At the end of the month, I have to submit a draft of an article that may end up in an edited collection on motherhood and performance. I have one that I’ll have to trim a little (they only want 8 pages now, which: ruh?), but because it’s on the image of mothers in musical theatre (a rare breed, actually), I just realized that I’m going to have to see one of the most successful-horrible musicals ever produced, one that I have been avoiding since it opened in 2001: Mamma Mia!
If the exclamation point wasn’t already present, I’d have to add it. ! The movie version means I can’t even use over-inflated Broadway ticket prices as an excuse.
I’m not going to be able to incorporate it into my draft, as it’s already overlong, but how did I manage to ignore it as a spot-on subject thus far? All I can guess is that I was willfully blocking it out. For very good reasons, I fear.
Has anyone seen this? What did you think? And how does it compare to the stage musical? Will I suffer, or should I just get all sugared-up and go for it?
