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Mamma Mia is a jukebox musical with a book by British playwrite Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, former members of the band.

Bjorn and Benny, who composed the original music for ABBA ,were involved in the development of the show from the begining,. Anni-Frid Hungstad has been involved in the financial production.

The musical includes such hits as “Super Trouper”, “Dancing Queen”, “Money, Money, Money”, “I have a dream” and “SOS”.

It had been seen by over ten million people worldwide as of July 2003.Estimates in 2007 bring the number to 30 million.

Since its opening in 1999, the production has grossed US$ 2.0 billion in earnings.

Mamma Mia is based on the songs of ABBA, which was a swedish pop dance group, one of the most internationally popular pop groups of all time topping the charts in Europe, North America and Australia.

This musical was the brain child of creative producer Judy Craymer. She met Bjorn and Benny in 1983 when they were working with Tim Rice on chess.

In 1997, Craymer commissioned Catherine Johnson to write the book the musical which is based on the film Buona Sera.

In 1998, Phyllida Lloyd became the director for the show. It was very unusual for three women to form the colloborative force and behind such a commercial success in musical theatre.

The story takes place on a Greek Island (Calicos).Sophie-20 year old girl is preparing to marry her fiance, Sky. She wants her father to walk her down the aisle but doesn’t know who he is. Sophie discover’s her mother’s old diary and finds enteries which describe intimate dates with three men.She believes that one of these men is her father and three months prior to the meeting, sends each an invitation of her wedding writing as her mother Donna, without letting her know.

The day before the wedding, Donna begins receiving guests at her taverna. Later that day, Sophie’s three possible father’s arrive. Sophie convinced them not to tell Donna that she invited them. Donna walks into the taverna just as Sophie walks out and is surprised to see her Ex- lovers and runs to her room in tears.

Sophie had hoped that she would know her father the moment she saw him. But in the end Sam and Donna were married at the end of the night, Sophie & Sky depart on a world tour.

Tim Rice who was the producer of “Chess” was looking for someone to write the score for his musical, “Chess”.

Rice’s reputation and the work that he was doing turned out to be an instant draw for Benny and Bjorn. In this, Rice originally approached Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the score but already committed to other projects, both Benny and Bjorn did well in the charts.

“One Night in Bangkok” first appeared on the UK charts and then topped the charts in France, Australia, Belgium, South Africa & Denmark.

The London production team of Tim Rice, Judy Craymer, Anderson and Ulvaeus brought the show to the West End in 1986, where it ran for three years.

Then they finally decided to bring the show to Broadway.

The broadway production opened on April 28, 1988 with an entirely new cast. With poor review from the New York times leading to the series of unfavourable criticisms, the show proved to the even less of commercial success than its predecessor losing $ 6 million dollars.

Having a pedigree in London theatre in which audience see performances of high quality, Judy Craymer worked to make her idea of an all- ABBA musical a reality. She was convinced that there was a theatrical performance behind the songs of ABBA and her determination persuaded ABBA’s Benny, Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to “take a chance” and let her hire Catherine Johnson and writer and Director Phyllida Lloyd and create “Mamma Mia” Johnson remarked.

As a result, Mamma Mia was able to fund the first production of Mamma Mia with $4.8 million.

Once the show opened, it took fewer than 27 weeks for Craymer to make back the initial investment.

Infact two touring companies were created and Mamma Mia brought productions to Buffalo, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Columbus, Rochester and Tampa

As the touring companies performed across the US and the Toronto and London productions continued to sell out, Craymer and the production team slowly edged closer to bringing the show to Broadway.

Thus Broadway version cost $10 million to produce and was able to recoup its entire investment in just six months.

With six productions of the show performing concurrently world-wide, Craymer began licensing the show to production companies in other countries, where it was translated in different languages.

As different version of “Mamma Mia!” got started in different languages, so “Mamma Mia!” has become a corporation i.e it has turned into a sizable organisation running shows all over the world.

By the end of 2002- the global wide phenomenon had grossed more than $400 million with one-day box office record in London of $831,000 in ticket sales.

This shows how a simple business plan had morphed into 9-production sensation employing over 700 people.

Thank You!