The winner takes it all!
Thu 15 Jun 2017The first thing to be said, is that it almost didn’t make it to the stage at all. The musical is the brainchild of producer Judy Craymer, who first suggested the idea to ABBA songwriters Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson in 1983, when all three were working on the Tim Rice musical Chess. She’d been impressed by the theatricality of songs like The Winner Takes It All. The songwriters were less than enthusiastic about the idea.
Craymer, however, was a determined woman, and did not give up. She says: “It’s been said that, for a long time, the story of Mamma Mia! was the story of Judy Craymer and two blokes with beards who kept saying no.” But eventually, after more than a decade of persuasion, the two blokes with beards – Björn and Benny – said yes.
But even with their agreement, bringing Mamma Mia! to the stage was not easy, as Craymer recalls: “People always said ABBA’s passé, finished, but I knew those songs had a theatricality, and my dream was to make musical theatre.” But Craymer believed in her idea – and even went so far as to sell her flat to get the money to invest.
Mamma Mia! eventually opened in London’s West End in 1999, directed by respected theatre director Phyllida Lloyd. Of course, Judy Cramer’s instincts were Abba-solutely (sorry, couldn’t resist) right, and the show became a huge success. It’s still running in the West End, and became the eighth longest-running Broadway show and the longest-running jukebox musical in Broadway history. It’s been staged in more than 40 countries in six continents, and been translated in 22 different languages. More than sixty million people worldwide are believed to have seen the show.
It’s also made Judy Craymer, the woman who risked her home to make it happen, a lot of money. But that doesn’t mean she’s resting on her laurels – she’s still working to make sure Mamma Mia! does: “You need to be there to oversee things, make sure tickets are going on sale in the right way, publicity, marketing. I’m permanently worrying about something, that is the producer’s life, you can never quite let go.”
Mamma Mia!: The Theatre, Tuesday 11-Saturday 29 July.