Mamma Mia! (Musical)

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Mamma Mia!
Mammamia-logo-dutch.svg
Musical dates
Title: Mamma Mia!
Music: Benny Andersson , Björn Ulvaeus
Book: Catherine Johnson
Premiere: April 6, 1999
Place of premiere: London, Prince Edward Theater
Playing time: approx. 2 hours and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute break
Place and time of the action: Greece
Roles / people
  • Mother donna
  • Daughter Sophie
  • Sky (Sophie's groom)
  • Sophie's possible fathers:
    • Harry (British banker)
    • Sam (American architect)
    • Bill (Australian writer)
  • Donna's childhood friends:
    • Rosie (single)
    • Tanja (divorced several times)
  • Sophie and Sky's friends:
    • Pepper
    • Eddie
    • Ali
    • Lisa

Mamma Mia! is a jukebox musical that uses well-known pieces of music by the Swedish pop group ABBA . The compositions are by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus , the libretto with the story of a single mother Donna and her daughter Sophie, who is about to get married, by the British author Catherine Johnson .

The musical, in which world hits like Dancing Queen , Super Trouper and The Winner Takes It All can be heard, is also known as a pop comedy. It is currently one of the world's most successful musicals.

The genesis

The genesis of the musical Mamma Mia is curious. After the success of their musical Chess , Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (members of the band ABBA) were rather skeptical of the idea of ​​performing a musical with the earlier ABBA hits. They feared a shallow nostalgia revue in which the ABBA songs would be arranged in an alienated way.

Nevertheless, some text authors worked out different concepts (including a variant of animal fables). Finally, Catherine Johnson presented a “mother-daughter story” in the form of a turbulent comedy of confusion, in which the pieces of music were imaginatively combined to form a homogeneous story. The former ABBA band members agreed to this concept.

Björn Ulvaeus later said: “ Mamma Mia! is a musical that we didn't even know we wrote! "

The plot

The ABBA musical is not about the unique success story of the Swedish pop group, but about the single mother Donna, who has lived with her 20-year-old daughter Sophie on a small Greek island since the 1970s and runs a self-made tavern there.

"'Mamma Mia!' combines ABBA's top hits with a lively story about the power woman Donna and three of her former lovers in a rousing jukebox musical. [...] Despite the spartan stage design, which consists of only two parts of the wall that can be moved and thus form the appropriate backdrop as a port, hotel or room, the viewer is drawn into the turbulent history. Blue light conveys the feeling of being by the sea and is always reminiscent of the summery Greek setting of 'Mamma Mia!' "

- Sabine Miesgang : ABBA. The special issue, Rock Classics 10

1st act

Sophie invites her three possible fathers to her upcoming wedding. ( My dream carries me / I Have a Dream ) However, she does not add that one of the three could be her father. She got her fatherhood information from her mother Donna's diary. A little later Sophie shows her best friends Lisa and Ali the diary and they read from it. ( Honey, Honey ) Meanwhile, Donna is in the middle of preparing for the upcoming wedding. She gets a visit from her old friends Rosie and Tanja. They used to sing together in the band Donna and the Dynamos . Donna complains to her friends about the suffering of her stressful work and dreams of being rich. ( Money, Money, Money ) Shortly after Donna and her friends disappeared, the three possible fathers Sam, Bill and Harry appear. Sophie receives them and tells them that they are surprise guests for Donna. ( Thanks for the songs / Thank You for the Music ) Donna finally notices her guests. When she sees Sam, she remembers the old days when he hurt her very much. ( Mamma Mia ) Donna disappears sadly into her room. Rosie and Tanja try to comfort her. ( Chiquitita ) To get Donna to change her mind, the two discover their old band costumes and review the times. ( Dancing Queen ) Sophie wants to spend the last day with Sky in intimate togetherness on the beach. However, they get in touch with Sky's friends who are planning a bachelorette party with him. (Put your heart on a leash / Lay All Your Love on Me) In the evening, Sophie celebrates her bachelorette party with her friends. Donna, Tanja and Rosie appear as show acts. ( Super Trouper ) After that the guys show up at the party too. ( Give me, give me, give me! / Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! ) Sophie and Bill have an intense conversation during this time. ( What kind of game is this? / The Name of the Game ) After all, Sam, Bill and Harry both believe they are Sophie's father and gradually tell Sophie that they will lead her to the altar. ( Voulez-Vous )

