Between the ballyhoo of The Producers and Hairspray, a little mega-hit called Mamma Mia! opened on Broadway on Oct. 18, 2001. The New York company will celebrate their first anniversary tonight.

October has already been a month of special occasions for the show, the U.S.'s first national tour marking performance 800 on Oct. 1, the second tour marking performance 250 on Oct. 2 and the Toronto company settling on number 1,000 on Oct. 4. The London company celebrates performance 1,500 on Oct. 31.

Additionally, the first Japanese company began rehearsals Oct. 14 in Tokyo. Mamma Mia! companies are soon expected in Hamburg, Germany and, in February 2003, at a sit-down production at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Resort.

Mamma Mia! collects a couple dozen hit songs by the Swedish supergroup ABBA and shapes them around the story of a single mother and her young daughter's marriage on a Greek isle. While the daughter plans her future with the love of her life, she and her mother are haunted by three different men who may or may not be her daughter's father.

For tickets in New York, call (212) 239-6262. Mamma Mia! is on the web at http://www.mamma mia.com.