The smash hit musical "Mamma Mia!," featuring ABBA's greatest hits, arrives in China to show audiences that theater can be fun.

Are closet-like karaoke rooms holding you back? Are the dim lights obscuring your star? Are rattling woofers muffling your inner song? If the answer’s yes, watch for your chance at the big time when “Mamma Mia!” comes sashaying down Shanghai and Beijing theater aisles this July and August.

Acclaimed for not only getting audiences up-and-dancing in the aisles, but actually making them part of the act, the rocking London musical, based on the music of Swedish mega-group ABBA, will be a departure for Chinese theatergoers now accustomed to being hushed into appreciating Andrew Lloyd Weber.

If Hunan Television’s Super Girl-mania is any indication, China is a nation of stars just waiting to be born. Their inner wish to “let it all hang out” will have its chance when “Mamma Mia!” crescendos into 30 minutes of the audience boogie-wooging with the performers. By summer’s end, “Dancing Queen” may just usurp the #1 English-song throne, flushing “Yesterday Once More” into nevermore.

But China’s hardcore theater lovers are betting on even more. Whereas musicals like "Cats" require audiences to strictly observe, and "Les Miserables" demands some grasp of Western history or literature, "Mamma Mia!" is seen as the first musical that could really bridge the cultural gap. If it can succeed in unlocking Chinese audience's inner-booty, it could be the golden goose China’s nascent theater industry needs.

“Most Chinese think musical theater is something very serious, that only the very learned can understand,” says Yao Shuo of Global Talent Enterprise, one of the companies responsible for bringing “Mamma Mia!” to China. “We want to show them that it can be fun, something everyone can enjoy.” Yao has about 30 million reasons to be confident: that’s the number of people, all around the world, enjoying the now global smash hit. Born in London’s West End in 1999, the feel-good musical “Mamma Mia!” is now running 11 productions worldwide, more than any other musical, and generating US$8 million a week, proving that ABBA’s pop-disco-kitsch sound can make even the most cynical theatergoer get up, dance and sing along (come on, we know you know the words).

It’s taken creator Judy Craymer more than a simple pelvic thrust to get this show on the road though. Well-steeped in the theater world, her unabiding love for Sweden’s mega group ABBA became an obsession to bring their ethereal harmonies to the stage. Yet the weak storyline of her initial collaboration with ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, "CHESS," had Broadway’s unforgiving critics clamoring for the check.

Undeterred, she tapped playwright Catherine Johnson to mine the inner story of ABBA’s songs, and director Phyllida Lloyd to create a production that could bowl audiences out of their seats. The result is a cross-generational, mother-daughter tale that unfolds as the daughter finds herself on a quest to find her real father on the eve of her wedding night, bringing three men from her mother's past back to the Greek island they visited 20 years ago. The frenetic wedding day joy is brought to life in this get-up-and-dance-and-sing-your-guts-out spectacle, featuring the best of ABBA from “Dancing Queen” to “Voulez-Vous.”

When Chinese performer Jiao Gang first encountered “Mamma Mia!” in Tokyo, he was clobbered by its infectious grooves. From 2003-04, he performed in over 300 Tokyo showings. “The impact in Japan was huge,” he says. “Contact between players and audience is very close and Chinese theater-goers will really warm to this. Chinese audiences love spectacle.”

Could this “Crazy Theater” approach be the Holy Grail for helping Chinese audiences feel the magic of the stage? “We think it could be a real opening,” says Yao. “It’s the first time for us to schedule so many shows in Beijing, but we’re convinced word will spread fast. This should enable more musicals to enter China.”

Tackling themes particularly resonant in China today, like the search for parents, the generation gap and the search for identity, and defusing them with genial warmth, it could open up enough hearts to have Chinese audiences calling for encores. “Exposure to good theater will help to create a healthy market,” says Jiao. “This, in turn, will also help create an environment where local productions can also prosper and grow.” "Mamma Mia!" may just yet uncover a generation of uncrowned dancing queens.

Undeterred, she tapped playwright Catherine Johnson to mine the inner story of ABBA’s songs, and director Phyllida Lloyd to create a production that could bowl audiences out of their seats. The result is a cross-generational, mother-daughter tale that unfolds as the daughter finds herself on a quest to find her real father on the eve of her wedding night, bringing three men from her mother's past back to the Greek island they visited 20 years ago. The frenetic wedding day joy is brought to life in this get-up-and-dance-and-sing-your-guts-out spectacle, featuring the best of ABBA from “Dancing Queen” to “Voulez-Vous.”

When Chinese performer Jiao Gang first encountered “Mamma Mia!” in Tokyo, he was clobbered by its infectious grooves. From 2003-04, he performed in over 300 Tokyo showings. “The impact in Japan was huge,” he says. “Contact between players and audience is very close and Chinese theater-goers will really warm to this. Chinese audiences love spectacle.”

Could this “Crazy Theater” approach be the Holy Grail for helping Chinese audiences feel the magic of the stage? “We think it could be a real opening,” says Yao. “It’s the first time for us to schedule so many shows in Beijing, but we’re convinced word will spread fast. This should enable more musicals to enter China.”

Tackling themes particularly resonant in China today, like the search for parents, the generation gap and the search for identity, and defusing them with genial warmth, it could open up enough hearts to have Chinese audiences calling for encores. “Exposure to good theater will help to create a healthy market,” says Jiao. “This, in turn, will also help create an environment where local productions can also prosper and grow.” "Mamma Mia!" may just yet uncover a generation of uncrowned dancing queens.

The Details

"Mamma Mia!" will be at the Shanghai Grand Theater from July 5 - Aug. 2, ticket prices range from ¥200-2,000. Catch "Mamma Mia!" at Beijing's Poly Theater Aug. 7-19, ticket prices range from ¥180-2,008. Buy tickets at www.piao.com.cn or check www.mamma-mia.com.