1999
Premiere at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End. It was an unprecedented sensation, with celebrities from all walks of life flocking to see the show alongside the general public, breaking London box office records and paralyzing London traffic.
In 2001
The show went on to Broadway, where it ran for nearly 2,000 performances, making it one of the longest-running musicals on Broadway, surpassing the classic "Sound of Music".
2002
Nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical and a Tony Award for Best Musical Script.
2004
The Korean version of Mamma Mia! set a record for a Korean theater production. The Korean music brought a new oriental flavor to Mamma Mia!
2006
The Swiss version won six awards at the Golden Mask Awards: Best Music, Best Actress in a Musical, Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Best Director in a Musical, and Best Set Design.
2007
Hollywood actor Tom Hanks looks favorably on Mamma Mia!, having already adapted the show to bring it to the Hollywood screen in 2007.
In 2010
has toured 240 cities around the world, from Las Vegas to Tokyo, Seoul, the world's 42 million viewers for it to laugh, the global box office of 2 billion, picked up the "world's first musical" crown.
The musical Mamma Mia is now available in 13 languages: English, German, Japanese, Dutch, Korean, Spanish, Swedish, Flemish, Russian, Norwegian, Italian (in production), Danish (in production) and French (in production). The Chinese version will be Mamma Mia! The Big Family's 14th language version.
There are currently 10 different versions of the show playing simultaneously in different parts of the world in the musical Mamma Mia, including London and Broadway, Mexico, Australia, Holland, Spain, Korea, Japan, the USA and an international tour. There are five other versions coming out soon, Copenhagen, Paris, Milan, South African tour and China. "ABBA has an amazing talent for music, and one thing leads to another."
Musical Mamma Mia: elements of world popularity
British journalist Mark Santon has seen the musical Mamma Mia from its premiere in 1999 until today, and there is no other musical show in the world whose size can match it.
It was March 22, 1999, when Mamma Mia met its first and most crucial test - the first time it came to a paying audience in London - and they were greeted with the same welcome as ever. And that's been the case for every show, every night since. But until then, on a London spring night, everything was completely unpredictable. "We really didn't know if it would be accepted by the audience", says producer Judy Craymer, whose original idea was to place songs from the ABBA group from exactly 10 years ago into a new, original format - the musical. She happily recalls, "The audience went wild. They literally jumped out of their seats and danced and sang their hearts out in the aisles in the theater. It was like that every night there was a show.
Their practice has spread around the world and become a global entertainment phenomenon; a phenomenon that nevertheless has a quite natural basis behind it, and whose creators never stray from what they are trying to achieve. That is to say, to personalize in a fresh, vital and direct way the show as people know it, especially the ABBA songs. All the while keeping its pop music qualities intact. And, moreover, to put in the extra effort that's necessary for a good musical: elevating the story and commenting on it.
But even though the songs were given top billing in this one case - Craymer used a genius intuition to spot the potential value of these earlier songs that could be used in a musical - she also had to find a way to unleash that potential by carrying them through very strong storytelling. "I knew from the very beginning of the musical Mamma Mia that it was going to be more than simply rearranging the ABBA music or getting it into a tribute show," she comments. "The story had to be presented in a highly infectious way that was appropriate to the ABBA music, to be tapped into in a way that made it accessible." Easier said than done, however, and it took Craymer a decade of work to bring it to life for that reason. In order to be a good producer, she was on hand (or at least backstage) to observe another musical, West End, when she was stage manager of the original London production of Cats, and then she joined Tom Rice's production company. It was also there that she was introduced to Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' first post-ABBA breakup project, CHESS, in her role as executive producer of West End, and she was completely smitten by Benny and Björn.