2nd act

Sophie is plagued by a bad nightmare because she does not know how to solve the father question . ( Under attack / Under Attack ) The next day Sam wants to speak to Donna and apologizes to her. ( SOS ) Outside, Pepper approaches Tanja. She warns him about the big age difference, but Pepper tries to convince Tanja that they will become a couple. ( If Mommy Knows / Does Your Mother Know ) . When Donna prepares Sophie for her wedding, she reminisces. (Time is running through my fingers / Slipping Through My Fingers) . Despite Sam's apology, Donna again complains about her suffering. ( The winner has the choice / The Winner Takes It All ) . Meanwhile, Rosie and Bill prepare the wedding hall. Rosie has taken a liking to Bill and tries to convince him into a relationship. ( Come and wag me! / Take a Chance on Me ) The wedding is in full swing. Sophie and Sky decide not to get married in front of the altar in order to sail around the world together. Without further ado, Sam makes a marriage proposal to Donna and the two get married. ( I want, I want, I want / I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do ) Who Sophie's father is is not important to her. Sophie says goodbye to her family and goes on a journey with Sky. (My dream carries me / I Have a Dream (reprise))

The songs in the musical

1st act

2nd act

In the meantime, the music of the musical has been published in seven different languages ​​as the so-called "Original Cast Recording Album". In addition to the original English version, there is a German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, Korean and French version.

Premiere and venues

General

The musical had its first unofficial performance on March 23, 1999 in London. The official world premiere took place on April 6, 1999 in the Prince Edward Theater in London - exactly 25 years after the victory of the pop group ABBA in the Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo on April 6, 1974. The Hamburg version was the first non-English version of the Musicals. The German texts were written by the well-known musical librettist Michael Kunze , who wrote the German versions of Cats and Evita and who wrote lyrics for Udo Jürgens on a regular basis.

Special premieres

  • World premiere : April 6, 1999 at the Prince Edward Theater, London
  • US premiere: November 15, 2000 at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco
  • Broadway Premiere: October 18, 2001 at the Winter Garden Theater in New York
  • Germany premiere: November 3rd, 2002 in the Operettenhaus in Hamburg
  • International Tour Premiere: September 4, 2004 at The Point Theater, Dublin (Public Premiere September 9, 2004)

Current venues

Fixed venues

As of November 2018, Mamma Mia! at the following fixed venues:

country Venue theatre premiere Last performance
Germany Berlin Theater of the West 22nd September 2019 March 12, 2020
Netherlands Utrecht Beatrix Theater 23rd September 2018 29th December 2019
Slovakia Bratislava Divadlo Nová scéna November 11, 2017 December 9, 2018
United Kingdom London Novello Theater September 1, 2012 1 - open -

1 Mamma Mia! has been running in London since 1999, but has changed venues twice since then.

Tours

Furthermore, Mamma Mia! as of November 2018 on the international tour through changing countries and cities in Asia. A production is also currently on view on ships of the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line .

Previous venues

Mamma Mia! at the Prince of Wales Theater in London
Mamma Mia! at the Winter Garden Theater in New York City
Mamma Mia! in the Operettenhaus in Hamburg
Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theater in Toronto

The following list takes into account all previous venues with permanent productions by Mamma Mia! that were listed in the respective national language. The numerous venues for the country-specific and international tour versions are not listed here.

