Recently in YAG Category

Here they go again! My, my how can I resist it?

I just heard on the radio today about the impending movie musical version of MAMMA MIA! The following article came out in April, so I'm a tad behind the times:

Mamma Mia! First the musical, now a movie
Independent, The (London), Apr 20, 2006
by Louise Jury Arts Correspondent

When Abba fan Judy Craymer persuaded Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to let her turn their back catalogue into the musical Mamma Mia!, no one predicted it would become a multi-million-pound international hit.

And now the blockbuster show is set to win an even wider audience on the big screen, after it caught the imagination of the actor Tom Hanks and his production business partner Gary Goetzman. Their company, Playtone, has signed a deal with Craymer and the Abba songwriters for a film version, scheduled for release late next year.

Catherine Johnson, who was an impoverished single mother when she wrote the original script, is to produce the screenplay, which will stick closely to the stage plot, Variety magazine reported yesterday.

The show tells the story of a young woman who, on the eve of her wedding, invites three men from her mother's past, any one of whom could be the father she has never known, back to the Greek island where she has been brought up. In a riotously entertaining evening, a couple of dozen Abba hits including "Dancing Queen" and "Take a Chance on Me" propel the narrative along.

Tom Hanks! Go figure! I'm betting Playtone will do a great job ("That Thing You Do" is one of my all-time favorite movies). And what is it with impoverished single mothers from England? First J.K. Rowling and now Catherine Johnson!

I was a humongous ABBA fan in high school, but didn't fall in love with the musical when I saw it in Toronto. The cast, including Louise Pitre, was great, but perhaps the ear-splitting volume dampened my enthusiasm. Maybe I just missed hearing ABBA sing their hits. Who knows? But I’m willing to give the movie version a chance to win me over...as long as they don't cast Uma Thurman as Donna!

We need PLANE CRAZY now more than ever!

So I'm driving my kids to school in the morning, listening to non-stop holiday music (yes, already) on the radio when an ad for Addition Elle bras comes on. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but here's the exchange between the mother and the teenage daughter:

Daughter: Mom, if this were the sixties, would you be a feminist?

Mom: If by feminist you mean celebrating my curves and embracing my femininity, then yes.

Daughter: So you'd burn your bra?

Mom: Oh no! I'd never burn my Addition Elle!

Egads! What were they thinking? So this is what the women's movement has accomplished in the past 40 odd years? However you have to admire the unabashed tacky exploitation of feminism to sell product! That's what I love about advertising, and why the ad guys are such an "upstanding bunch" in PLANE CRAZY.

I'm just thankful they're not advertising on TV...The Venus Flytrap anyone?