| Mamma Mia! Movie - Sydney Sunday Telegraph 20 April 2008 Summer Night City
NINE YEARS AFTER ITS WEST END DEBUT, THE ABBA-INSPIRED MUSICAL MAMMA MIA! IS TAKING A CHANCE ON THE BIG SCREEN - WITH HELP FROM SOME HOLLYWOOD SUPER TROUPERS
STORY JOANNE HAWKINS Pierce Brosnan is looking nervous. He may have fought all manner of Bond villains on this very spot in his former incarnation as 007, but today he faces a far more formidable foe - ABBA. A few metres away, Colin Firth is also looking less than relaxed, silently mouthing the words to the Swedish foursome's classic Voulez-Vous and occasionally trying out some tentative dance steps. lt's all you can do not to stare, such is the surprise at seeing Firth, the actor best known for playing the uptight Mr Darcy in both the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice and the Bridget Jones films, attempting to trip the light fantastic. Suddenly, silence is demanded and the familiar cry of "Action!” echoes around the set. The distinctive opening bars of Voulez-Vous start up - for what must be the 30th time today - and Firth and Brosnan join Meryl Streep, Stellan Skarsgard, Julie Walters, plus assorted deeply termed co-stars and extras, in singing, dancing and generally making merry in a Greek village square. It’s quite infectious stuff and, when director Phyllida Lloyd yells " Cut," you cannot wait for them to do it all again. (And in case you’re wondering, Brosnan end Firth pull off their respective solo parts with aplomb, despite their earlier nerves.) Unfortunately, we're not in Greece at all - rather on the massive 007 Stage at England's Pinewood Studios. Outside it’s cold and grey, but inside the giant shed - which had to be rebuilt after fire ripped through it in July 2006 – it’s a balmy 30 degrees. It’s not too hard to imagine we're sitting under some fragrant pink bougainvillea outside a taverna on a Greek island - a feeling helped by the moonlight twinkling over the shimmering blue sea in the distance. The spell is only broken when an English crew member clambers up the nearby ‘cliff' and yells, “Oi, John. Can you chuck me a spanner?” Brosnan, Firth, Streep and co are at Pinewood to make a film version of the smash-hit musical Mamma Mia!, which, since opening in London’s West End in April 1999, has been seen by a staggering 30 million people worldwide. In Australia alone, the show had a record-breaking four-year run across the country, before closing in June 2005. The Aussie audience were part of more than two million people who saw the show across Australasia. “I think we'd exhausted everyone in the country by then," laughs Mamma Mia! producer Judy Craymer, ”but there's talk of bringing it back, which would be great." In the meantime, we have the movie version to look forward to which, like the musical, has been a labour of love for Craymer. She's the woman who first persuaded ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus to allow their precious songs to be made into a musical, although she admits she never imagined it would become the juggernaut it is today “I definitely had no ambition or vision that we'd be here, making a movie," she says. Not that Andersson and Ulvaeus were easily won over. After their less-than-successful first foray into theatre musicals, with Chess - on which Craymer worked as Tim Rice’s executive producer – the Swedish pair were reluctant to do it again, especially as the ABBA revival was yet to happen. (At that point, it was the late-80s and ABBA, who finally split in '82, were still considered a naff '70s pop group.) But Craymer was convinced the lyrical nature of ABBA's songs would lend themselves to a musical with an original story as opposed to a musical ABBA story. “It was 'The Winner Takes it All' that suggested to me the potential of .an original musical using Benny and Björn's classic compositions," remembers Craymer. “The lyrics tell a roller-coaster story of love and loss. It's extraordinarily theatrical." But it wasn't until 1995, after the popularity of the 1992 compilation album ABBA GOLD and films such as Muriel s Wedding and “The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert” in which ABBA's music featured prominently - that Andersson and Ulvaeus admitted Craymer might be on to something. Enter writer Catherine Johnson, who came up with the story of Sophie, a young bride-to-be, who, in a bid to discover the identity of her father, invites three men from her mother Donna's past back to the Greek island they visited 20 years before. Throw in a smorgasbord of ABBA hits, from Take a Chance on Me and SOS to Dancing Queen and, of course, 'The Winner Takes it All', and Craymer was proved right, not to mention in the “money, money. money'. (Although not before she'd sold her flat, racked up a huge overdraft and endured many sleepless nights.) Mamma Mia! has now been seen in more than 160 cities since that first show nine years ago (as well as the more permanent productions, a touring company visits smaller cities for shorter stints) and has been performed in nine languages. Back on the Pinewood set, Brosnan - who plays potential dad Sam Carmichael – chuckles at the irony of being back where he made his four Bond films. “As soon as I arrived, all the ghosts evaporated," he says. “There's an irony in the first film on the new 007 Stage being Mamma Mia!. I had this image of myself walking across the set in my Mamma Mia! outfit and seeing Daniel Craig hanging butchly from a crane or something." Brosnan admits he hadn't seen Mamma Mia! before he was approached for the part. 'They just said, 'Meryl Streep... Mamma Mia!' and I said, “I’m in.” He wasn’t a big fan of musicals before he saw it in London (unlike Streep, who’d seen the Broadway production five years prior and loved it so much she wrote to the cast to tell them how great they were). “Ironically, the day I went to see Mamma Mia! was the day after my father's funeral. His name was Bill Carmichael, so it was rather poignant when this character came out and said his name was Sam Carmichael and he mentioned some bagpipes – the day before, I'd been sending off my father with some bagpipes. It was almost meant to be. I'm a great believer in fate. "I went into the theatre that night with a cynical, jaded eye. But, 15 minutes in, I was in the heart of the piece. The show seems to make people feel great." Firth admits he wasn't a fan of musicals, either. They're not my first choice of entertainment, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. And it's largely due to the power of the songs; they're not as straightforward as they might initially seem." He was attracted to the role of Harry Bright, another of Donna's ex-boyfriends, because of the appeal of “going into the unfamiliar territory" of a musical. "I don't watch BBC costume dramas, either," .he smiles, referring to his role in Pride and Prejudice.
