It stands to reason that a musical featuring ABBA songs won’t get much respect. After all, ABBA didn’t get much respect even back when they were popular. Still, they were popular for a good reason. Sure, they wore funny costumes and memorized the lyrics phonetically, but the songs were a lot of fun: bouncy, energetic and life-affirming.

So I went into Mamma Mia! hoping for some good mindless fun, and I got it. For the first few minutes, listening to the inane dialog, I was worried. Then Meryl Streep started belting out “Money, Money, Money” and everything fell into place. There’s some serious talent here, not to mention pretty scenery.

I’m not going to try to describe the plot. It’s some sort of silliness about a wedding on a Greek island, obviously strung together for the sole purpose of fitting in as many ABBA song and dance numbers as possible. It doesn’t mean anything. The only thing to do is sit back and enjoy it.