|
READ INTERVIEW WITH MERYL STREEP
READ INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA SEYFRIED
READ INTERVIEW WITH PIERCE BROSNAN
It's the blockbuster stage musical seen by more than 30 million people in 170 cities and eight different languages.
About a bride, her mum and three possible dads.
Filled with songs by iconic supergroup ABBA that you know and love.
Now, summer 2008 is the season when it finally hits the big screen.
Mamma mia, here I go again. My, my, how can I resist you?
MERYL STREEP and PIERCE BROSNAN lead a spectacular all-star cast in Mamma Mia! The Movie, the musical celebration of mothers and daughters and fathers, true loves lost and new ones found, and the romantic possibilities of what can happen on one magical Greek island when love is in the air and music and dancing abound.
Joining Streep and Brosnan for the music, romance and comedy are COLIN FIRTH (Love Actually, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), STELLAN SKARSGÅRD (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Exorcist: The Beginning), JULIE WALTERS (Becoming Jane, Harry Potter series), DOMINIC COOPER (The History Boys, Starter for 10), AMANDA SEYFRIED (Mean Girls, television's Big Love) and CHRISTINE BARANSKI (Welcome to Mooseport, Chicago).
The three women who created the worldwide smash stage hit--global producer JUDY CRAYMER, screenwriter CATHERINE JOHNSON and director PHYLLIDA LLOYD--reprise their roles in bringing this joyful, musical story to the big screen. Producer GARY GOETZMAN (Charlie Wilson's War, The Polar Express, My Big Fat Greek Wedding) joins them for the musical celebration.
Mamma Mia!'s accomplished behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography HARIS ZAMBARLOUKOS (Sleuth, Venus), production designer MARIA DJURKOVIC (The Hours, Billy Elliot), Oscar®-winning costume designer ANN ROTH (The Good Shepherd, The English Patient) and editor LESLEY WALKER (Emma, The Brothers Grimm).
The executive producers are BENNY ANDERSSON (composer), BJÖRN ULVAEUS (lyricist), RITA WILSON (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, upcoming My Life in Ruins), TOM HANKS (Charlie Wilson's War, Band of Brothers) and MARK HUFFAM (The Hours, Johnny English). Music and lyrics are by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.
FOREWORD BY JUDY CRAYMER: LET THE JOY WASH OVER YOU
"I was recently watching the wonderful Broadway company of Mamma Mia! once again bring a delirious audience to a standing ovation at the Winter Garden Theatre, and I recalled a comment in the New York Post review of the New York premiere in 2001 that everyone associated with Mamma Mia! has made into their comic mantra: 'Let the joy wash over you.'
Ten years ago, when I was scrambling with author Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd in the final stages of creating a new stage musical based on the songs of ABBA, it would never have occurred to me that Mamma Mia! would be a major worldwide summer movie release blessed with a cast led by Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. I now know what it feels like to go through the full joy rinse and dry cycle!
Much has been said and written about the worldwide success of Mamma Mia! (and not just by the show's publicists!) since the show opened almost a decade ago in London. The statistics that bring me a sense of unbridled pride and deep humility surround the notion that Mamma Mia! has become a large, extended family that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, soon to be millions.
In Mamma Mia!, Sophie wants to find her father on her wedding day. Sophie's life and family change in ways she could never have imagined in the 24 hours leading up to the ceremony. The Mamma Mia! journey is that of an extended family that keeps growing and growing in ways I could never have dreamed of.
It's often a cliché when we say something touches people's lives, but it is true of Mamma Mia!
This movie is a celebration of everyone who has worked on Mamma Mia! for the past decade: from Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, who trusted me to make a stage musical and now a movie, to the creative team and the hundreds of actors who have appeared in the show around the world, along with everyone behind the scenes and the hundreds more who have brought Mamma Mia! to the big screen.
As you watch Mamma Mia! The Movie, you will become part of that family.
I hope you have the time of your life with this movie.
'Let the joy wash over you…'"
I HAVE A DREAM: MAMMA MIA! IS DEVELOPED
The story of Mamma Mia! began in the '80s when producer Judy Craymer was working with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus as executive producer of their first post-ABBA project, Chess. She was immediately smitten with them. "After all, these were the men who had written 'Dancing Queen,' one of the greatest pop songs of all time," explains Craymer. Inspired by the theatricality of their songs, she was moved to create a musical that would use existing ABBA songs, but one set against an original and exciting new format.
One song in particular, "The Winner Takes It All," (sung in the movie by Meryl Streep) turned out to be the trigger. Originally titled "The Story of My Life," ABBA's greatest break-up song (also the band's last top-10 hit in the United States) takes the listener on a roller-coaster ride of emotion.
