MAMMA Mia's West End show has been seen by more than ten per cent of the entire British population since 1999. Mamma Mia, indeed.

Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus's ABBA musical is one of only five such shows to have achieved decade-long runs in London and on Broadway alike, and in 2011 it became the first Western musical to be staged in Mandarin in the People’s Republic of China.

However, has it now met its Waterloo at Leeds Grand Theatre? Phyllida Lloyd's production is in Yorkshire for six summer weeks on its first British tour and, my, my, how can I resist you? All too easily, as it turns out.

Not since Breakfast At Tiffany's played the Grand in April 2016 has such a high-profile, much anticipated tour show had such an unexpectedly deflating impact. Just as Pixie Lott turned from pop to flop as Holly Golightly, so Lucy May Barker utterly underwhelms as Sophie Sheridan, who is rushing into marriage at only 20 on the Greek island where her mother Donna had conducted a somewhat hectic love life those two decades earlier.

Now is the time, Sophie decides, that before her wedding day she must find out who is the father she has never met: be it any of Sam (Jon Boydon), Bill (Christopher Hollis) or Harry (Jamie Hogarth).

Where Barker's singing lacks dynamics and her bland character lacks, well, character, as she fiddles irritatingly with her and clothes, Hobson is far better as her no-nonsense Geordie mum with a belting voice to boot and a grasp of how to deliver ABBA's ubiquitous songs in a fresh, storytelling style. Gillian Hardie's Rosie and Emma Clifford's AbFab-style Tanya, Donna's errant best friends, have their moments too.

The ex-men by comparison, often seem awkward, while the young lads, led by Philip Ryan's Scottish fiance Sky, are little more than toned eye candy, and the chemistry between Sophie and Sky is zilch.

The ensemble scenes tend to overload the stage, sometimes losing a central focus, and the sound design was having a difficult night too. Romance is thin on the ground, the humour over-stretched, the "fun" contrived, in Catherine Johnson's prosaic book. Given the gilded songbook of ABBA, the show should have been far, far fabber. La Cage Aux Folles knocked spots off it.

Mamma Mia! runs at Leeds Grand Theatre until July 8. Box office: 0844 848 2700 or at leedsgrandtheatre.com