After over 5000 performances, millions of fans around the world and a whole lot of excitement, Mamma Mia ended its record-breaking 14-year-long Broadway run a month ago, on September 12, 2015.
Now, in its 16th year, the hit musical had its London premiere in April 1999. It was later adapted as a film in 2008 and grossed more than $144 million in the US alone, and is currently holding the title of top-grossing musical film ever.
During its run, the show has grossed over $600 million on Broadway. For many years, it consistently earned close to $1 million a week at the box office, but sales dropped over the past two years, averaging about $500,000 a week.
While the trend to create a musical based on album is not a new one, something on the lines of Mamma Mia, which continues to thrill the audiences even now is a rarity. The show weaves its tale of a young girl’s yearning to find her father and the drama (and hilarity) that ensues when the three possible candidates arrive on her wedding day, through the story telling magic of the songs of ABBA.
The film adaptation was remarkable not only because of its ‘triangular’ magic, but due to the very name of it related to the brand image of the admired pop band and its popular songs. British Director Phyllida Lloyd and her friends had directed this film owing to their fondness towards ABBA and its incomplete rhymes. The movie released in 2008 is a visual dedication to ABBA. The music of the movie was handled by none other than the ABBA singer Benny Andersson.
Mamma Mia (MM) can be described as a tribute to ABBA, which after Beatles, had created songs of endearments and travails. There are 17 songs of the band in one reel, rendered by celebrities, including Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried.
When the film was created as a musical tribute to the band, Phyllida Lloyd didn’t think twice before finalising its name as Mamma Mia. John Silvius, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad – singers who were into jazz, rock and pop at Stockholm in Sweden formed ABBA after tying up the first letters of their names.
For 10 long years, they kept aloof the silence in the world through their songs. 380 million copies of albums and singles were sold out. A rare musical camaraderie created with the help of running their fingers in guitar, keyboard and violin. But MM is not the story of their friendship.
As described above, this is an ensemble of a quartet, a daughter and three dads. The only full-length character of the story is the mother of the girl. All characters in the film are singers and their lips are reddened with the rhythms of ABBA. As anyone in travails, anterooms and romantic daydreams is in a humming mood, ABBA notes stay alive with the characters, all the time.
Donna is a middle-aged woman running a hotel in a small island, Kalokairi in Greece. Her smile is filled with the penury of solitude, which lasted for almost half the life of her. Still she celebrates life because she has a daughter, 20-year-old Sophy, who is the most glamorous girl in the island. But she doesn't know who her father is. For Sophy, her father was like the forgotten lines of a song. Even then, her life from infancy, is pictured like a beautiful song.
The story starts with the marriage of Sophy. The groom is her playmate. During the preparations of the marriage, she gets an old diary of her mother. The pages of the diary reflected the memories of a golden age when her mother was beautiful and youthful like her. It contained a secret, which her mother had kept away from her till date. She realised that her mother had been engaged with three men - Irish-American architect Sam, Swedish writer Bill Anderson and British bank officer Harry Brite. One among them was her father, she knew.
Without telling her mother, she sent letters to all three men separately. It was also a wedding invitation. She also wrote the lines of an ABBA song, which ran through them during their zealous youthful days: “I have a dream, a song to sing...”
As she wished, all the three men showed up on her wedding day. Three possible dads, and a trip down the aisle you'll never forget! MM is an infectious and funny musical featuring 22 of ABBA's best known songs, including The Winner Takes It All, Money Money Money, Dancing Queen, Chiquitita, Voulez Vous, S.O.S, Thank You for the Music, Knowing Me Knowing You, and, of course, Mamma Mia.
Over ten million people all around the world have fallen in love with the characters, the story and the music that make MM the ultimate feel-good show, a brilliantly thought up musical.
The music glides along so perfectly with the story, you would think it was written with the musical already in mind. Hilariously funny and at the same time, a very touching story. Its immense popularity ever since it was released in 1999 stands testimony to one thing - that ABBA has no age or time barrier, for being loved by all.