http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Features/20080330174052/Article/indexF_html

A highly successful musical, Mamma Mia! draws record earnings whenever staged around the world. Now fans can look forward to the film version, with plenty of ABBA’s music and A-List Hollywood stars.

THE 007 stage at Pinewood Studios is jumping; ABBA’s 1979 hit Voulez-Vous belting out high-tempo, glitzy Swedish pop music and rattling the bones of anyone within earshot.

Outside, it is a typically British summer’s day; inside the James Bond stage is currently dressed in the warm and cosy clothing of a bright Greek Taverna, playing host to the set of Mamma Mia!, the big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical.

The northern end of the studio is draped in a lightweight blue canvas, punctured by thousands of tiny light bulbs, miniscule impostors mimicking the twinkling stars, while below is a thick brick wall that overlooks an imaginary sea. Sprawling down the studio stretches a large Mediterranean homestead, a small hillock cresting the southern arches, buildings standing tall and neat on three of the four sides, while all around glides a swirling troupe of scantily-clad dancers.

“You know what,” beams the film’s production designer, Maria Djurkovic, during a break in the thundering music, “really this stage isn’t big enough for what we wanted to do.” Which, given the size of the stage — and the fact that it regularly plays host to the high-octane hi-jinks of Britain’s most famous spy — only adds to the sense of scale. This is a super-sized production.

“Of course, mounting a film production is very different from the stage show,” chimes producer Judy Craymer, who developed the stage musical with the ABBA duo Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and who is now overseeing its cinematic interpretation.

“But we’re working with the same director, Phyllida Lloyd, who did such a good job directing the show, and of course Benny and Björn have been involved all along.”

As Benny and Björn again make their presence felt at Pinewood — the music picking up, and Voulez-Vous once more ringing around the stage — the dancers begin to spin around stationary cameras, hand in hand, while dotted among them, grinning broadly, go a cluster of famous faces: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, Colin Firth and Stellen Skarsgard, each one of these distinguished players a leading character in the film.

The characters that they play mirror those in Craymer’s stage show, with 22-year-old Amanda Seyfried starring as Sophie, the bride-to-be who bids to discover the identity of her father by inviting the three potential candidates to her wedding — Sam, Harry and Bill, played by Brosnan, Firth and Skarsgard — and who, by doing so, whips up an emotional maelstrom for her single mother, Donna, played by Streep, and Donna’s two best friends, Tanya and Rosie, played by Christine Baranski and Julie Walters.

“Getting Meryl Streep to play Donna was so exciting,” continues Craymer.

“Meryl has such a lovely singing voice, too, and of course she sang quite recently on camera, on Robert Altman’s last film, A Prairie Home Companion. And when you look at the three men, what better bunch than Pierce, Colin and Stellen. They perhaps don’t all have the same musical and dancing abilities, but that’s a good thing!”

Riddled with humour and emotion, the film bids to strike the same tone as its stage-bred progenitor, a deliriously happy, feel-good ride that ensures those that have witnessed its musical delights leave the auditorium in a state of giddy elation.

“Imagine what it’s like for us, and the stage performers,” offers Firth. “I think they should arrange a special ABBA detox programme, a special 12-step programme for all of us! I do like ABBA, though. Absolutely. There’s nothing not to like. The fact they’ve survived is a testament to them.

Indeed, as one may expect, all the principle cast members proclaim a fondness for the pop group’s iconic music, and while ABBA may not be cool — GQ editor Dylan Jones terms them “a couple of over-made-up barmaids and a couple of blokes who looked like Hale and Pace” — few folk would find it easy to profess an honest dislike for these timeless Scandinavian troubadours.

“I think most people like ABBA, really,” says Seyfried. “The younger ones on the production all know ABBA and so do the older ones, they cross all those boundaries. I think Stellen, who’s Swedish himself, says he didn’t grow up with them; he was older and more into punk, he says! But I think they are one of those few timeless groups.”

“I think that’s true,” echoes Pierce Brosnan. “I didn’t buy ABBA, there were certain things you didn’t buy even though you liked them secretly. I still danced to ABBA, and why wouldn’t I want to do a film like this? It’s a different experience for me; it’s working with Meryl Streep and a wonderful cast. Plus the stage show was so successful.”

This almost seems an understatement; there are more productions of Mamma Mia! playing around the world than any other musical. Indeed, over 30 million tickets have been sold worldwide, the show grossing over US$2 billion (RM6.2 billion) at the international box office. Obviously, any film will struggle to generate quite the same return, but none would refute the fact that there is a ready-made market for the film.

“The fact that it is the same team that put together the show, and that Benny and Björn worked with us on all the songs, should stand us in good stead,” continues Brosnan. “Working with those two was both terrifying and amazing. I sing SOS with Meryl, and I have a solo, then there’s When All is Said and Done, and then I sing with the two other lads, Our Last Summer. Luckily, they rehearsed me well and trained me well and so by the time I got into the studio, it was fairly easy going.”

For Skarsgard, meanwhile, who trots back to work with a wry smile, the musical enterprise is not quite so easy-going. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” he smiles. “Now I’ve been dancing for four days! I’ve probably moved more than I did in the last four years put together. It’s hard work, like boxing, and with the exception of us few old timers, everybody else is20 years old and professional. Still, it is very good fun and working with Lloyd has been great.”

The Swedish star notes that the director, while making her debut behind a camera, is a picture of serenity, her calmness belying her lack of experience. “She’s very aware of getting into the frame what she wants in the frame and she has a fantastic coolness,” he explains. “She doesn’t raise her voice or anything. She’s not stressed, she just walks around and she finds out what she wants and she goes in and she just says the most necessary words, and as a theatre director she is, of course, very good with actors.

“Anyway, this is a big and very talented production. It’s not a first-time director who’s starting out with a little handheld video in a back yard! This is Mamma Mia! and it’s a very big machine.”

As Voulez-Vous strikes up for the umpteenth time, and Skarsgard crosses back to the main stage, he looks back and smiles. “I just hope they go with Colin’s idea for an ABBA detox once we’re through,” he croaks above the music. “I’m going to be singing this for months!” — Courtesy of United International Pictures