EXCLUSIVE:As the West End production ofMamma Mia!
I Have a Dreamtalent show.
Set on an idyllic Greek island, its aimed at findingMM!stars of the future.
Judy Craymer and the original West End cast of ‘Mamma Mia!’ (L-R) Louise Plowright, Siobhan McCarthy and Jenny GallowayAlex Lake/Catherine Ashworth
Here We Go Again.
So far, theres nothing official aboutMM!3,cautions Craymer.
I dont want to over-egg it, but I know theres a trilogy there, she says brightly.
The original London company of ‘Mamma Mia!’Courtesy of Littlestar
She remembers using her first royalty fee to get the car mended.
People would be laughing into their hand, going, Theyre all women its going to fail!
But we did, to use a cliche, break the glass ceiling.
There have been an arsenal of women integral toMamma Mias success in all spheres.
Thus farMamma Mia!shows, movies and albums have generated grosses in excess of $4 billion.
A first-class U.S. tour is set to launch in Denver this October.
She sees the return to NYC as perhaps a limited six-month season.
Its highly likely that revival is likely to run a tad longer…
The newest addition to theMM!cosmos isMamma Mia!
Sometimes it works and sometimes… She chooses her words carefully.
Sometimes it can be frustrating.
TheyreMamma Mia!crazy, she declares.
Its been a huge jigsaw puzzle.
Shes impressed by the dynamics of what shes seen so far.
Zoe Ball is the presenter, Craymer reveals, performing a drumroll on the table top.
Zoes great because she is very much a rock chick, Craymer enthused.
Shes a complete music fan and, I understand, a completeMamma Mia!fan.
She hailed Carr as the shows voice of the people, the national treasure.
Siennas Sophie says to Alan, Are you my father?
And he goes, Are you insinuating Im not gay?!
We realize that were attracting attention.
Craymer is equally generous with praise for Ware and Barks.
Craymer will have an as yet unspecified onscreen role onI Have a Dream.
I dont know what Ill be doing.
It started off as, Would you be in an episode?
Well introduce you as the woman behind it.
Now, it has ended up that Im in each episode in some form.
Craymer also hopes to be able to entice Ulvaeus onto an episode as a guru.
On that note, will she be having special outfits designed for herself?
No, Im just turning up with my steamer trunks, basically, she guffaws.
It took a while to track it all the way to Craymers door.
However, Craymer was keeping her head down because she had yet to secure agreement from Andersson and Ulvaeus.
She was urging them to, in the words of their song, Take a Chance On Me.
I think they said no a lot, Craymer recalls.
Quite rightly, I had to prove that this was going to be an original story musical.
I hate the term jukebox musical.
This wasnotgoing to be an exploitation of the ABBA songs for the sake of it.
This had to be a genuine musical.
And Bjorn liked the idea.
But we didnt know that at the time.
The ambition back then hadnt been to create a universe.
The two ABBA writers figured thatMamma Mia!would be a small little show in London, Craymer says.
They possibly hoped it would be, and then I would get off their backs.
Benny and Bjorn were exploring other projects of their own, she adds.
ABBA wasnt together as a band anymore, and they werent even together in their marriages, either.
It was like, She wont go away!
Craymer realized that this process would require patience, particularly when collaborating with Benny and Bjorn.
We want to do another movie, and theyre [being cautious].
Obviously, anything to do with the music, they have to be OK with.
I mean, there was a big risk there.
Its a big deal, she declares, while conceding, Im not Disney.
Im not a big major company.
We built this asset ourselves.
It was easy working with Judy onMamma Mia!andMamma Mia!
Langley recalls seeing the show in the late 90s.
Im a huge ABBA fan, so I didnt mind going along.
I ended up sitting next to a lovely older woman we shared snacks and had a great time.
Langley said that Craymer wasnt doing meetings right away.
I was told she wasnt doing anything with the rights at the time.
Shortly after, I wound up at Universal, where Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzmans Playtone had a deal.
As fate and great minds would have it, they had forged a relationship with Judy.
Later, Stacey Snider, our then-chairman, and I flew to New York for a meeting.
Jimmy Horowitz hammered out the film deal, and the rest is history.
Langley concluded, I look forward to all thats to come for Judy and Universal.
Oftentimes I hear friends, usually in party mode, say, Lets have someMamma Mia!
rather than, Lets have some ABBA.
It hits you when you dont think its going to.
The show was previewing in the days before Instagram and Twitter.
Word of mouth was key, he says.
After the first preview, the box office started to go crazy.
I know this to be true because I monitoredMamma Mia!closely.
Mackintosh has always dismissed such talk as tosh.
He told me years ago that he knewMamma Mia!would work which is why we booked it.
But theres also work to be done on what she calls a biopic about Chers extraordinary life.
The film is being made with Universal under Craymers Judy Films banner with the singers full cooperation.
Well, it is 4 p.m. in Los Angeles, she reasons.
Here We Go Again.
She has no details to share on the film as yet, because theres no script and no director.
Its in the works and, as Ive said, process takes time.
What is the Cher film about?
Well, its her life.
I mean, she has glitter in the veins.
Its clearly too early for any hints about casting, and she admits it will be a trick process.
Is it about singing, or is it about acting?
A bit of both, probably.
Would it be Cher singing?
Do we use her original tracks?
Or could somebody else sing it?
All these things that are in discussion, really, she tells me.
Im suddenly compelled to know how Craymer refers to Cher.
Does she call her by her name?I dont think Ive ever used the word Cher.
although I am known by a few people as the Cher Whisperer.
Its clear well be seeing a lot of Cher in the near future Mamma Mia!
If anyone can make it happen, Judy Craymer, the Super Trouper herself, can.
