Mamma Mia The Movie (2008) was one of the top international box-office hits of its year and the fastest selling DVD in British history. Responses were passionate but polarized: while legions of fans participated in celebratory sing-along screenings, critics dismissed it as a 'Super Pooper'. The critical split often ran along the fault line of gender, with male critics initially unimpressed by the uninhibited, tongue in cheek frivolity of this rare film written, produced and directed by women.

This welcome first book on a twenty-first century cultural phenomenon explores these...