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London Theatre Tickets » List of London Shows » Mamma Mia » History
Mamma Mia - History
Mamma Mia - what a show. It was on March 23rd 1999 when Mamma Mia first opened to London audiences and Mamma Mia what a fabulous reception it received.
Mamma Mia was received with rapturous applause and with singing in the aisles, much to the utter delight of the producer Judy Craymer whose original concept was to use well known ABBA songs in a new musical in the hope that the blend would be a success.
Little did she know that the audiences would take to the musical and literally get up and dance in the aisles to the songs of ABBA who had become musical icons during their reign of popular music in the 70's decade.
ABBA - Musical Inspiration for Mamma Mia!
ABBA rose to instant world acclaim as a pop group from Sweden with 2 attractive females and 2 males. ABBA the group was formed in 1970 by Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, The band's name is made up of their first initials. Their first steps to global fame came in 1974 won the Eurovision song content with 'Waterloo'. The followed that success with a phenomenal string of super hits which became disco kings and queens of every club and Christmas party.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Faltskog began working together around 1970 but only released their first single, "People Need Love" in 1972. The Eurovision Song Contest staged at Brighton in 1974 catapulted ABBA onto the international stage when they won with their Swedish entry 'Waterloo'
ABBA then became superstars with hit after hit and nothing they did seems to go wrong. On the contrary, they actually reached their zenith as the most successful business export coming out of Sweden making more money than Volvo motor cars. Although they were together for only a decade before finally splitting in 1982, official estimates in April 1999 showed that ABBA had sold more than 350 million records worldwide with only the Beatles and possibly Elvis having sold more.
It took ABBA Fan Judy Craymer to persuade the writers and lyricists Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to use their renowned songs and put them into a musical around a storyline based on a Greek Island, no one thought the outcome MAMMA MIA would become the international multimillion success story it has today.
Mamma Mia the film
The show has now captured the imagination of Hollywood Movie star Tom Hanks and his production company Playtone who have signed a deal with Judy Craymer and the ABBA song writers Benny and Bjorn to buy the movie rights of the Musical to turn the hit show into a blockbusting movie.
The script will be written by Catherine Johnson who wrote the story for the stage production of Mamma Mia and it is expected that the movie will follow the same stage storyline which has proved so successful.
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia! - Information
Mamma Mia! - Background & History
Mamma Mia! - Story
Mamma Mia! - Reviews
Showing @ Prince of Wales Theatre
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