For Björn, it was the Broadway run of "CHESS," which was later doomed to bad luck, that taught him an important lesson in life. "My understanding of storytelling after CHESS was first, second, third, as they say on Broadway. The lyrics move the story forward, and many of the songs are noise, with little drama." Playwright Catherine Johnson was commissioned to write a book about the musical Mamma Mia, and fortunately found a great deal of theater in it that she managed to extract. Not only the whole story itself later on, but she found other important things as well: the early ABBA songs were more natural, clueless, and na?ve, suitable for teenagers, yet later on ABBA became more mature and philosophical. And, of course, the songs were all sung by women. She thus suggests that the storytelling be framed in terms of women of two ages, a mother and her daughter.Ulvaeus insisted that the lyrics could not be tampered with arbitrarily, as did his part that "the story was far more important than the song." But for Johnson, the challenge was that "no matter what was told in the story, I always had to return to the song." She was determined to avoid the mistakes that have plagued musical theater for years: "I didn't want to mix songs in with the obnoxiously dull bits. It's vitally important to me that I'm the one who creates compelling characters and incorporates them into a story line, and I certainly try to do my best to make the story and the songs work perfectly together."
The next thing Craymer had to start doing was finding a good captain for the musical ship: a director. Though Phyllida Lloyd had never directed any musical before, Craymer instinctively felt that she and Lloyd were the right people for the project, and with her own background in theater and opera, she took on the challenge of doing as much as she could - helping the actors create their characters and act out the story! -- and everything will fall into place. When a good director has done a good job laying the groundwork for this project, it's time for it to take off.
Things don't go as smoothly as expected, Craymer writes: "I take comfort in the fact that the success of the musical Mamma Mia is the result of an unprecedented collaboration between three women, and that this is not intentionally discriminatory against men." Indeed, the camaraderie between the three best friends onstage - Donna and Dynamo (mother-daughter, sisters?) -- is officially a projection of the show's creators themselves.Craymer emphasizes, "We see ourselves in all three of the women in the show, because Catherine is a more or less disorganized single mother, and I myself am one of those nurturing types. Phyllida, on the other hand, is the quintessential pragmatist." The secret to the show's success, however, is not that the creators find a projection of themselves on stage, but that the audience does.
Phyllida Lloyd writes: "In Catherine Johnson's original storytelling, the audience enjoys a special experience - seeing themselves on stage." In the process, the songs are reborn, and the show's themes - parents finding their own identities and the generation gap - generate universal ****ing choruses. As Johnson says, "There's a mother-daughter relationship here, a nostalgic romance where certain people get lost and are found again. All sorts of things find relevance in everyone." This show shows the real lives of people in real situations, while the melodies of pop music set the sound track for the generation of the 70's and early 80's, and the show's sound track seems to cross the boundaries of eras and countries. The essence of what it is trying to convey is brought to life through the logo of the musical Mamma Mia - the joy, even revelry, of a timeless picture of a wedding. As the show represents, this image is widely identified with the images of the musical Mamma Mia by cities around the world.
The show also brought the worlds of popular music and musical theater together in a harmonious cohesion, inseparable from each other: true, in the '30s and '40s, popular music came out of the world of musical theater - the product of a thousand variations of Broadway or Hollywood - but popular music came to dominate in the '50s and '60s. Musical theater was left to develop on its own and traveled a winding and tedious path. The musical "Mamma Mia" is sophisticated but not insular, bringing back familiar pop classics and bringing music back to the theater with songs people know and love.
Craymer credits the success of the show first and foremost to the collaborators in all areas of the show's production, "who have created the chemistry and the incredible collaboration that has fueled the progress in all areas of the production." These include the crucial and highly skilled creative contributions of set design (Mark Thompson), lighting (Howard Harrison), music design (Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken) and choreography (Anthony van Laast). For her, it's about "having the courage to believe in what we're doing - the music, the story, and the talent around me. And of course to keep a clinical sense of humor and bring out inexhaustible energy at all times."
But energy comes not only from adrenal glands, but also from passionate productions like the musical "Mamma Mia". The quality of "Mamma Mia the Musical" is that the infectious passion can travel from the stage to the audience and back again, creating a never-ending cycle of energy, inspiring body shaking and joy.
