Mamma Mia! featured on Elaine Paige's BBC Show

By: Nov. 18, 2005
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Tune in online to BBC Radio 2 at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/paige/musical.shtml beginning this Sunday, November 20th from 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. (EST) (1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. -GMT) as Britain's leading musical theatre actress Elaine Paige (Evita, Cats, Chess, Sunset Boulevard) puts the spotlight on the original cast recording of MAMMA MIA! Elaine features a landmark musical every week, bringing her listeners fascinating facts and classic numbers from her favorite productions. BBC Radio 2 is also broadcast on 88.8 FM in London.

Executive Producer of Chess, Judy Craymer, suggested the idea of a musical based around the hits of ABBA to Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. She convinced them that it would be possible to construct a story to weave around the songs, and Bristol based playwright Catherine Johnson was given the task of writing the book.

Bjorn demanded that the story was more important than the song, so some of the lyrics were altered to fit the storyline. The challenge for Johnson was that, "whatever happens in the story, I always have to come back to the song." They were all intent on creating believable characters and a convincing storyline and the result was the tale of a bride to be, Sophie, trying to find her father in order to give her away at her wedding.

MAMMA MIA! premiered on April 6th, 1999 (25 years to the day that ABBA had won the Eurovision Song Contest) at the Prince Edward Theatre in London. The show was a massive success, going on to become arguably the world's biggest stage musical, opening on Broadway and in Japan, Germany, Holland, Spain, and of course, Sweden. It's now the longest running musical ever to play the Las Vegas strip and has been seen by over 20 million people worldwide.

MAMMA MIA! features twenty-two of ABBA's hits including, 'Super Trouper', 'Dancing Queen' and 'The Winner Takes It All'. The international tour of 'Mamma Mia!', which has just celebrated it's first anniversary, will play Belfast and Edinburgh next year.

For MAMMA MIA! tickets and worldwide schedule visit www.mamma-mia.com


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