It’s rare to attend a movie these days and see 95 percent of the audience stay through the end credits just to watch six people dressed in campy garb singing ABBA tunes and trying to dance. That’s what happened at the screening of Mamma Mia! I attended.

The trailers of this film pretty much expose the slim plot. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) has grown up on an isolated Greek island with her mother Donna (Meryl Streep) and more help for her mother’s Island Inn than would work at a Trump hotel. Life for Sophie has been carefree and fun, and now she’s about to take the next step in growing up; she’s getting married.

What’s the only thing that will make Sophie happier than her imagined life with Sky (Dominic Cooper)? Having her father give her away! But that’s a real problem since Sophie doesn’t know who her father is. After finding and reading her mother’s old diary, Sophie knows it’s one of three men. Rather than admit she snooped or ask her mother point blank to own up, Sophie sends invitations to all three men, but signs her mother’s signature on them.

Finally confessing to her girlfriends what she did, the girls are all giddy when Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) show up. As soon as Mom gets wind the guys are here, she confesses not knowing which one is Sophie’s real dad.

The entire film is a musical framed around songs by ABBA, the Swedish rock group popular in the 1970s. I believe without Meryl Streep in the lead role, Mamma Mia! would have gone straight to DVD. The woman is amazing! Is there any role she can’t play?

When Donna’s best friends -- Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters -- arrive for Sophie’s wedding, all three women revert to teenage misfits. There’s singing and dancing all over the island along with comedic moments practically every 10 minutes. Most of the females do a bang up job performing, but Streep is unbelievable. She sings like a pro, and dances and performs stunts with the best of her peers. Even Seyfried sounds great here.

The men, on the other hand, are a different story. While they converse about why they’re all there and eventually go with the flow, it’s Sam who still has a thing for Donna. Although each man tries his hand at singing and dancing, it’s Brosnan who brings down the house; not because he’s good, but because he can’t sing. This makes most moviegoers laugh even more.

While tunes such as "Dancing Queen," "The Winner Takes It All," “Take a Chance on Me," "Mamma Mia!" and "Money, Money, Money" are really shorthand for spilling the plot, the scenario ends up a campy and fun movie that, surprisingly, even the men liked. Credit goes to Baranski and Walters (you won’t believe her dance on the tabletop) for a majority of the laughs.

Leaving the theater I heard several people say this movie might be the new Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’m not sure I can go that far, but Mamma Mia! was certainly more fun than I expected. And don’t even think of leaving before the entire credits roll; it’s worth the wait to see Pierce Brosnan look like a drag queen at Halloween.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated "PG-13" for some sex-related comments.)