The rousing play prompted dancing, singing, laughing and cheering from the audience, which made Friday night at the East Lansing venue feel like one big party. The ’70s and ’80s greatest hits of ABBA lingered in my head and kept me singing long after I left the theater.

“MAMMA MIA!” tells the story of 20-year-old Sophie Sheridan whose dream is to have her father walk her down the aisle. But due to her mother’s wild and rebellious past, she doesn’t know who her father is.

Sophie reads her mother’s diary in the prologue set three months before the wedding. She finds three possible candidates — all of whom she invites to her wedding.

Playing the role of Sophie, actress Chelsea Williams made the hopeful bride-to-be hard not to love. Dancing and flopping around in a wetsuit and flippers, and a wedding gown during an amusing dream sequence, Sophie’s fiance Sky, played by Chris Stevens, was hilarious, and together with Williams, they created a charming chemistry that was easy to watch.

While dodging past flings, reliving her glory days and planning a wedding, Georgia Kate Haege delivered an entertaining performance as Sophie’s mother Donna, but it was her goofy friends Tanya and Rosie who stole the show.

Playing two congenial and comical middle-aged women, Gabrielle Mirabella as Tanya and Carly Sakolove as Rosie, kept the audience’s attention with their silly dancing, singing and witty jokes that just about any group of female friends can relate to.

Just when you think the play was over, the bow sequence at the end brought everyone to their feet. Audience members knew that it was more than just a Broadway musical: it was a celebration.