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IT was a ray of sunshine that lit up box offices around the world.

Now, with the original having raked in over half a billion pounds, a sequel to Mamma Mia! has just been announced.

Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Amanda Seyfried will all be back in July 2018, exactly 10 years on from getting toes tapping to a host of ABBA tunes.

With smash-hit La La Land just released on DVD, we asked a selection of Sunday Post writers, readers and a few famous faces to tell us their most magical musical.

It’s quite simply one of the finest movies ever made.

Gene Kelly was at the peak of his powers showing that musicals can be funny, sexy, entertainingrtaining and uplifting.

He took a teenage Debbie Reynolds and worked her so hard blood oozed out of her shoes, but the result is magic.

This was a Broadway showhow that went to the big screen withth Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Beyonce and launched the magnificent nificent career of Jennifer Hudson. n.

There are amazing dance scenes and unbelievable singing, leaving you humming the hits And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going, Listen and One Nightght Only.

I first saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show on an old battered VHS back in the 1980s and loved it. Of course, I never thought that in 1999 I’d be sitting in the audience at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh watching Ja s o n Donovan as Dr Frank-N-Furter.

What I also never thought was that I’d be there having been asked to take over the role. I vividly remember sitting in the crowd.

Paul Cooney, who was there with me, turned and said, “Do you really think you can do this?” I looked him in the eye and said “Of course… I can’t!”

This was the most magical musical of all time and I love it as much today as I did when it came out in 1965.

Back then I couldn’t understand why the audience chuckled when Captain Von Trapp used a whistle to order his children around. My naval officer dad did the same thing to me – with a Bosun’s Call.

Nothing says musical quite like bar- room brawls, villainous neoNazis and the most ridiculous car chases ever committed to film.

Forget the nonsense plot and listen to the triumphant sounds of James Brown, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker. Everybody needs some Blues Brothers. When it was announced this was getting the Hollywood treatment, I was nervous. As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. We were treated to a raw, Oscarwinning turn from Anne Hathaway as Fa n t i n e, a heartbreaking performance from Samantha Barks and an earnest, un- showy songbird in Eddie Redmayne. The entire spectacle is carried by Hugh Jackman with a confidence that can only come from years of musical theatre experience.

I was s h own Do r i s Da y ’s western musical at a young age and fell in love immediately, watching it over and over again.

The songs lie dormant but word-perfect in my head, coming out to surprise me whenever someone mentions Chicago. It has so many magical moments.

My favourite film musical is without a doubt West Side Story. The rivalry between the Sharks and the Jets, the love story of Tony and Maria and the New York setting gets me every time.

I’ve never been a lover of musicals – but the one I’ll make an exception for is Little Shop Of Horrors. I couldn’t have been any older than 10 the first time I saw the 1986 movie and I was immediately hooked. It had horror, dread, a monster, genuine belly laughs – ever ything I wouldn’t have expected to see in a musical.

You won’t find any hear t wrenching ballads here – every song in Chicago has a dark side. But while I love it for all its scheming and woman scorned fury, I also love it for its desperate hope.

In Chicago, you find inspiration in bleakness, which is uplifting.