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| - I confess - I loved it in London, where usually staid audiences were on their feet clapping and singing along during the finale, in San Francisco, on Broadway, and even here at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas, the last place one would expect a Broadway musical to be given a full-scale production, let alone one that consistently sells out. No doubt this open-ended run will be here for a long time. The thinnest of plots - a young girl tries to determine, on the eve of her wedding, which of her mother's three one-time suitors is her father - is wrapped around the catalogue of ABBA hits that dominated international pop charts in the 1970s. Some fit into the storyline naturally, while others appear to have been forced in with a sledgehammer, illiciting giggles and groans . . . but nobody walks out unhappy. Clearly you had to have had some affection for the Swedish quartet in its heyday to enjoy this - if not, then head to the nearest casino. The cast is bright, bubbly, and talented, and by show's end, everyone in the audience is dancing at their seats or in the aisles. How can you not award five stars to a show that introduces Midwest tourists to the magic of Broadway, and a new generation to 'Dancing Queen'? Muriel Heslop would love it.
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