country Venues theatre premiere Last performance
Australia Melbourne Princess Theater 0June 9, 2001 June 23, 2002
Belgium Antwerp Stadsschouwburg March 12 2006 0July 2, 2006
Brazil São Paulo Paramount Theater Nov 10, 2010  
Denmark Copenhagen Concert halls in Tivoli Oct 15, 2010 27 Mar 2011
Denmark Arhus Musikhuset Århus Nov 24, 2011  
Germany Berlin Theater on Potsdamer Platz Oct 18, 2007 Jan. 26, 2009
Germany Berlin Theater of the West Oct 26, 2014 Feb 14, 2015
Germany eat Colosseum theater 0May 6, 2007 July 27, 2008
Germany Hamburg Operettenhaus 0Nov 3, 2002 08 Sep 2007
Germany Stuttgart Palladium Theater July 18, 2004 0Sep 9 2007
Germany Stuttgart Palladium Theater Feb. 14, 2013 0Oct 5, 2014
Germany Oberhausen Metronome theater 05th Mar 2015 0Oct 2, 2015
Finland Helsinki The Swedish National Theater 27 Sep 2014  
France Paris Théâtre Mogador Oct 28, 2010 0July 1, 2012
Great Britain London Prince Edward Theater World Premiere 0Apr 6, 1999 May 27, 2004
Great Britain London Prince of Wales Theater  June 2004  Aug 2012
Italy Milan Teatro Nazionale 25 Sep 2010  Apr. 2011
Italy Rome Brancaccio Theater Oct 13, 2011  Feb. 2012
Japan Fukuoka City Theater May 19, 2007 Sep 30 2007
Japan Nagoya Shiki Shin Nagoya Musical Theater Feb 26, 2008 Feb 28, 2009
Japan Osaka Shiki Theater 0Jan. 9, 2005 Feb 12, 2007
Japan Tokyo Dentsu Shiki Theater SEA 0Dec. 1, 2002 Nov 28, 2004
Canada Toronto Royal Alexandra Theater May 23, 2000 May 22, 2005
Mexico Mexico city Centro Cultural Telmex 1 July 29, 2009  
Netherlands Utrecht Beatrix Theater 0Nov 9, 2003 Feb 12, 2006
Norway Oslo Folketeatret 19 Mar 2009 Dec. 19, 2009
Austria Vienna Raimund Theater 19 Mar 2014 June 28, 2015
Poland Warsaw Teatr Muzyczny Roma Feb 21, 2015  
Russia Moscow MDM Theater Oct 14, 2006 Apr 30, 2008
Sweden Gothenburg Scandinavium 0May 9, 2007 June 17, 2007
Sweden Stockholm Circus Theater Feb 12, 2005 0Jan. 7, 2007
Spain Barcelona Barcelona Teatre Musical Nov 29, 2007 Jan. 11, 2009
Spain Barcelona Teatre Tívoli Nov 26, 2015 Feb. 27, 2016
Spain Madrid Teatro Lope de Vega Nov 11, 2004 0June 3, 2007
Spain Madrid Teatro Coliseum 08 Sep 2010 0Jan. 9, 2011
South Korea Daegu Kei Myung Art Center Nov 21, 2008  Jan. 2009
South Korea Seongnam Seongnam Arts Center Jan. 20, 2007 25th Mar 2007
South Korea Seoul Seoul Arts Center / Charlotte Theater Jan. 25, 2004   2008
United States Las Vegas Mandalay Bay Theater Feb 23, 2003 0Jan. 4, 2009
United States new York Winter Garden Theater Oct 18, 2001 Oct 19, 2013
United States new York Broadhurst Theater 0Nov 2, 2013 Sep 12 2015
21st 35

International touring productions

Since 2000 the musical Mamma Mia! international touring productions that have so far appeared in over 350 cities in Asia , Europe and North America as well as Australia , New Zealand and South Africa , each with a one-week or several-week season. In some cases, the musical has already made several guest appearances in some of these cities (in each case listed in alphabetical order).

International tour

  • Major International Tour (September 2004 to January 2005): Dublin and Edinburgh
  • International Tour: Continuation of the Major International Tour with worldwide tour guest performances (except in North America) until at least January 2019.

