How Mamma Mia! was born

It is exhilarating to watch the venerable Meryl Streep in the movie Mamma Mia!. Playing a villa owner who used to play in a band and whose daughter is about to marry, Meryl attacks the role with ease, fun, honesty and brilliance. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård play the possible fathers to Donna’s (Meryl) daughter Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried). Mamma Mia! is a story set on a Greek island paradise about a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father and on the eve of her wedding, brings all the three men from her mother’s past.

And who would ever forget the songs, I Have a Dream, Honey, Honey, Money, Money, Money, Mamma Mia, Chiquitita, Dancing Queen, The Name of the Game, Voulez-Vous, SOS, Does Your Mother Know, Slipping Through My Fingers, The Winner Takes It All, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, Take a Chance on Me and When All Is Said and Done?

I was in college when Abba was making waves in both the music charts and concert halls. Among friends we loved Money Money Money, Chiquitita and Dancing Queen. No party was complete without the songs of Abba being played. The movie Mamma Mia! is a spin-off of the hit Broadway and West End musical of the same title that opened to rave reviews worldwide.

Local audiences will get a preview on stage of Mamma Mia! from Jan. 24 next year at the CCP Main Theater for a strictly limited season. Judy Craymer, the creative producer, talks about how Mamma Mia! was born. “As creative producer, my job began long before the script had been written. In fact, the story begins 22 years ago when I first met Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, the songwriting geniuses behind ABBA. I was working for Tim Rice who was collaborating with Benny and Björn on the musical Chess. I was immediately smitten. Now I had to approach Benny and Björn who were understandably a little unsure of my intentions. I explained that the project I had in mind would focus on a new and exciting story. So I sat on the floor of my apartment listening to ABBA’s records late into the night. I was driving my neighbours to despair but I was more and more certain of my idea. In 1995, my tenacity finally paid off. Björn said, ‘If you can find the right writer and story, well, let’s see what happens…’

“A year later I was on location of a film I was producing when the director mentioned Catherine Johnson. I was aware of her work as a playwright and, even better, I knew her agent. We met in January of 1997 and I was able to confidently tell Björn that we had found our writer. My co-producer, Richard East, and I commissioned Catherine to write the story. By the end of the year, Catherine had finished the first draft of a script and I persuaded Phyllida Lloyd to come on board as our director. Her background was serious, legit theatre and opera. Her secret weapon was her ‘dry Martini wit.’ We discovered we all shared the same birth year and soon firmly bonded.

“April 6, 1999 — the world witnessed the premiere of Mamma Mia!. Audiences were charmed and one British critic said ‘Mamma Mia! could put Prozac out of business!’ Benny heartily accepted his defeat — while the entire theater danced in the aisles, he turned to me and said, ‘You can say it now.’ I flashed back, ‘I told you so!’ We still joke about it.”

And the rest they say is history.

Mamma Mia! has been seen by over 50 million people worldwide and has been on Broadway for 10 years. Mamma Mia! has grossed over $2B at the box-office. Mamma Mia! has premiered in more major cities worldwide faster than any other musical in history, opening in over 300 major cities since the first production in London 11 years ago. Mamma Mia! is currently on its 13th year since the first production opened in London’s West End in 1999.

With music and lyrics by Andersson and Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! is written by Catherine Johnson, directed by Phyllida Lloyd and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. The production is designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken, and musical supervision, additional material and arrangements by Martin Koch.

The Mamma Mia! international tour is produced by Craymer, East and Ulvaeus for Littlestar in association with Universal, Stage Entertainment and NGM.