11:57AM, Oct 23, 2008
Mamma Mia's had 30 million theatre-goers thanking Abba for the music. It's now on the big screen with Meryl Streep (who sings as well as she acts) to Pierce Brosnan (who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket). This top cast warbles the story of a young Greek taverna owner's daughter trying to find out who her dad is.
Here are 10 things you won't know about the cinematic sing-along.
- The plot for Mamma Mia is adapted from the 1968 movie Buona Serra Mrs Campbell starring Gina Lollobrigida and Phil Silvers and scripted by It’ll Be All Right On The Night host Denis Norden.
- An estimated thirty million people have seen the stage show since it opened in London’s West End in 1999.
- The single Mamma Mia initially topped the charts in 1975 in Australia where it was rumoured that every third citizen at one time owned an Abba record.
- The Stockholm premiere was the only occasion where all four ex-members of Abba – Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus – have been photographed together for 22 years.
- It was the film debut of Phyllida Lloyd, a theatre director who features in the Independent on Sunday’s Pink List, a run-down of the most influential gay men and women.
- Colin Firth, who plays Harry Bright in the movies, has admitted he tried to make off with his spandex suit and platform boots because wearing his kitsch costume was “such a hoot.”
- Meryl Streep was forced to deny claims she used a body double to film a scene where he character did the splits. “I did them on instinct – that’s what always happens with my acting,” said the 59-year-old star.
- Actor Dominic Cooper, who plays Sky in the movie, insisted he wore a padded pair of Speedo swimming trunks to ensure he looked toned and muscular on screen.
- The actresses Mandy Moore (License To Wed), Amanda Bynes (Hairspray), Rachel McAdams (Red Eye) and Emmy Rossum (Mystic River) were all considered for the part of Sophie before it went to Amanda Seyfried.
- Meryl Streep’s previous vocal movie offerings have included Amazing Grace in Silkwood, You Don’t Know Me in Postcards From The Edge and Go Tell Aunt Gladys in A Prairie Home Companion.