In spite of reassurances that this would not be an ABBA tribute musical or the band's story, Andersson and Ulvaeus were initially reluctant. So, Craymer began the long campaign of persuading the two to lend their songs to the project. In 1995, her tenacity paid off. They agreed, provided she could come up with a story strong enough to carry the songs…and a writer who could unlock the potential she'd spotted. In 1997, years after she had approached the men behind ABBA, Craymer met playwright Catherine Johnson, whom she believed had the talent and sensibility for the job.
Craymer briefed Johnson, and the producer asked the writer to note how ABBA's songs fell into two distinct groupings: the younger, more playful and innocent songs such as "Honey, Honey" and "Dancing Queen," and the more mature, reflective and emotional songs such as "The Winner Takes It All" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You." Craymer believed the songs suggested a story that could span generations.
Too, Craymer felt Johnson might consider that weddings and holidays were themes suggested by Ulvaeus' lyrics. Craymer recalls, "I told Catherine you have to forget the songs. It is your source material only, and the story has to work without the songs. It is exactly what she achieved."
For Johnson, the starting point was to read ABBA's lyrics from A to Z, build the framework of a stand-alone story and choose only songs that would logically drive her narrative. Still, she felt she must be mindful that the tempo of the songs she used from ABBA's catalogue complement the action. Not an easy task.
The result was a heart-warming and uplifting story about two generations of women, young love and love the second time around…not to mention friendship, discovering one's identity and wish fulfilment. Johnson and Craymer felt that the story had universal resonance, with an appeal that crossed age, gender and national boundaries. Just as ABBA's timeless music and lyrics do.
With a working script, Craymer began the search for a director. She persuaded respected theatre and opera director Phyllida Lloyd to join the company, and Lloyd immediately responded to Mamma Mia! Drawn to the songs, the notoriously calm, methodical director sums, "This was the musical Benny and Björn didn't realize they'd written."
Björn Ulvaeus worked closely with Lloyd, Craymer and Johnson, giving feedback on each new draft. More of the crew, including choreographer ANTHONY VAN LAAST, were added--along with an "A-list" of stage designers, including MARK THOMPSON (sets and costumes), HOWARD HARRISON (lighting), MARTIN KOCH (musical supervisor and orchestrator) and ANDREW BRUCE and BOBBY AITKEN (sound designers)--and the team workshopped the production in London a year before it was to open.
Of the process, Ulvaeus recalls: "Things were changed, songs were taken in and thrown out. By then, Catherine knew every lyric and was familiar with these hundred songs or so of the catalogue. The ground rule was not to change them, and given that, it is amazing how it still was possible to weave a story."
Benny Andersson waited until the first preview to sit down and see the production, and was quite moved by how well it turned out. "I think that the biggest surprise for people who go to see it is that whatever they think it is before they go, they come out with a totally different experience," he says. "The songs are good, but the context in this intelligent, witty way that they put together the old lyrics and used them to bring the story forward was amazing. I'm Catherine Johnson's biggest fan."
The first show opened on April 6, 1999, at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, which was deemed a good omen as ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest on the same date in 1976. The stage production was given the kind of rapturous reception it has grown accustomed to ever since. Mamma Mia! opened in the U.S. in November 2000 at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. In October 2001, the musical debuted on Broadway, bringing in $27 million in advance ticket sales (one of the highest in theatre history), and, in 2002, the show received five Tony Award nominations. In February 2003, the show opened at the Mandalay Bay Theatre in Las Vegas, and played its 1000th show in June 2005 (becoming one of the longest-running Broadway plays in Las Vegas).
The story is now theatre history. Mamma Mia! has become a global entertainment phenomenon. There have been 20 productions of Mamma Mia!, and currently nine are generating more than $8 million a week in ticket sales. More than 30 million people have seen the show worldwide. More than 17,000 people see the show around the world every night, and Mamma Mia! has already grossed more than $2 billion at the theatrical box office. The show has premiered in more cities worldwide faster than any other musical in history; it has opened in more than 170 major cities since the first production in London almost a decade ago.
Explaining the phenomenon, Craymer sums: "Whoever the audience is, whatever age the audience is, they see themselves up on the stage in some form. They seem to totally immerse themselves in the experience. The songs have a magical and timeless quality."
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: PUTTING THE CREATIVE TEAM TOGETHER
Soon after the show opened in London, several companies expressed interest in making the musical Mamma Mia! into a film. Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's company, Playtone, would ultimately become Littlestar's (Judy Craymer's company) producing partner for the film. Executive producer Hanks recalls of seeing the show: "By the twelfth minute, I was standing up singing along with the music."
But Craymer was in no hurry to translate the musical into a musical romantic comedy for the screen. "Mamma Mia! begged to be a movie," she said, "but first, I had to get the shows to the point where it was appropriate to make that transition." There was still much of a journey for Mamma Mia! on the stage, and the team needed to focus on the show and new openings internationally.
