Mamma Mia, here we go again!
Ten years on, the box office sensation is back with a sequel. So how’s it different? From prosthetic bottoms to all the money, money, money, we spill the secrets
aLINe-UP of muscle-honed men dancing in flippers. A dungaree-clad Meryl Streep doing the splits. Pierce Brosnan singing.
It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the film Mamma Mia! burst on to cinema screens in Spandex-covered blast of delicious exuberance.
For those who’ve forgotten the story, it was all about a girl called Sophie (played by Amanda Seyfried) who was about to marry Sky (Dominic Cooper) and who, unbeknown to her hippy mum Donna (Streep), had invited three men from her mother’s past who might just be her father to her Greek island wedding.
The trio of hapless would-be dads (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard) played second fiddle to a cast of confident, witty women — including Donna’s former bandmates Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) — while the story unfolded against a backdrop of Abba classics.
And now it’s back. Mamma Mia! here We Go Again is due to the hit the big screen on Friday, reuniting the old cast and introducing some new faces — Lily James among them — playing younger versions of the original line-up. here, BETH HALE discovers the secrets of Mamma Mia!
WOMAN WHO HAD A DREAM
MeRYL STReeP may be the surprise star of Mamma Mia! but the real force behind it is producer Judy Craymer. Blonde, British and very successful, the 60- year- old is said to be worth an estimated £90 million as a result of the phenomenon.
It was a different story 20 years ago, however, when she was scraping by to make ends meet, having sold her flat to bankroll her vision of a musical.
Craymer was in her 20s and working as an assistant to lyricist Tim Rice on the musical Chess when she met Abba stars Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. The band had not long disbanded and their music was considered somewhat unfashionable. But one song, The Winner Takes It All, kept nagging at Craymer. She could see it as the centrepiece of a musical.
Five years later, she began pestering Benny and Bjorn about her idea. It wasn’t until several years later that the pair, notoriously protective about their music, were won over.
Craymer enlisted British writer Catherine Johnson, who created the upbeat narrative, and Phyllida Lloyd, a director better known for putting on Shakespeare at the National Theatre.
In 1999, the show had its West end debut. hollywood soon came calling, but Craymer resisted all offers until she found a studio prepared to work with the trio, who had zero film experience between them.
For the second film, screenwriter Richard Curtis acted as ‘Godfather’, overseeing the script.
STREEP IS THE DANCING QUEEN
The indisputable Dancing Queen of the original film is Meryl Streep, although her role in the sequel remains something of a mystery (more on this later).
Better known as a more ‘serious’ actress, Oscar-winning Streep does have musical credentials. She took opera lessons as a child and has sung on film before.
The story of how she got the part of Donna in the original Mamma Mia! is the stuff of legend. Streep took her daughter to see the New York stage show shortly after the September 11 terror attacks of 2001 and was so impressed that she sent a thank-you note to the cast. A copy found its way to Judy Craymer and, years later, Streep received a phone call asking if she’d like to portray Donna. She leapt at the chance and her co-stars quickly followed suit.
In fact, so magnetic was the Streep effect that, at just the words ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Meryl Streep’, Pierce Brosnan said: ‘I’m in.’
In the sequel, Streep has a rival for Dancing Queen status in the form of singer Cher, who joins the cast as Donna’s mother, Ruby.
Such is Cher’s reputation that none of her co-stars dared to ask for a selfie with her — until, on her last day on set, she offered.
Who cares that, at 72, Cher’s only three years older than Meryl, 69, who plays her daughter!
GIMME, GIMME . . . A WALKING STICK
The dance moves were not what anyone would call slick a decade ago, so what can we expect from a cast who are all ten years older?
Dominic Cooper, now 40, who returns as Sky, says the dance moves demanded by West end choreographer Anthony Van Laast for the new film left them in stitches. ‘It was hilarious, it was like a French and Saunders send-up of the original,’ he has said. ‘But
really, if you’re going to get Pierce [ Brosnan] or Colin [ Firth] to dance like that, it would be awful to choreograph them. The more loose and chaotic it is, the better.’
Squeezing into Spandex and sequins was challenging the first time (Streep joked it took seven men to get her into her jumpsuit).
And Brosnan reveals: ‘Stellan, Colin and I were the old blokes, laughing about getting vertigo from platform boots, trousers that were too tight and being in agony because Colin had got his jockstrap on the wrong way round.’
But it was all good fun: Craymer says Firth and Brosnan loved the ensemble numbers — one scene called for 150 dancers on boats.
THE ORIGINAL SUPER TROUPERS
Benny AnderSSon and Bjorn Ulvaeus are executive producers on the movies. And eagle-eyed viewers should be on the lookout to see where they appear in the new film.
Both had cameos in the first production. Benny is seen during dancing Queen, playing the piano, while Bjorn is a ‘Greek god’ near the end of the Waterloo sequence, which plays over the credits.
In the new film, it is thought that Bjorn will appear as a schoolteacher in the opening song When I Kissed The Teacher.
Hopefully, Benny didn’t have his holiday disrupted this time. during shooting of the first film, bad weather delayed the arrival of a yacht needed for the Money, Money, Money fantasy sequence. Andersson and his family were nearby on their yacht — which was hastily requisitioned for the occasion. In the new movie, the cast got themselves an extra trouper — in the shape of a donkey named Archie, who plays Tanya’s fourlegged luggage- carrier. Apparently, he’s a real show-stealer.
BOTTOMS UP — SOS!
dAMe Julie Walters jumped at the chance to work with Meryl Streep. What she didn’t realise was that, as rosie, she would have to wear a fake bottom ‘so I looked more rounded’ and ‘pert’. And the rubber prosthetic almost required an emergency SoS in a scene from the first film where rosie falls off a boat. Amid fears that the bottom might inflate, and cause Julie to sink, a frogman was on standby. In the end, it did inflate and took some hours to dry out. Bottoms provided surprises elsewhere in the film, in the scene where Bill ( Stellan Skarsgard) turns around on his boat to reveal a naked bottom beneath an apron, adorned with drawn- on eye ‘tattoos’. Apparently, the director didn’t know he’d added the tattoos until the camera rolled.
MET THEIR WATERLOO
THe cast leapt at the chance to return for the making of the second film. But the list of those who didn’t make the cut in the first place is illustrious. Universal apparently wanted to lower donna’s age, and mooted names included nicole Kidman, Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, olivia newtonJohn and even Kylie Minogue.
Bill nighy was said to be considered for one of the dads, while rachel McAdams was a contender for the role of Sophie.
Interestingly, Cher turned down the part of Tanya due to tour commitments but, as a huge fan, didn’t argue when the phone went a second time: ‘My agent called me and said: “you’re in the new Mamma Mia! film,” and then hung up. I didn’t have much choice!’
Comedian dawn French was also in the frame for the part of rosie, but fluffed her singing audition.
HAS DONNA HAD A LAST SUMMER?
FAnS are desperate to know what has happened to donna.
Speculation arose after the release of the new film’s first trailer, in which Streep was absent from the opening sequences, with donna frequently referred to in the past tense.
Subsequent trailers haven’t done much to allay fears. While donna is there, the footage seems to be mostly from the original film.
And, though she is credited, she doesn’t have top billing, with the action appearing to revolve around Lily James — who had seen the stage show eight times when she won the part of young donna.
Maintaining the mystery, Christine Baranski recently told fans they would ‘ have to wait’, adding: ‘Believe me, it’s going to be a wonderful surprise.’