Mamma Mia, here it goes again

Donna, played by Silvie Paladino, performs in the musical Mamma Mia! Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

When broke Abba fan Judy Craymer persuaded Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus to let her turn their back catalogue into the musical Mamma Mia! no one predicted it would become a multi-million dollar international hit.

And now the blockbuster show is set to win an even wider audience on the big screen after it caught the imagination of actor Tom Hanks and his production business partner Gary Goetzman.

Their company, Playtone, has signed a deal with Craymer and the Abba songwriters for a film version scheduled for release late next year.

Catherine Johnson, who was an impoverished single mother when she wrote the script, is to produce the screenplay, which will stick closely to the stage plot, Variety magazine reported yesterday.

The show tells the story of a young woman who, on the eve of her wedding, invites three men from her mother's past, any of whom could be her father, back to the Greek island where she has been brought up.

In a riotously entertaining evening, a couple of dozen Abba hits, including Dancing Queen and Take a Chance on Me, propel the narrative.

Craymer, who has become a millionaire in the wake of productions in 130 cities, will be an executive producer on the film project, alongside Andersson and Ulvaeus.

She had previously rejected movie offers but admired the approach of Hanks and Goetzman. She particularly liked what they had done turning Nia Vardalos' one-woman stage show into the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

"The time felt right. The partnership with Gary and Tom helped everything to fall into place," Craymer said.

Deals on financing and distribution have not been finalised so it is too early for details of casting. But Craymer said they were already considering their options.

"We've never had stars in the show, the music has always been the star, but we are certainly thinking about names as we take this from the stage to the screen."

More than 20 million people have seen the show since it opened, grossing US$1.6 billion ($2.5 billion). It has been regularly one of the top-five grossing productions on Broadway since it opened in New York just after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Like Craymer, Catherine Johnson and the show's director Phyllida Lloyd, both had their finances transformed by its success.

Craymer first worked with Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus on the West End musical Chess then left the world of theatre for film and television for several years, working on projects that included the films White Mischief and Madame Souzatzka.

But she was always convinced Abba's songs were pop masterpieces and badgered the songwriters to allow her to use them for the musical.

Though not to everyone's taste, many found the show's upbeat spirit infectious.

"This is a production that is likely to go global big-time, like Cats and Les Miserables before it," the Daily Telegraph critic predicted.

- INDEPENDENT