As director, Phyllida Lloyd succinctly summarizes the musical "Mamma Mia" as follows: "This is a show that Björn and Benny never expected when they were writing their songs. Their music made pop music history and our show made musical theater history." I HAVE A DREAM I HAVE A DREAM. stage is an island in the Aegean Sea. Twenty-year-old Sophie, who lives with her mother Donna, has a dream of a pure white wedding and a life of happiness and fulfillment. To do this, one thing must be done - find her father and walk down the aisle in his company. Sophie peeks into her mother's past journals and, oh my, there are three possible fathers: Sam, Bill, and Harry. She sends out invitations behind her mother's back, expecting them to come to the wedding ...... MONEY, MONEY, MONEY MONEY Sophie is getting married tomorrow. Rosie and Tanya have come to the island with Donna's rock trio, Donna Forever, which she organized when she was young. The three women are excited to see each other again after a long time. Donna, who has been working hard on her hotel, the Summer Night Castle, sighs that it's time for a break. Sophie and her friends think the same. MAMMAMIA Bill, a travel writer, Harry, a bank clerk, and Sam, an architect, arrive on the island after a twenty-one year absence. These three are Sophie's father-candidate trio. They thought they had been invited by Donna, but Sophie, who came out to greet them, told them that she had actually sent the invitations and that her mother did not know they were coming. The three are in a fog when Donna appears. In front of them were the three former lovers. "What the hell are you guys doing here?!" Donna was in a state of panic, her mind drifting back to the days of their separation twenty years ago, her heart churning with still-unbroken feelings and remorse. She fled to Rosie and Tanya. CHIQUITITA. Rosie and Tanya are jumping up and down as they discover the costumes from the group's days, which they don't seem to use anymore, but then Donna enters in a trance. Having never seen her like this before, the duo were worried and asked, "What's wrong with tough Donna? Tell us both, aren't we good friends." DANCING QUEEN Donna confessed to them that three men who could be Sophie's father had suddenly arrived on the island. "Father candidates ......?!" Rosie and Tanya are curious about the appearance of Donna's former lovers. Donna is going crazy with fear that the men falling from the sky will spoil her daughter's wedding. Rosie and Tanya sing and reassure her that that may not be such a bad thing, and Donna is inspired to sing joyfully together. THE NAME OF THE GAME (The night before the wedding is a girls-only party, all girls. The special guests are the Dana Lightning Band! Donna, Rosie and Tanya come on stage dressed in their old costumes and sing popular songs from the past, making the party even more wild. At some point, the three father candidates joined in and the party reached its climax. Bill slipped out of the hubbub and Sophie caught up with him. "It's only been a day since we met, but it always seemed like you ......" Bill is cross-examined and admits, "I could be your father." Sophie asks him to accompany her at the wedding. However, when she returns to the party, Sam and Harry both claim to be fathers as well, confusing her. ONE OF US) The morning of the wedding. Sophie dreams of being chased by her three fathers and jumps out of bed, freezing on the patio. Donna is worried and comes out to comfort her, but Sophie, knowing that her mother is actually against the marriage, says something about how I wouldn't want my children to not know who their father is and walks away. Donna was left with a sense of loneliness in her heart. Offhandedly, she blurted out, "If only you were here ...... "S.O.S S.O.S Sam, who was passing by, told Donna that the hotel had been his dream, and for Donna it was reality. Donna, who was already in an unsettled mood, began to take offense to Sam's interjection about Sophie's marriage and the two argued. Contrary to the words that come out of their mouths, the thoughts of each other's hearts grow stronger and stronger DIVORCE (KNOWING ME, KNOWING YOU Sophie is still in a state of turmoil. Speaking to Skye about inviting the three father candidates, she asks for help, but Skye doesn't think she'll be happy knowing her father. "It's best to reconsider what the real wish is." He said and walked away. Sam heard the two arguing and urged Sophie to reconsider marriage. He says that in his experience, happy weddings don't necessarily have happy endings, but can Sofie grasp that idea? THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL) The wedding draws closer. Donna helps Sophie into her wedding dress while mourning the loss of the daughter she raised. As she looks back on her life alone, Sam arrives. Donna refused, saying she didn't want to talk, but Sam one-upped Sophie's need for a father. "There's no need to say anymore, you're the one who left without me!" Donna finally spills the beans. TAKE A CHANCE ON ME Preparations for the wedding are going smoothly at the church. Bill doesn't know what to do anymore; although he claims to be a father, he used to think about living on his own. Ross teased him, "If you have a change of heart, I'm here." The wedding began in an atmosphere of confusion. The time has finally come to make up your mind. What will happen to Donna and Sam? Will Sophie realize her dream?