North American Tour

After the first tour guest appearances in the USA, the US tour officially began in February 2002 in the American city of Providence in the US state of Rhode Island , which to date has guested in over 170 North American cities with over 3,250 performances.

  • US tour 2000/2001: Chicago , Los Angeles and San Francisco
  • US tour 2003/2004: u. a. Boston , Chicago , Detroit , Los Angeles , Minneapolis , Philadelphia and San Francisco
  • US National Tour (North America Tour 2006; January to July 2006): 20 cities in the United States and three cities in Mexico ; additional performances from August to December 10, 2006 and in Chicago ( Illinois ) from December 12 to 31. December 2006
  • North American Tour (continuation of the US National Tour 2006): This tour production has been guesting in various major cities in North America and Mexico since January 2007. The tour management has announced further performances in US and Canadian cities until July 2017. (As of April 2017).

Others

  • Australasia tour 2001–2005: Adelaide (3 months playing time), Brisbane (3 months in 2002 and 3 months in 2004/2005), Melbourne (beginning on June 9, 2001; 12½ months in 2001/2002 and 4 months in 2005), Perth (2 months), Sydney (12½ months in 2002/2003) as well as Auckland , Hong Kong and Singapore
  • Australian Tour 2009/2010 (October 24, 2009 - September 19, 2010): Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney
  • Canadian Tour 2005: Calgary , Edmonton , Montreal , Ottawa , Regina , Vancouver and Winnipeg
  • China tour 2018
  • Germany tour 2005: (August 30 - December 26, 2005): Berlin , Erfurt , Frankfurt am Main , Cologne (starting on August 30, 2005), Leipzig , Munich and Oberhausen
  • Germany tour 2010 ("Mamma Mia!" Live, January 28 - March 28, 2010): Baden-Baden , Frankfurt am Main (kick-off on January 28, 2010), Hanover , Munich and Nuremberg
  • Germany-Austria-Switzerland 2018/2019 (October 11, 2018 - May 2, 2019): Baden-Baden, Basel , Bregenz , Frankfurt am Main, Cologne (starting on October 11, 2018), Munich, Vienna and Zurich
  • Dutch Tour 2009/2010 (August 29, 2009 - July 25, 2010): 15 cities in the Netherlands
  • France Tour 2012/2013 (September 7, 2012 - March 3, 2013): 30 cities in France
  • Japanese Tour 2010 (from May 23, 2010): Hiroshima , Shizuoka and Sendai
  • Japanese Tour (continuation of the Japanese Tour 2010): Tokyo (December 12, 2010 - September 4, 2011), Kyōto (October 23, 2011 - April 8, 2012), Sapporo (September 26, 2012 - January 20, 2013), Tokyo (December 12, 2013 - June 6, 2014), Tokyo (September 2, 2014 - February 8, 2015), Nagoya (opening March 2015)
  • Korean Tour 2010 (from May 4, 2010): 18 cities in Korea
  • South African Tour 2010 (August 15, 2010 - January 2, 2011): Cape Town and Johannesburg
  • Spanish Tour 2009/2010 (August 6, 2009 - August 1, 2010): 27 cities in Spain

occupation

Mamma Mia! Germany donna Sophie Sky Harry Sam Bill Rosie Tanja
Hamburg (2002) Carolin Fortenbacher Katja Berg Jörg Neubauer Cush young Frank Logemann Ulrich Wiggers Jasna Ivir Kerstin Marie Mäkelburg
Stuttgart (2004) Jasna Ivir Ina Trabesinger Armin Kahl Tilo None Andreas Lichtenberger Marc Hetterle Iris Schumacher Franziska Becker
Food (2007) Lone van Roosendaal Romina Langenhan Daniel Berini Tom Zahner Jörg Zuch Stephanie Tschöppe Kerstin Marie Mäkelburg
Berlin (2007) Jasna Ivir Melanie Ortner Patrick tribe Detlef Leistenschneider Ulrich Wiggers Andreas Lichtenberger Iris Schumacher Betty Vermeulen
Stuttgart (2013) Sabine Mayer Eva Serrarens Dirk Johnston Ramin Dustdar Jerry Marwig Jörg Zuch Barbara Raunegger
Berlin (2014) Lara Grünfeld Marc Früh Cush young
Oberhausen (2015) Carina Sandhaus Dean Welterlen
Tour (2018) Sabine Mayer Katharina Gorgi Marvin Kobus Schütt Detlef Leistenschneider Karim Khawatmi
Berlin (2019) Benet Monteiro

