I have avoided every iteration of Mamma Mia! Anything possessing an exclamation mark in the title sends me in the other direction. And Pierce Brosnan singing SOS? Surely that’s a spectacle to be sidestepped at every opportunity.
My mum doesn’t agree. Every time she is left alone with the TV, one of two things will appear – Love Actually or Mamma Mia! Partly her fault, partly that of ITV2’s “schedulers”. Every time I’m visiting, the film’s relentless cheeriness chisels like a sculptor at my frontal cortex. “Just give it a chance, Matt – it’ll make you smile!”
But I’m putting aside my fears, both of this mega-franchise and forced fun, and attending Mamma Mia! The Party at the O2 … with my mum. I’m going to call her bluff and do it in style.
Monday night and the lights are low. Queuing next to women in sequinned catsuits, we file through into the immense courtyard of a taverna. We really could be on holiday in Greece, from the bougainvilleas climbing mottled walls to over-enthusiastic Brits waiting to get drunk.
As the lights dim and the show starts, the waiters serve us fried squid while singing Thank You for the Music – a balancing act I never thought I’d see.
Needless to say, the songs are excellent, supported by sterling performances by a multi-talented cast. This shares neither the storyline nor the characters of the stage show – it follows a couple who met during the filming of the first Mamma Mia! movie and have opened a taverna. But the wafer-thin plot hardly matters. What stands up is the music, framed in striking style. You crane your neck to take in every detail – from pyrotechnics to circus acts, panto-esque audience engagement to huge operatic solos.
Four hours slip by quickly and it builds to a climax that sees chairs and tables eschewed, supposedly as a sacrifice to the gods, and the audience surrendering to an Abba disco medley, ouzo supercharging their sequinned jiving.
Then suddenly out into the night – not a balmy Greek one, but a stuffy Jubilee line one. I drop my mum – still swept up in her enjoyment – off at the station, finally facing her Waterloo (East).
And for the sceptics out there? Just give it a chance – it’ll make you smile.
At the O2, London, until 16 February.