Three months before the wedding 'I have a dream', Sophie sends letters to the three father candidates in her mother Donna's name, asking them to come to her wedding.
Act 1: The Day Before the Wedding
'Honey Honey', Sophie's sisters Ali and Lisa arrive on the island for Sophie's wedding. They ask if Sophie has found her father, and Sophie tells them that she peeked in her mom's diary and found three objects that could be her father, and now that all three of them have agreed to come to her wedding, she has 24 hours to find out who her father is.
"Money, Money, Money" also features Donna's sisters Rosie and Tanya, who have never been married, and Tanya, who is a three-time divorced rich woman with a huge fortune. Donna, on the other hand, begins to lament the fact that it's not easy to make money.
"Thank you for the music"
The travel writer Bill, the bank clerk Harry, and the architect Sam arrive on the island after a twenty-one year absence, and are greeted by Sophie, who tells them that she sent the invitation in her mother's name, and that Sam is going to leave when he hears about it, because the last time Donna saw him, she said she never wanted to see him again. Sophie keeps Sam in her place. Mamma Mia!" Donna walks out of the room and the three of them come out to meet Donna and Donna is shocked, hell, what are these three doing here.
"Chiquitita" Donna ran to Rosie and Tanya's room, the two coincidentally from the bottom of the bed to turn out the previous three people when the combination of posters and clothing and other things, the two wondered how suddenly Donna has changed a person like, to cover themselves in the quilt, the two asked: "Chiquitita tell me what's wrong? After learning the truth, Donna is no longer in a state of shock after being comforted by them. The "Dancing Queen" trio reminisce about the old days of the group and plan to show off in their group's suits again at the girls' dance tonight.
"Lay all your love on me" is a song where Sophie's boyfriend Sky tells Sophie that it doesn't matter if Sophie doesn't have a father to teach her. After the song, according to local tradition, the boys before the wedding go down to the sea to get something for the bride (pearls?).
The 'Super Trouper' dance party began with Donna and the Dynamos making a reappearance, and the song Super Trouper brought the party to a high.
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme" Sam and the three others also came to the party, and Sophie took the opportunity to find out who might be her father.
"The name of the game" Bill comes out of the dance and Sophie catches up with him, thinking he might be her father, and finally Bill admits that it's possible, promising that he'll be the one to teach Sophie to the groom.
'Voulez-Vous' At this point the boys who had gone out to sea returned and the girls rushed to see what all the fuss was about, and in the confusion both Sam and Harry also found Sophie and said they were her father.
Act 2: The Wedding Day
"Under attack" Sophie has a nightmare about 3 fathers walking her down the white carpet, Sophie feels helpless, Donna sees Sophie and goes up to try to talk her out of it, Sophie says, "I don't want to have to tell my children who their fathers are," and storms off.
'One of us' sees Donna thinking back to when she broke up with her lover. SOS' Sam came to see Donna to talk about Sophie, but the two of them got into a fight, but each of them is still attached to the other.
"Does your mother know" Tanya was sunbathing when Sky's friend Pepper's little brother came over to hit on Tanya, and was ridiculed by Tanya.
"Knowing me knowing you" Sophie asked Sky for help, but Sky was angry that Sophie invited 3 fathers behind his back, and began to suspect that Sophie was using the wedding to find her own father, so she lost her temper and walked away. Think it through.
Our last summer', Harry came to see Donna and the two of them reminisced about the happy times in the past. In "Slipping through my fingers", Sophie seeks Donna's help to put on her wedding gown, and Donna sighs that she is going to lose her daughter. Sophie then decides that Donna will teach her to the groom.
"The winner takes it all" - Sam comes to Donna and asks why Sophie has changed her mind, and Donna tells Sam how much she's missed her over the years and how helpless she is in her relationship. The truth is that they both still love each other.
"Take a Chance on Me" saw Sam and Donna get married, and Bill talking about how he's still single, and Rosie teasing him by saying, "Consider me." Bill was so scared that he rushed to get out of the way, but in the end it was Rosie who prevailed!