By TEDDY ALLEN/Designated Writers

The entire DW Front Office went and saw Mamma Mia at Shreveport Little Theatre during its recent extended run.

And the entire DW Front Office staff remains enraptured. This is not an overstatement.

One of the staff (me) saw it four times. That’s 100 bucks well spent; one ticket was a freebie, thanks to a connection to one of the principals/principles (?) in the performance, who got two free tickets for the run. I got one; one went to our daughter. Lucky girl.

The run ended a bit over a week ago. Every performance was sold out. The initial run was sold out the day after the first show and the four added performances were sold out the day after they were added. The waiting list was eight pages.

People love this show. And if you want to go to an SLT musical, the advice is to be quick on the trigger. (“Oh, it won’t sell out.” Yes: it will.)

I was wrong about Mamma Mia. As DW wrote previously, we liked Chicago and Gypsy more. But that is only a matter of taste. And what sold this production of this carefree show to me was how much energy the cast put into it. The ensemble never let up, and if you ain’t got an ensemble, you ain’t got nuthin’.

A few things:

Can’t wait to see what next year’s musical will be.

My man John John, who can and who does fix anything that’s broken on the Louisiana Tech campus, came over to Shreveport from Ruston with his precious wife Leslie and saw his first musical. Can’t wait for another one.

“I think I’m spoiled,” he told me, “because I think I saw a good one.”

He did.

I am not a big fan of the movie at all but now wish I’d forked out the capital outlay necessary to have seen more live SLT performances. But I’m glad some other fans got my seat.

People will surprise you with how talented they are and with how much energy they are willing to put into a team effort. This sold-out run, these 20ish performances, are a testament to that.

Bravo. Wish I could go again tonight.

Stuff is going on all over the place in the art world I am sure and I need to find out what and where and when, but what I am certain of is that Who’s In Bed With The Butler? is SLT’s next offering, and It begins September 5. Break!

-30-

From our hotel room high in St. Louis, we could see fans by the thousands cruising into the downtown Scottrade Center arena for the Lady Gaga Monster Ball Tour last Saturday night.

The joint holds about 20,000. They tell me every seat was occupied for a high-dollar performance from what is currently the world’s hottest female entertainer. From the outside looking in, I can report that I’ve never seen so many women in short black dresses, painted faces and high heels.

I’ve never seen so many men in short black dresses, painted faces and high heels either.

The whole block screamed fishnet.

But Lady Gaga was not the reason for the trip. Nothing against Lady Gaga. I just didn’t want to hand over $175 for a ticket. I wouldn’t pay $175 to see Merle Haggard and the Strangers, and it’s in my contract that if Merle Haggard ever dies, I get a free week off.

For the great unwashed, I can also report that there is no disputing that Lady Gaga can sing, play the piano and entertain. Not all singing stars can sing, you know. She can. And my sources tell me she had the crowd near tears with pleas to “get along” and “love each other” and whatnot. Well said. True, cameras caught her flipping off photographers a couple of weeks ago at a New York Mets baseball game, so maybe she just wants us to get along in American League ballparks. Or maybe she didn’t want the bikini top she’d worn photographed. Or maybe – and this is probably right – maybe flashing what’s usually an obscene finger to press row was her way of saying “We’re No. 1.” But maybe not, since the Mets are six-and-a-half games out of first in the National League East.

Who cares? Even with the poor man’s Madonna in the house, that was not the reason for the trip. Instead, there was an Amtrak train to ride. A St. Louis Cardinals game to see. And a pilgrimage to make to Wrigley Field in Chicago.

I am not saying that trains are the answer to all you travel woes. But I didn’t get frisked, the coffee pot was always on, I could read while making good time, and I never had to pull over to go to the bathroom. Just sayin’…

New Busch Stadium – which Amtrak can get you to in 12 hours from its station in Marshall, Texas, for $71 if you’ll plan ahead a couple of weeks – is a joy. It is also hot. Friday and Saturday, when I watched the Dodgers, it felt like being in St. Louis in July, odd as that might sound. And I sure did enjoy my bacon hotdog, “enjoy” being the superfluous word here.

The next day we met a cabbie in Chicago who said, “I don’t want to live if I cannot drive fast.” My experience from one fare says he might get his wish, though not quite like he’d hoped. He also said he’d retired from road racing. You could have fooled me.

Although we were going so fast I couldn’t really see it, our cab passed the Chicago River and a filming sequence of “Transformers 3.” There was a smashed Buick and an explosion on the oddly named Wacker Drive. At least that’s what our cabbie, joyfully and entertainingly reckless, said. I really don’t know. Unlike our driver, I was looking at the fairly congested traffic that we were somehow morphing through.

Wrigley, as always, was a treat, both outside and in. Before the gates opened and within earshot of a fan in a Yankees cap, a bleacher bum pummeled the name of the recently deceased New York owner George Steinbrenner. Then the Cubs fan said, “Man, I’m just joking. I’m sorry about Mr. Steinbrenner. He was a good guy.” To which the Yankee fan said, “How’s your bullpen?”

The inference: like Mr. Steinbrenner, the Cubs’ pen is fairly dead too.

But Wrigley’s not. I killed three spiders in Section 129, and a man close to us had to move because of a leaky pipe overhead. All the comforts of home. The ivy was green, the joint was packed, the Dew was cheap, the wind was blowing out, and we were breathing it all in.

Heartland baseball in the summertime: there’s you something to go gaga over.

-30-