The show's highlight comes when the trio reprises their old act, donning their old bellbottomed Elvis-style disco outfits and singing "Super Trouper."

Although you can't even begin to compare "Mamma Mia!" to any Sondheim musical, it's a whole lot of fun nevertheless, and one shouldn't be ashamed to say so. Sometimes a rich dessert is enough.