Audience numbers

From the world premiere in 1999 to 2012, over 42 million people worldwide had watched the musical Mamma Mia! seen - that's around 8,840 viewers every day. By the end of summer 2015 there had been 49 different productions in a total of 16 languages, which had been visited by 60 million viewers. Over 5 million visitors saw the performances in the four German theaters in Berlin, Essen, Hamburg and Stuttgart.

Legal

Rights and License Rights

The company Stage Entertainment (formerly Stage Holding ) has the English licensors Little Star Services Ltd. the exclusive rights u. a. for the German stage productions of the musical Mamma Mia! acquired.

The copyrights to the pieces of music lie with the composers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and apply to both public performances of the pieces of music and their stage representation, whereby "the stage representation does not necessarily have to contain a scenic implementation of the lyrics". (There is still a legal distinction to be made between an independent interlude and the integration of a song into the plot of a stage play, in which the song text can be understood from the respective situation of the overall stage work.)

Litigation in Germany

In 2002, the guest performance and theater directorate Gerhartz GmbH wanted to stage its own stage production "Mamma Mia - Come Together" in various German cities without a license . On 16 September 2002 but that forbade Hamburg Regional Court in a preliminary injunction of Gerhartz GmbH to use in their touring production of the pop group ABBA songs as well as to promote the musical public. The appeal by the guest performance and theater directorate Gerhartz GmbH was rejected by the regional court and the injunction was confirmed on October 1, 2002.

After a closed hearing on 20 March 2003 by the judge, the parties to the dispute declared in the main consistent as settled, so that a final decision of the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg ended this legal dispute.

filming

Main article: Mamma Mia! (Movie)

Björn Ulvaeus announced in an interview with the Belgian internet portal musicalsite.be at the end of 2005 that an independent film version of the musical Mamma Mia! is in preparation. This was reinforced on April 20, 2006 by a report in the Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter , which reported that the production company Playtone had bought the rights to the musical from the American actor Tom Hanks and wanted to produce a movie.

The leading roles were played by Amanda Seyfried as Sophie, Meryl Streep as Donna, Julie Walters as Rosie, Christine Baranski as Tanja, Pierce Brosnan as Sam, Stellan Skarsgård as Bill, Colin Firth as Harry and Dominic Cooper as Sky.

The world premiere took place on June 30, 2008 in London. The film was released in Greek cinemas on July 3, 2008 and in British cinemas on July 4, 2008; the cinema release in Germany and Austria was on July 17, 2008.

Song books

  • Mamma Mia! Songbook with German lyrics of the musical, arranged for piano, vocals & guitar. Bosworth Music, 2005, ISBN 978-3-86543-134-9

Web links

Commons : Mamma Mia!  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Links to the various performances mamma-mia.com; accessed on November 3, 2018
  2. ↑ Mamma Mia! in Oberhausen. In: stage-entertainment.de. Archived from the original on October 1, 2015 ; accessed on July 19, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Mamma Mia Tour Schedule. Archived from the original on October 10, 2017 ; accessed on July 19, 2018 (English).
  4. ↑ History of ABBA ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. abbasite.com (“Stardom” section) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abbasite.com
  5. ↑ Mamma Mia! Look which musical's returning to Cardiff . Wales Online, September 4, 2015
  6. ↑ 3rd Civil Senate
  7. ^ Björn Ulvaeus on the movie. Archived from the original on September 28, 2008 ; Retrieved July 19, 2018 (Dutch).