In 2003, after Mamma Mia! had opened across Europe, America, Australia and Asia, Craymer felt the time was right to adapt it for the screen. She contacted Gary Goetzman at Playtone again and asked if they would be interested in partnering to produce the film. Happily, Playtone was, and a deal was made.
Provides producer Goetzman: "The most important factor in translating Mamma Mia! to film was to capture the tone, energy and spirit it has on stage. We knew if we could do that, we would make a great movie." For Goetzman and Craymer, that meant keeping as much of the original formula as possible. He continues, "Our job would be to merely translate what they'd envisioned onto the screen, and it has been seamless."
From the beginning of the project, he believed that the film could intensify the enormous fun and enjoyment that the show had already established. Goetzman offers, "With film, you can get closer to the characters and focus the audience on what you want them to see. You can enhance the brilliant elements of the play that people all over the world have loved for years."
Lloyd and Johnson were more than ready to join them in the task. Says Lloyd, "Mamma Mia! was always a movie. It's set on location on a magical island. In many ways, it was bursting to get off the stage and into the cinema. It has just leapt out."
For her part, Johnson was up for the challenge of adapting her stage play into a screenplay. "It was an opportunity for me to further explore the emotional core of the story," she explains. "On stage, if there was a dance number, I could just write 'dance number;' that was it. On screen, I had to actually write in the whole sequence of what happened within that scene and keep the narrative going. So, it's actually about twice the amount of work I've had to do before."
The challenges of expanding a stage play into a musical romantic comedy was
not lost on Johnson. For example, the filmed Mamma Mia! allowed her to take the "Dancing Queen" sequence out of the bedroom stage setup and bring a troupe of women down to the harbour dock. Relates the writer, "We are able to start in one small space and take the scene off to a much larger location."
Adds Craymer of the potential: "We also show how all the characters get to the island. In the stage, you're very restricted, whereas in the film, we could follow the journey of how the three possible fathers arrive on the island."
Shooting her musical film at Pinewood Studios in London on the huge 007 stage and on location in Greece was liberating for the director. In order to further explore the use of space on film, Lloyd actually pre-shot the film with previous cast members from the stage production. "It was really for me to work out certain things about structures of songs and whether the stage choreography really needed to be completely reinvented or thrown out. At the essence of it was getting a camera in my hand and figuring out [when the song tracks came on] when the camera moved and when it didn't.
"I was determined that the camera language was going to be different for every song," Lloyd continues, "not just for the sake of it, but so that it would do something different to the audience--according to what the plot required at the moment. I wanted to get inside the scenes, because I'd always been outside them in the theatre. I parked myself right in the middle of a piece, like "Voulez-Vous," and presented Sophie's point-of-view with my camera."
For producer Craymer, it was an exciting prospect to increase the scale of the show, both visually and thematically, with the continued help of the men behind ABBA. "The involvement of Benny and Björn continued to be crucial," says Craymer. "To have them working in a hands-on way, reworking the music and recording with the actors was an incredibly exciting prospect for us."
"It has been tremendously joyful, especially collaborating with the actors who have been so incredibly well prepared. It's a totally uplifting experience," says Andersson.
Adds professional partner Ulvaeus, "We have had so much fun. The actors have been delivering exactly what is needed. It's been wonderful."
Craymer and Goetzman would only agree to the musical film if the core group that achieved success with the stage musical stayed together. Craymer reflects, "There is something we can't quite put our finger on that we call the 'essence of Mamma Mia!,' or 'the Mamma Mia! factor,' and we have developed a shorthand between us that was necessary to take Mamma Mia! from the stage to the screen."
Also bringing their enthusiasm and perspectives--and a much-needed understanding of "the Mamma Mia! factor"--are director of photography Haris Zambarloukos, production designer Maria Djurkovic, costume designer Ann Roth and makeup designer TINA EARNSHAW, whose combined talents and shared vision have created the film's signature look. Says Lloyd, "We've always looked to build teams of people whom we'd want to be on holiday with. When you're working as fast as this and under such stress, you have to be around people you like."
TAKE A CHANCE ON ME: CASTING THE FILM
LAY ALL YOUR LOVE ON ME: THE MUSIC OF MAMMA MIA!
DANCING QUEEN: CHOREOGRAPHY IN THE FILM
OUR LAST SUMMER: SHOOTING MAMMA MIA!
SUPER TROUPER: ANN ROTH'S COSTUME DESIGN
THE CREATIVE TEAM: PHYLLIDA LLOYD (Directed by); CATHERINE JOHNSON (Screenplay by) ;JUDY CRAYMER (Produced by) ;BENNY ANDERSSON (Executive Producer/Music and Lyrics by): BJÖRN ULVAEUS (Executive Producer/Music and Lyrics by) ; ANTHONY VAN LAAST (Choreographer)
Website: www.mammamiamovie.com
THE ART OF MUSICALS
HOME
|
|
