ABBA took a chance on me
A CHANCE MEETING SOWED THE SEEDS FOR SMASH-HIT MUSICAL MAMMA MIA! SAM MARLOWE REPORTS
IT’S the mother of all contemporary musicals – a global, record-breaking super trouper of a show that’s been seen by over 65 million people worldwide, in 16 different languages.
Mamma Mia!, the feelgood musical with a score of irresistible ABBA songs, has given birth to two smashhit films. The first, released in 2008, sank even the mighty Titanic at the box office; the second, 2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, is the most successful musical movie sequel of all time.
Now, with theatres open again, the show embarks on a new UK tour. It’s likely to prove just the pickme-up that audiences crave.
Mamma Mia! has established its place in theatre history – so it’s almost hard to believe that right up until its very first opening night, on April 6, 1999 at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End, many theatre pundits were anticipating a flop.
Looking back, Judy Craymer – the visionary producer and creative dynamo who dreamt up the idea for the show, chuckles at the nail-biting uncertainty that surrounded that world premiere.
“A lot of people doubted us,” she remembers. “The Lion King opened about the same time, and we were very modest by comparison.”
Many were expecting a kind of ABBA tribute show about the band.
“They just couldn’t get their heads around it. They were constantly asking me who was going to play Frida and Agnetha.”
Even ABBA songsmiths Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus had their doubts. They needn’t have worried. Together with writer Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd, Judy had achieved a landmark theatrical triumph with crossgenerational appeal, that delighted ABBA’s loyal fans and won the band legions of new fans.
It was no overnight sensation though. Judy was working in the production office of musical-theatre royalty Tim Rice in the early 1980s when she first conceived of the idea.
Tim was in the throes of writing Chess, his collaboration with Benny and Björn. One of Judy’s first tasks was to collect Björn from the airport, and the pair quickly struck up a friendship.
“It was huge fun,” Judy remembers. “Chess was a big project, and then there was the cast album, so I was flying to Stockholm with Tim every week, working in Benny and Björn’s studio.
Spending so much time in their
company, she rediscovered ABBA’s music.
“I listened to their songs with a whole different ear, having met the guys. I’d play them over and over again on my cassette player, and I was fascinated that Björn had written these lyrics. They meant so much, and they were about strong women. They take you on a journey.”
Judy began to see the dramatic potential in ABBA’s infectious pop.
“They spoke to me as theatre songs. You’d be lucky to have two like that in a musical, let alone 20. So I started thinking about how to turn them into narrative.”
At first, she considered a film, or a children’s show. But then she felt sure that, because the music was held in such affection, it should be “weddings, holidays, something celebratory, because everyone listens to ABBA in a happy moment”.
She had a meeting with writer Catherine Johnson who suggested centering the story on a mother and daughter.
“We were both penniless,” she recalls. “I only had about £1,000, so I said, I’ll pay you £500 now, and £500 when you’ve written it.”
The next step was a meeting at Benny’s home in Henley-onThames.
“We couldn’t afford the train fare! It was all very hairy, but somehow we did it. And I introduced Björn to Catherine but she was too shy to pitch the idea, so I had to – and then I had to stop her stealing the soap from his bathroom as a souvenir.”
Phyllida Lloyd came on board as director and together, “living on sandwiches”, the trio put together a female-led show full of joyous romance and fierce mother-daughter affection set on an idyllic Greek island.
It’s the strength of the narrative, Judy believes, that sets Mamma Mia! apart from other jukebox shows.
“It’s an original story, and there’s a structure, and properly developed characters and themes,” she says. “I do like to think that Mamma Mia! raised the bar.”
That universal appeal has seen the show play to packed houses around the world. In New York, it helped revitalise Broadway after 9/11. In 2011 it became the first Mandarin-speaking production of a Western musical in China.
And Judy has particularly fond memories of the opening of the Japanese production. “Because of theatre etiquette there, the cast can’t leave the stage until the audience stop clapping. I thought they’d be there all night!”
Hollywood quickly wanted in on the act, and Meryl Streep starred in the film version, alongside Birmingham’s own Julie Walters.
And during the 2020 lockdown, Judy was busily planning for a third Mamma Mia! movie.
“I wanted something to cheer us all up!” she laughs. “It’s something I have in my sights. I think there’s a trilogy there. There are lots of wonderful ABBA songs that we haven’t yet mined, and Björn and Benny have written a couple of new ones. They’re keeping them under wraps for now, but they should prove very useful!”
Whatever comes next, there’s sure to be an audience for it. To misquote those famous, singalong lyrics: ‘‘How can we resist it?’’
Mamma Mia! is at Birmingham Hippodrome from May 3–14. See www.birminghamhippodrome.com or call 0844 338 5000.