Twenty years ago, theater producer Judy Craymer hatched the idea of a musical based on the songs of ABBA during her partnership with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Since the original 1999 London production of “Mamma Mia!,” she has remained the show’s driving force, from its 14-year, 5,700-show Broadway run through global expansions and tours, the 2008 film adaptation, and now a sequel to the film, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” out July 20. “It’s kind of like having the late child in life,” she says.
People ask her why it took almost 10 years for the movie to happen, and then another 10 for the sequel. “It’s part of ‘Mamma Mia!’ ‘s life, and the way I have run the business. Things are a cross between serendipitous and organic,” she explains. For Craymer, nothing is forced, and it’ll happen when it is meant to happen.
While Catherine Johnson and Phyllida Lloyd wrote and directed the original stage musical, respectively, and did the same for the first film, as Craymer describes it, the two women had achieved what they had wanted to achieve with the work and weren’t ready to revisit it for Round 2. Craymer’s goal for the sequel, then, was to keep it in the spirit of what they had built.
It was a call to writer Richard Curtis (“Notting Hill,” “Love Actually”) that made the dream a reality. “Richard came up with what we call the ‘Godfather: Part II’ idea, which was to go back and forth in time,” Craymer reveals. Curtis was too busy with other projects to pen the script, so the task was handed to filmmaker Ol Parker (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) to both write and direct. “He’s very good at emotions, so we took the ABBA breakup songs, and in this script we explore the emotion much more than in the first.”
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And emotions run high here. The sequel’s plot kicks off with the death of Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep), who leaves a newly renovated Hotel Bella Donna to her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried). “Meryl loved the idea of exploring the young ones,” Craymer says. The story then jumps back in time to Donna’s initial arrival to the Greek island and the summer she met Sophie’s three dads.
The time jump brought about the daunting task of casting younger versions of veteran actors like Streep, Christine Baranski, and Colin Firth. “It was great fun. We did about three months of casting,” Craymer says. “Their brief was not to imitate, not to clone, but to bring their own personality.” First came Alexa Davies as young Rosie (Julie Walters); they saw her on the very first day and knew she was the one. “She embodied a young Julie Walters, and of course [as] somebody at that age, she grew up on loving everything Julie Walters had ever done.” The last young actor cast was actually the lead, Lily James. “She’d been very busy, and we didn’t know if she’d actually get to us to audition, and she was just incredible,” Craymer says. “I’m sure it was a huge pressure for her to think she was playing a younger Meryl Streep, but I’d tell her, ‘You’re actually playing Donna Sheridan.’ ”
And then there’s of course the mother figure, played by Cher. From the way Donna referred to her mother in the first film, Craymer knew Cher was the only choice for the role in the sequel. “In writing, it just cracked through that she was going to be the ultimate rock-chick mother,” she says. “Cher was extraordinary.”
For the veteran cast returning to set 10 years later, Craymer remembers it as a homecoming. “It was very much, with all the cast, ‘If Meryl’s in, we’re in.’ And Meryl said, ‘If the others are in, I’m in.’ ” As one might imagine watching these films, the infectious energy emanates from the set. “We’re genuinely having fun,” Craymer says. “Filmmaking is difficult, but there’s something about ‘Mamma Mia!’ that puts people in a mood—partly because you’re playing ABBA songs all day.”
As for Craymer’s favorite ABBA song? “ ‘Fernando’ is definitely a favorite. It always was, but Cher’s version is something very special.”
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