Why Mama Mia is the Best Musical Ever Made

 by Saffron Irons

After watching the film Mamma Mia for the first time when I was four years old, this feel-good jukebox musical has become a large part of my life and quite frankly my personality. Anyone who knows me knows that I can relate pretty much any life experience to a scene from Mamma Mia, as well as anything anyone says to an ABBA song. I have been lucky enough to see the live musical twice, once for my 12th birthday and again for my 17th. For the latter, I saw it performed in the Novello theatre in the West End and it was an incredible experience that I would recommend to absolutely everyone. Unlike many musicals, as well having been performed to over 65 million audience members in 440 countries, the film Mamma Mia has also been extremely successful, and there has even been a second film released proving to be almost as good as the first! This fact along with the feel-good storyline fitting perfectly with ABBA’s greatest hits makes it what I believe to be one of the best musicals ever written. 

So how did the musical Mamma Mia come to be? It all began with Judy Craymer, the original producer of Mamma Mia. She had worked alongside ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulveaus as well as Tim Rice with their musical Chess (another great musical with some very catchy songs). She was fascinated with their writing style and previous ABBA songs, particularly the way that each song seemed to contain its own storyline. She also noticed that many of the songs seemed to come from a female perspective, sparking the initial idea of a mother and daughter storyline. Craymer’s starting point was the song “The Winner Takes it All'', she claimed that it was ‘a great sad love song that could make you laugh and cry at the same time’. Whichever way this song is interpreted, there is no doubt about the emotion  behind it, and it is no surprise that this expression of heartbreak from long ago was the initial inspiration behind Mamma Mia. After coming up with the idea, Craymer recruited Catherine Johnson as the writer and Phyllida Lloyd as the director, and together these three women, much like their own characters ‘Donna and the Dynamos’, created the masterpiece that is Mamma Mia the musical. They worked alongside Benny and Björn to adapt the original ABBA songs to their story, both men appreciating the new interpretations of their music, while explaining some of the ideas behind their songs and how this could relate to the musical. After the first performance in 1999 the Mamma Mia team had no idea that people would still be arriving in crowds to see this musical almost 23 years later. Judy Craymer said herself, ‘I love the fact that the show brings people together and that the audiences feel like they have something in common’, as well as the fact that it ‘creates quite a community - a family’. At the show, I met people of all generations, cultures and backgrounds and yet each one of us was singing along, laughing, dancing, clapping and cheering, long after the show had ended and it really did feel like a community, united by their love of ABBA and the heartwarming story of Mamma Mia. 

On the 10th of July 2008 the incredible film adaptation of Mamma Mia was released. The same power trio of Craymer, Jonson, and Lloyd worked to cast, write and direct the film. This is shown in the way that the energy of the musical is captured so well through the camera. For the film, they recruited some of the most famous actors of all time: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, and Colin Firth, and I believe this genius casting is the reason the film works so well. Each of the actors did an amazing job of capturing the soul of their character, and some of the most hilarious lines would have completely lost their comedic value if not delivered in the way they were. One of the most iconic features of the film compared to the musical is the fact that they asked all the actors to sing all their own songs rather than being dubbed by professional singers. While this lowers the quality of singing, it provides an authenticity that is lost in the live musical, as if the characters in the film are real people, singing just as well as the average person could when expressing their emotions through song. I noticed this difference most when seeing the musical in the West End. Obviously, these singers were professional and had utterly amazing voices, however, I felt as if it was harder to become lost in the storyline as the characters felt less real and therefore less engaging. An advantage of watching this film for the first time at age four, is that every time I have watched it since then, I’ve understood a little more about the story and expressions used. Even now when I watch it (roughly once a month) I understand a few more of the jokes and innuendos that once went over my head. It is the extremely clever combination of fun songs, silly people in flippers and adult humour, that make Mamma Mia a film that can be enjoyed by anyone from four to a hundred and four. 

10 years later In July 2018, Judy Craymer and her dynamos shared to the world their third masterpiece: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Following an incredibly good first one, I had low expectations. How often is the second film as good as the first? However, I was not disappointed. While in this film the cringe factor is amped up, the dancing even more over the top and the filming slightly too perfectionist, overall it is an extremely good film. Set in a time both before and after the first one, it answers many questions left unanswered by Mamma Mia. Although Donna is not a part of this film, it still provides a similar heartwarming story that all Mamma Mia fans love and crave. Beginning in the future with Sophie growing up and fulfilling her mothers dreams, it flashes back to young Donna, played amazingly by Lily James. They manage to catch the essence of young Donna’s character incredibly well, using only passing lines and throwaway comments from the original Mamma Mia. This is the most impressive part of this movie as they obviously studied the first one extremely well, looking for clues of what Donna was like in her younger life and how she came to be living on a remote greek island with her daughter, not knowing who the dad is. Although there are a few inconsistencies, the majority of Here We Go Again matches up perfectly with Mamma Mia and is extremely clever. They also managed to use all the best ABBA songs from the first film plus a few extra songs that work incredibly well. 

As you have probably noticed by now, I believe that Mamma Mia, both the musical and the films, are some of the best pieces of entertainment out there. The musicality, storyline and characters are inspirational and both films provide extreme happiness and comfort to me each time I watch them.