Mamma Mia

Friday, May 22, 2009 7:36 | Filled in ==> MOVIES - OVERVIEW

Cast:Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters, Rosie Mulligan

Director:Phyllida Lloyd

Writer: Catherine Johnson

Music by: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson

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Mamma Mia is a 2008 stage to film adaptation of the 1999 West End musical of the same name, based on the songs of the pop group ABBA, with additional music composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson. The film became the highest-grossing film musical of all time. The title originates from ABBA’s 1975 chart-topper “Mamma Mia”. The film is colorful, playful and funny. Even people who hate musicals have admitted to like this film and have even been seen singing along. Like all musicals Mamma Mia has big group scenes of dancing and singing and the beautiful island of Kalokairi is the perfect frame for them. All the actors do their own singing.

Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep) is a Villa owner on the Greek island of Kalokairi. The hotel is old and in desperate need of renovation. Her daughter Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried)is a 20 year old bride to be. Sophie dreams about the perfect wedding and in that dream her father gives her away. The only problem is she doesn’t know who her father is. In order to find out she nicks her mother’s old diary’s. She finds out there are three possible candidates. Nervously she posts three wedding invitations to three different men who could be her father. She is convinced the moment she will see them she will know witch one of them is her father To make things more complicated Sophie doesn’t tell her mother about the special guests she has invited. The arrival of the three man leads to series of awkward moments misunderstanding and numbers of hilarious scenes that arise because of their presence. Everything is fitted neatly to the lyrics of the ABBA songs.

View the trailer

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Interviw for Mamma Mia

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Mamma Mia back stage

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Trivia provided by The Internet Movie Database:

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Dawn French was originally cast as Rosie in this film, but after her character being described to her by the creators as ‘the fat, funny one’ and the musical director being openly unimpressed with her singing she declined the offer. Dawn, states in her autobiography ‘Dear Fatty’, that while she is a fan of ABBA she is not a fan of ‘Mamma Mia!’ and only originally agreed to do the film because Meryl Streep was starring.

All the cast performed their own singing.

The boat Bill sails to the island (with Harry and Sam) is flying the Swedish flag. The group Abba is from Sweden.

The basic plot of three potential fathers trying to discover who was the real father of a grown daughter originated with the Gina Lollobrigida film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968).

Louise Pitre was nominated for the 2002 Tony Award (New York City) for Actress in a Musical for “Mamma Mia!” as Donna Sheridan.

The original Broadway production of “Mamma Mia!” opened at the Winter Garden Theater in New York on October 18, 2001 and has run for 3100 performances as of April 2009. “Mamma Mia!” was nominated for the 2002 Tony Awards for the Best Musical and Best Score.

The beginning of the song “Super Trouper” is sung live a cappella by the actresses.

Donna, played by Meryl Streep comments that she was a “reckless little slut” whereupon her friends tell her that thinking is “Catholic guilt, like a nun”. In her next film, Doubt (2008/I), that is exactly the role she plays.

According to Variety the play’s original producer and writer, “were broke when they first tried to put the show together and were even snubbed by the Swedish pop group whose music formed the basis for the show. They are now two of the wealthiest women in England.”

Based on the hit Abba single of the same name. “Mamma Mia!” first opened in London on April, 6th, 1999 at the Prince Edward theater. It had its North American debut at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre on May 23rd, 2000. The original Toronto cast then moved on to Mamma Mia!’s pre-Broadway tour starting in San Francisco, moving on to Los Angeles, then Chicago. It was while the original Toronto cast was performing in Chicago that Louise Pitre (Donna) and Tina Maddigan (Sophie) were invited to play their same roles in the original Broadway cast, which opened on October 18th, 2001 at the Winter Garden Theater, the former home of Cats. It now has toured in over 140 cities across America. As of April 2007, Mamma Mia! has open run productions in: New York, London, Las Vegas, Madrid, Moscow, Stuttgart, Fukuoka (opened May 19, 2007) Gothenburg (opened May 9, 2007) Essen, also has an US tour and an International tour traveling to cities all over the globe. Mamma Mia! has also played in Melbourne, Australia and Utrecht, The Netherlands, and in Copenhagen and Horsens, Denmark.

Phyllida Lloyd also directed the original ‘Mamma Mia!’ Broadway Play.

‘Mamma Mia!’ was the first film to be shot on the new 007 Stage at Pinewood Studios following a fire after Casino Royale (2006) wrapped. The new 59,000 sq ft stage was used for song and dance numbers that could not be filmed in the sun in Greece.

