‘Mamma Mia!’ at Bucks County Playhouse: Happy show, dancing summer, crazy world

Mamma Mia!, running through Aug. 3 at the Bucks County Playhouse, has launched on the 80th anniversary, almost to the day, of the opening of the august theater (July 1, 1939). Happy show, dancing summer, crazy world.

This agreeably unhinged Mamma is the lightest on its feet, funniest one I’ve seen, and that’s saying something. Mamma Mia!s are ABBA-ing up and down the shore this summer, at the Clear Space Theatre in Rehoboth Beach (through Aug. 31), the Greater Ocean City Theatre Company (July 9-12), and the Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, N.J., (July 16-Aug. 4), and I’m sure I’m missing seven or 12.

BCP’s version is a daft union of boomer and millennial energies: It carries all care away on tsunamis of song, dance, and shtick. And even though this is one of the silliest musicals ever created — in a dementedly silly genre — this Mamma makes you care about the mother and daughter at its heart.

Michelle Dawson (veteran of scads of Mamma Mia!s, including on Broadway) persuades as Donna, the free-spirited yet ever-stressed flower-power survivor who has run a Greek taverna for 15 years. She’s throwing a destination wedding for daughter Sophie, played by Sara Masterson, whose limber voice, startling eyes, and anything-is-possible expression make you root for her. “I want to do this right,” she tells her never-wed mom. (“A white wedding!” Donna exclaims. “Can you believe it? I don’t know where she gets it from.”)

Catherine Johnson’s script gives us four threesomes, a male and a female one for each generation. As Rosie and Tanya, Donna’s old-time pals and bandmates, Danielle Lee Greaves and Terra C. MacLeod respectively are a hoot. Greaves convulses the house in her efforts to interest Bill (Peter Saide), and so does MacLeod as she holds off the advances of the much younger, astonishingly athletic, and amazingly silly Pepper, played indelibly and forever by Julius Williams.

The great stage designer Anna Louizos again amazes, making a tight stage seem generous, and making nice use of the turntable to suggest hotel rooms, bars, and discos. The real dynamos are director John Tartaglia and choreographer Shannon Lewis. Lewis gets Broadway-energy dancing out of a talented ensemble, sustaining a sweet millennial parody and gung-ho dancing right down to the lunatic (and I mean that) finale. In the first iteration of “Mamma Mia,” faces come out of doors and around corners, tick-tocking, “my-my,” better than the movie. And no words could do justice to the wondrous, thunderous fun of a male chorus line with scuba flippers in “Lay All Your Love on Me.”

Lewis and Tartaglia take advantage of all opportunities for characterization, humor, plot advancement. During “Dancing Queen,” when Dawson sings “only 17,” she clasps her breasts, nostalgic for their teen shape. “Chiquitita,” a potentially terrible song, is saved by Rosie and Tanya, who throw Donna around like a rag doll as they try to perk her up. With summery energy, this production smooths over inevitable jukebox-musical seams, making the songs fit the moment. A good example is “Knowing Me Knowing You,” in which Sam (strong-voiced Michael Hunsaker) tries to teach Sophie (his might-be daughter) that even true love may crash.

It’s summer, so it must be Mamma Mia! I don’t see how you could do it better than Bucks County is doing it. You will emerge chuckling, humming, enjoying the warmth.

Through Aug. 3 at the Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope. Tickets: $65-$80. Information: http://bcptheater.org.