I was worried. The critcs all hate it. Even David Edelstein gave a scathing review on CBS Sunday Morning, and he usually sees the fun in a move like this.
But I went anyway... And thank goodness I did!

I think Mom put it best... after listening to yet another critic complain about the giggling girl-trios overdoing the insane laughter and bonding, she said "these guys have obviously never lived in a girls' dorm."

First, let's get the questions out of the way....Can Pierce Brosnan sing? Not on a bet. (one star off)
Is it all over-the-top and goofy? Yes, of course. It's agiant Abba technicolor musical. But that's not a bad thing.
Is it totally a chick flick? you betcha. It's also a super-cheese-fest, and totally hilarious.
What about the move from stage to screen, which has dulled many a brilliant stage show? This actually came of very well for Mamma Mia. The move to the screen adds two wonderful things that couldn't be done in the theatrical venues -- the incredibly fairy-tale scenery of Greece in the background, and the close-ups. All those facial expressions, which you just can't see from the second balcony in the local concert hall, add greatly to the humor, sentiment, and character development of the script.

The best way I can sum up the movie is that the actors up on screen are obviously having a grand old time and are losing themselves in the pleasure and goofiness of their roles, and I just wanted to jump right in and join them.

Some particular highlights:
--The girl who plays Sophie, the daughter is incredible.
--Meryl Streep just throws herself completely into the role of Donna. Who knew she could be so great at physical comedy?
--The "Dancing Queen" scene. It alone would make the movie totally worth the admission price. Almost every female in the sold-out audience (certainly including me) were laughing, clapping, and all but jumping out of their seats to join in.

As the final credits began to roll, our theater burst out into applause. That's a pretty rare thing these days...

Based on the popular 1988 film with Steve Martin and Michael Caine, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS centers on two con men living on the French Riviera.
We saw Sunday afternoon, at the Denver Center for Performing Arts.

Our view of act 1may have been colored because we were 5 minutes from the ballpark, without tickets to the final world series game between our local Rockies and my Pompa's beloved RedSox. Maybe too because I drank too much soda at lunch, but our seats were dead center in the front row of the balcony, so I couldn't leave in the middle of the show without pissing off at leasy 40-50 people (2 dozen alone just stepping on their feet to get out).... But by the intermission (after my succesful run for the ladies room) , Clayton and I looked at each other with that "is this all?" look. There wer some great voices, and the occasional funny line, but nothing particularly spectacular.

Like many shows these days, though, the story really came together and things improved greatly in the second act. Even knowing what was coming, thanks to the movie, we still laughed our heads off as the con unfolded. Even better were some of the added subplots. I won't go into detail as that would spoil some of the fun.
I'm only giving it a 3 -- one star off for the slow first act, and one off because while the songs were well written, witty, and fit nicely in the show, I just didn't come away humming.
But I still definitely recommend it as a fun show - probably even more so if you've never seen the movie. Just don't be deceived if act 1 runs a little slow (especially if you've seen the movie half a dozen times.)

Start:	Oct 28, '07 2:00p
Location:	Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Balcony, front row center.

We caught this at the Pikes Peak Center in Colorado Springs Friday night.

Facts: This is one of those broadway musicals where a story was created around the existing music of a popular musician/group... in this case, ABBA.
The basic plot is that a youg woman is about to get married. Raised my a single mom, she doesn' know who her father is. She finds her mother's diary from 1979 (the year she would have been conceived), and figures out it could be one of three possible men, so she secretly invites them all to her wedding, in hopes that her real father will end up walking her down the aisle...
So naturally, chaos ensues.

One star off because there were several points where the orchestra drowned out the singing... but otherwise, I realy enjoyed the show.
Rather than the typical broadway show playbill format of listing the songs in order, with the characters who sing them, this show simply listed all songs in alphabetically, so we never quite knew what was coming next.
Some of the old Abba songs (Dancing Queen) came in just where you expected, and others (Take a Chance on Me) popped in at more surprising times, giving me giggle fits as I recognized the opening words.... All in all a very effective trick... especialli since the denoument of the story itself was fairly predictable (but in that good old cheesy broadway way - which is not a bad thing!)

And most importantly, I left singing.

The show is well worth the time and money for anyone who likes broadway-style shows, or who ever willingly listened to Abba (even if you won't admit it).