Benny Andersson, former Abba member and co-composer of the songs, calls Meryl Streep “a miracle”. Meryl Streep came to Stockholm to do her vocal for the song “The Winner Takes it All”. She finished it in one take.

Meryl Streep first saw the musical in October 2001 with her daughter Louisa and her daughter’s friends in Manhattan.

Bill Nighy was announced to star in this project but was replaced.

Cameo: (Benny Andersson) playing piano during the ‘Dancing Queen’ sequence

Early in preproduction the producers suggested including a newly written original song for the movie to be eligible for the Academy Awards’ Original Song Category. However, former Abba members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus refused to do so. Though Andersson composed some additional score for the movie, the film will likely be ineligible for any Academy Award in the music categories because all songs were already published.

According to Meryl Streep, Julie Walters injured herself whilst filming the “Dancing Queen” musical sequence (by tripping over some rocks on a cobbled street), but “soldiered on”.

Mandy Moore, Amanda Bynes, Rachel McAdams, and Emmy Rossum were all considered for the part of Sophie.

Set a new mark for the biggest weekend premiere ever for a movie musical with $27.6 mil. Former record holder was Hairspray (2007).

Cameo: (Björn Ulvaeus) dressed as a Greek god during the closing credits sequence

The musical numbers differ in some way from the stage version. The songs ‘Under Attack’, ‘One of Us’ and ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ were removed from the movie’s script. The song ‘The Name of the Game’ was filmed, but removed from the final cut; it is included as an extra on the DVD release. ‘Thank You for the Music’ is not part of the film’s narrative as it is in on stage but instead placed over the closing credits. The song ‘When All is Said and Done’ is presented in the movie, but was never part of the stage show. Additionally, all songs presented in the film were more or less re-orchestrated for the film version and thus differ from the stage version as well as the original arrangements.

Stellan Skarsgård (on why he flashed his behind): “We decided I should be cooking on the boat. I thought I should have an apron on. The director (Phyllida Lloyd) did not know I would be naked under there and have those butt tattoos. So when the camera rolled, I turned around right in front of it. The cameraman jumped and screamed, while Phyllida keeled over laughing.”

Pierce Brosnan had no idea what the project was about when he signed on: the producers told him it was being filmed in Greece and Meryl Streep was starring and he agreed. Brosnan declares that he would have signed on for anything involving Meryl. He described her as “that gorgeous blonde I fancied terribly in Drama School.”

An undercurrent of the film is to structure the story as a Greek comedy (like Aristophanes), including patterns of strophe and anti-strophe, a chorus representing the common people, and costumes matched to moods of the characters, including masks and the phallic props typical of Greek comedy.

Olivia Newton-John was strongly considered for the role of Donna.

Meryl Streep wrote to the producers of the Broadway version of “Mamma Mia!”, after having seen it with her daughter shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attack. In the letter, she praised them for bringing a little happiness and fun to the lives of people following the attacks.

The character of Mary Ann (played by Christine Baranski) in the television series “Cybill” (1995) informed the creation of the character Tanya in the stage play. Christine Baranski plays Tanya in the movie.

In the stage musical (and soundtrack of), Bill has the last name Austin instead of Anderson.

“Fernando” is one of Abba’s biggest hits, yet it wouldn’t fit in the movie because it is about war. So to placate the Abba fans, you can hear Donna humming a few bars of the song as she walks into the old goat house while the fathers are hiding upstairs.

Following her casting in the film Hairspray (2007), Michelle Pfeiffer was rumored to be considered for the role of Donna.

When the stage show was performed in Edinburgh, during ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, the male dancers included a ‘Highland Fling’ in their routine. In the film, one dancer can be seen performing the same steps during the song.

The stage version of ‘Mamma Mia!’ has exceeded 2940 performances on Broadway (December 2008).

The picture on Donna’s (Meryl Streep’s) mirror in the bedroom at the start of the Dancing Queen scene is actually Amanda Seyfried’s professional head shot which can be seen on her IMDb profile.

At the end of ‘Our Last Summer’ Donna (Meryl Streep) is holding a collection of photos, the baby picture is an actual baby picture of Amanda Seyfried.

In the scene with ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ we see a short clip of Meryl Streep’s and Amanda Seyfried laughing, according to Phyllida Lloyd the crew blasted out heavy metal music to get the pair to laugh so much.