Name of the Game? 'Mamma Mia!'

Sara Braslow

Well ... yes it is. It's also your mother's and, quite possibly, your daughter's.

And son's.

Indeed, "Mamma Mia!" may be the mother of all musicals for those who -- knowing me, knowing you -- could use a jolt of a real summer breeze through their sweatsuits, sopping wet with worries over winters of discontent and the fall guys of politics.

This is no eco-ecstasy of an eruption; merely a way for fans of the unlikely spangled stars from Sweden to say thank you for the music.

And then some.

The musical, still scratching after a seven-year itch of a run on Broadway, is money, money, money for producers and the aging Abba originals, whose disco fever has oldsters and youngsters today still slipping their discs to the tunes of such standards as "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "Name of the Game" and "Take a Chance on Me."

What kind of chance? "Mamma Mia!" is mother's day all year round, hearts and flowers for the forever funky set.

And it's getting its chance to champion its cause on two fronts in Philadelphia this week: The Broadway musical has arrived at the Academy of Music, digging in its stylish stiletto heels through July 27. The movie, featuring a cast steeped in talent -- and Meryl Streep -- opens Friday, July 18.

And who better to welcome them both to the area than the show's ... dancing queen?

Dancing captain!

Watch your step: That's Sara Braslow's role, which she has tapped out for the past 21/2 years on tour and is again taking on on stage at the Academy.

The role is the cherry on top of her career so far for the Cherry Hill terpsichorean talent who's thankful to her Jewish family for "showing me how high to dream."

The stage is a raised platform, after all, and the perfect playground for a well-grounded Jewish gypsy -- in the theatrical sense -- who has traveled the nation dancing her lithe legs silly.

Dance captain is a major role for a production such as this, in which "Mamma Mia!" mambos between pop rock and rockier.

"I cover seven women," says the protective performer of her own positions -- stepping in when others have to step out because of illness or injury as she also performs as part of the engaging ensemble.

But better yet, she better be on her toes as her dancers' soul mate: "I've taught 67 people in those 21/2 years," she says of covering their assets and steps on stage, showing new cast members which way to turn.

The show itself is a turn-on: "Everyone knows the popular songs; it covers all generations."

And they're all represented on stage/ on screen in a story line that curves and covers the music: A middle-aged unmarried mother, joined by her two friends from the days they sang as a supreme trio called Donna and the Dynamos, dons the role of wedding host, throwing her nubile if naif daughter a wedding and a march down the aisle on the Greek isle, where Mamma makes good as a taverna owner.

The fact that her engaging daughter has invited Donna's three former suitors -- each a suitable candidate for the title of Pop in a dating game of DNA to determine who wound up Mom when her biological clock was ticking -- pops her champagne bubbles and causes complications that coincidentally connect with Abba's lively lyrics and score.

It's all a way of shoehorning the show's previously sung songs into a book built for the occasion, and groups and singles are booking it night after night.

While the choreography is peppy and productive, there's a reason fans rise and cheer at show's end, on their feet not to fete the dancers, but to swing and sing and say thank you for the music.

"It's definitely the music," muses the dancer.

She Really Could Do That!
What better show to step out in than this one, concedes the student of dance who once took notes while watching her first Broadway bashert of a show, "A Chorus Line."

The line that sang out to Sara most that night? "I could do that!" she concluded, and rightfully so.

"I've always been so determined; I won't let anyone say otherwise. I worked so hard to get a job as dance captain."

After all, this is no mere froufrou find, acknowledges the former Fruma Sarah of her Cherry Hill East High production of "Fiddler on the Roof."

As tradition has it, this Sara had a different dream than the one involving the late butcher's wife; she knew she could move mountains at age 10, which is when she first "visited Israel, for my brother's Bar Mitzvah at Masada."

War didn't break out; Sara did -- in dance: "I performed for everyone there in the group."

Now that she does it on stage in one of the most mega-successful musicals of all time, this dancing daughter of Elaine and Alan Braslow brazenly broadcasts her love for the show wherever she goes. And for the University of Arizona grad with bio credits all across the country, that's just about anywhere.

But what about her own family; how do they feel about Sara wrapped in a schedule that can be exhausting albeit exhilarating.

Oh, says the delightful dancer and super trouper, who describes her life and livelihood as "lucky" -- you mean "my mother" ... her own Mamma mia?

She laughs of the reaction more Yiddishe Mamma than Swedish. "My Mom would say, after 21/2 years on the road: 'It's time to come home.' "