My, my, how can we resist you?\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first time since 2013, the mega \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d marquee returned to the Winter Garden Theatre on 50th Street, where it lit up the block for 12 years.<\/p>\n
Giddy friends of mine snapped photos of the famous poster of a beaming girl in a white dress like they\u2019d just spotted Brad Pitt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d marquee returned to the Winter Garden Theatre after 12 years away. N.Y.Post\/Chad Rachman<\/p>\n
They\u2019re that excited for its Aug. 2 bow.<\/p>\n
Just one look and they can hear a bell ring! One more look and they forget everything!<\/p>\n
You see, a simple glimpse of \u201cMamma Mia!,\u201d the hit musical comedy featuring the songs of ABBA, could make even a construction worker break out into \u201cDancing Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n
And its reputation as an escape for all is a vital part of its Broadway history.<\/p>\n
Twenty-four years ago, the then-new show lifted up New York City when it was at its lowest. \u201cMamma Mia!,\u201d of all things, debuted less than a month after the 9\/11 attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cMamma Mia!\u201d began performances on Broadway less than one month after the attacks of September 11. Getty Images<\/p>\n
David Grindrod, the musical\u2019s British casting director who supervised the Broadway production with Tara Rubin, remembers that awful day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cast were in the midst of rehearsals, and going, \u2018Oh my God. What\u2019s happening?\u2019,\u201d he told me.
\u201cWe were all in a state of shock.\u201d<\/p>\n
They paused for a few days. But Mayor Rudy Giuliani implored producer Judy Craymer to forge on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a moment that I\u2019m sure we said, \u2018Do we cancel?\u2019,\u201d Grindrod said. \u201cBut in the end, that was only very short-lived. And everybody \u2014 the cast, the crew, everybody \u2014 just went, \u2018We\u2019ve got to do this for New York and for ourselves.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a chancy move.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, nobody associates behemoth \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d with risk. But, from the very beginning, the musical really was a gamble.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the early aughts, a jukebox musical with an original plot was a new idea. Joan Marcus<\/p>\n
Back then, a jukebox show with an entirely new plot that\u2019s not a biography of a musician was a weird and untested idea.<\/p>\n
When Grindrod was hired by Craymer to cast the original staging in London in 1999, he went, \u201cWhy has nobody thought of that before?\u201d<\/p>\n
Its smart script by Catherine Johnson is about a young bride who lives on a Greek island with a spicy single mom. Wanting her unknown dad to walk her down the aisle, she invites her mother\u2019s three old flames from the 1970s to the wedding to uncover who her real pop is. Antics \u2014 and ABBA \u2014 ensue.<\/p>\n
There were other hurdles.<\/p>\n
Most musicals in London at that time, by the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, were sung-through with little to no dialogue. Actors were petrified of lines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d never been asked to actually speak in a musical audition before!,\u201d the casting director said.<\/p>\n
And stateside \u2014 it\u2019s hard to believe now, but ABBA was not hugely popular. Their only No. 1 hit in the US was \u201cDancing Queen\u201d in 1977.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Usually cranky drama critics gushed after opening night of \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d on Broadway. Getty Images<\/p>\n
None of that mattered. They took a chance on \u201cMM.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Londoners went gaga for \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d. It\u2019s still running there. And any fears that it might fall flat in America proved unfounded. The national tour was a boffo success.<\/p>\n
But then came Broadway, and 9\/11. Would a traumatized NYC flock to a show with bell-bottomed jumpsuits and \u201cSuper Trooper\u201d?\u00a0<\/p>\n
In disco-dancing droves, it turns out.<\/p>\n
The curtain went up on \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d on Oct. 5, 2001 when it played its first preview at the Winter Garden. The crowd went bonkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very, very, very, very exciting,\u201d Grindrod said. \u201cThere was so much love for us all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show returns to the Winter Garden on Aug. 2. Joan Marcus<\/p>\n
The critics laid all their love on it, too.<\/p>\n