All the actors have already laid down their main vocals with Andersson and Ulvaeus in a recording studio; a process most describe as intimidating".
“The night before, I was faintly terrified," admits Brosnan. “l was up at 2am in my hotel room, singing into the mirror. But Benny and Björn couldn't have been more charming. There were these guys, who I'd seen over the years, sitting at the piano and they just said, ‘Let's sing!' I actually found it exhilarating."
Over on one side of the set, actor Christine Baranski is repeatedly practising her part from 'Voulez-Vous'. She's particularly pleased to have been cast in the movie because Johnson originally based her character (Tanya) on Maryann, Baranski's character in the TV show Cybill. "It’s like it's come full circle. I have the chance to work with Meryl Streep and sing Does Your Mother Know?' on a beach in Greece with 30 male dancers. I don't see a downside to this job," gushes Baranski.
In another corner, actor Amanda Seyfried (Sophie) and up-and-coming English thespian Dominic Cooper (who plays her fiancé, Sky) are gossiping and giggling between takes, looking very comfortable in their roles as husband and wife-to-be. Although Cooper says he was very surprised to land the role (“I can't sing,” he insists), Craymer says he was cast because he is “traditionally handsome but off-the-wall, and full of charm and charisma."
As for Seyfried, best known for her role in SBS's polygamy drama, Big Love, she was chosen because “she’s the ‘idyllic dream’ - blonde, pretty and minxy. "When we were casting, we were looking for actors who had great chemistry to capture the energy of the show," says Craymer. “We’ve staged Mamma Mia! very successfully around the world with incredibly stars, so to be making a movie with the likes of Meryl, Pierce, Julie, Christine, Stellan and Colin is a bit of ‘I have a dream' sequence."
This is the third day the cast have been sheeting the ‘Voulez-Vous' number, in which the characters of Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard (who plays the third potential father candidate, Bill) discover why Sophie has brought them to the (fictional) Greek island of Kalokairi. Each actor's solo is filmed from different angles, plus there are numerous takes of the final chorus with the whole cast, before Streep's character, Donna, collapses when she comes face-to-face with her three exes.
Firth admits it's difficult to extract the ABBA songs out of his head when he finishes filming for the day. “I think they'll have to arrange a special 12-step program for all of us," he jokes. “It’s incredible the effect they have. You’ll be carrying ‘Voulez-Vous' for days, whether you like it or not."
All the cast and crew are looking forward to production shifting to the real Greek islands of Skiathos and Skopelos, where exterior scenes will be filmed. Production designer Maria Djurkovic, responsible for the overall look of the film, chose the islands because they feature a “sexy lushness we felt was necessary. There’s a certain theatricality to the locations; we’ve found some spectacular spots. They're terribly beautiful."
According to Craymer, "Hollywood has been after Mamma Mia! for years, but it's only now they've felt the time was right to make a film. “Phyllida (Lloyd, the director), Catherine and I are 50 this year, so we thought we'd better get on with it," she laughs. “I also felt we'd reached the time when the musical could sit happily side by side with a film. Thirty years ago, you never did a film before a musical had finished its life in the theatre, but things have changed. Chicago showed me that an audience was happy to see both. But protective of their baby to the end, a film would only be made if Craymer, Lloyd and Johnson were at the helm, a situation Tom Hanks' production company, Playtone, was happy to go along with. “The film is a fantastic way to mark our upcoming 10th anniversary. That said, we're still opening the musical in new territories as well," adds Craymer. lt seems the sky's the limit for Mamma Mia! In the absence of Andersson and Ulvaeus, it’s only fitting we leave it to the cast's token Swede (Skarsgard) to try to sum up the appeal of the musical - even if he was not originally an ABBA fan. “I like their music much better than l did 20 or 30 years ago," he says, in his heavily accented English. '“It has a very friendly quality. It’s silly but it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's good fun - I see Björn and Benny's very nice faces smiling at you throughout the performance." Mamma Mia! opens in cinemas from July 10. Sunday Telegraph Mamma Mia! Article Pictures #1
Sunday Telegraph Mamma Mia! Article Pictures #2 Thanks to ABBAMAILer Mark Hannam, Sydney, Australia for alerting us to the existence of this article |
