Mamma Mia! (the musical) in Manila

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Tickets to Mamma Mia! (the musical) are perfect gifts on Mothers' Day! If you're going to watch it, I suggest that you bring your Mom with you, especially if your Mom is a baby boomer. In my case, the international tour stopped over in Manila in February, so I didn't see it with my Mom. I did see it with my aunt, though. The full-house during the afternoon show just proved that not only my Mom's generation loved ABBA's songs; the yuppies found them (and the story) appealing too.

It's a nice show to watch when bonding with Mom because at its core, the story of Mamma Mia! is about the relationship between a mother and a daughter and the daughter's search for her father. When my aunt was explaining the gist to me before we watched the show, I thought that the spotlight was on the daughter. However, as I was watching the play, I noticed that the daughter drives the story forward but the story really centers around her Mom and the three potential dads.

What sold me to the idea of watching the musical was the soundtrack. The play features some of ABBA's well-known songs that I actually grew up listening to! And here we go...

I remember how irritated my sister felt when my parents refer to her as their "Chiquitita" (we didn't know then that it's a rough Spanish translation for "little girl").

I used to learn ballroom dancing steps for Phys. Ed. class to the tune of "Dancing Queen". I just can't remember if I was learning the swing or the cha-cha. More recently, that's the song that my supervisor sang in IRRI Duets!

"Take a Chance on Me" is the most memorable song in an old ABBA cassette tape I have at home just because I like the rhythm. I used to play that cassette tape lots of times. When the Philippines had a lot of electricity interruptions, I played the tape in a Sony Walkman that my parents gave me on my eighth birthday. My brother and my sister also took turns listening.

Mamma Mia! is performed at the CCP until February 19. If you've got the chance, watch it and take a trip down memory lane through the songs. 

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