For those keeping score at home, the marketers of the new Mamma Mia! movie are doing their damnest to blot our copy books. Songs cut from the film turn up on the soundtrack CD but ones that are in the movie are missing in action. (Supposedly we'll get sucker-punched with a really comprehensive movie soundtrack, on two CDs, somewhere down the road.)
As best can be determined — for those of you who care about such things (Shouldn't everyone?) — "Chiquitita" is still in, as is "Waterloo," but "The Name of the Game" (cut after test screenings) "Under Attack," "One of Us" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You" are out, the latter supplanted by 1981's "When All is Said and Done." No definitive word on "I Do, I Do … " (though I've read that it's sort of half-in, half-out.) A few other songs have been moved around and — in some cases — heavily reworked. And Amanda Seyfried is a colossal improvement on the adenoidal Sophie on the original cast album.
All of which means that, at a net loss of three songs, the stage version at Mandalay Bay remains the "value added" proposition, especially with the $30/ticket discount that ran in Las Vegas City Life last week. I've discovered that my appetite for Spamalot maxed out at two performances (and John O'Hurley, sadly, is no Randal Keith, the best King Arthur since Graham Chapman) and after four go-rounds with Phantom: The Vegas Spectacular, I've had enough to last me awhile. But, just as Wayne Brady's reinvention of the classic Vegas lounge show dwarfs his competition, Mamma Mia! is lightning in a Mandalay Bay bottle and should be enjoyed every chance you get.
Early reviews for the movie in the U.K. and Australia are raves almost across the board. This is my favorite, not least for its description of Pierce Brosnan's singing voice. (Beware: Thar be spoilers.)
Now if only Universal would stop marketing it as though scared stiff that people might guess that A) it's a musical and B) it features the music of ABBA. Thirty million people having seen the stage version, the word's probably gotten around already, y'know? If the movie version succeeds in the U.S. it will be a triumph of product over (pretty craptacular) marketing.
