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M I K E ’ S N O T E S
Mike Isaacson
Artistic Director & Executive Producer
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In the spring of 1999, a travel delay allowed me to catch a preview of an odd-sounding
new musical in London’s West End called
Mamma Mia!
Word was, it was a ridiculous
endeavor based on a really silly idea: a musical that used the songs of ABBA. Still, I had
an extra night to kill, so what the heck.
I sat with 2,000 Brits literally LOSING THEIR MINDS with complete joy. Well, this is
fascinating, I thought, but I’m not sure Americans would react this way. Surely all that
fabulous, amped-up, synthed ABBA pop was more Euro than Americano. And the story
was so simple—a mother, a daughter, some friends, and a wedding. Weren’t we a bit
more sophisticated? Would this be enough to capture Americans’ fleeting attention?
My next meeting with
Mamma Mia!
was its Broadway opening: October 18, 2001, just
four weeks after the horror of September 11. There I was with 2,000 still shell-shocked
New Yorkers. Who surely needed this now. But how would the rest of America react?
Then came August 6, 2002: the opening night of a three-week engagement at The
Fabulous Fox Theatre. And there were 4,000 St. Louisans, LOSING THEIR MINDS. I stood
there watching the audience hooting and hollering and laughing and waving their arms
and thought “Well, this is really something.”
You can’t produce this show without thinking about one of life’s simplest but most
elusive feelings: joy.
Mamma Mia!
inspires real joy in all of us. Its smallest moments
are its most powerful, capturing universal, emotional truths about friendship, family
and life’s grandest and silliest adventures. And after all, that’s
probably what makes us the most happy.
We’re thrilled to offer The Muny premiere of
Mamma Mia!
.
My hope is it will inspire joy on this stage for generations
to come.