The Advantages of Adapting “ Mamma Mia! ” from the Stage to a Film

The introduction of Musical Mamma Mia!

“ Mamma Mia! ” the London stage show, was first performed in 1999, featuring the songs of Swedish band “ ABBA ”, entwined with a charming story which sets on a sunny and beautiful Greek island.

Its is a story about a girl, who is going to marry, she didn ’ t know who is her father since she was born. So she invites three possible men to come to her wedding. By doing so, to find her real father. The story tells the importance of happy, friendship, love, and family.

Judy Craymer is the producer of “ Mamma Mia! ” and also the big fans of “ ABBA ” used the new ways to express the emotion of these songs and also gave these catchy songs a new lease of life and more audiences.

Director: Phyllida Lloyd Writer: Catherine Johnson

The musical has been performed all over world. The musical “ Mamma Mia! ” has gained more than 2 billion at box office. It has been performed in more than 200 major cities and has been translated into a lot of languages since it was first opened in 1999.

After gaining such a big success, producer decided to put this excellent musical on big screen. The movie version is hot, too. It set a new box office record in England and gained more than 6 hundred million at box office in the world.

The Advantages of Adapting “ Mamma Mia! ” from the Stage to a Film Movie actors and actresses have more choices to perform. Movie director can find real places and island to film the movie. Movie director can give audiences more chances to be closer to the specific characters.

Movie actors and actresses have more choices to perform Using tiny little ear pieces in actors ’ and actresses ’ ears, which called ear-wings, the actors and actresses can decide whether they want to sing live or not.

The tradition in musical is to do a pre-record before the show is performed and then actors and actresses lip-sync on the stage, because they don ’ t have second chances to revise their mistakes when they sing faultily on the stage.

Example “ The Winner Takes It All ”

Movie director can find real place and island to film the movie Director can find real place and island to film the movie, letting audiences understand and feel the atmosphere and meanings of the story more easily.

The original story of “ Mamma Mia! ” set on a beautiful and sunny island, to adapt this musical for movie, director wanted to let the audiences have the feel in the virtual situation, so she decided to go to Greek to film

Sometimes the background and topography can strengthen audiences ’ feeling and help audiences to integrate into the plot of a story, but musicals which are performed on the stage just can use some simple scenery to attract audiences and the space is always limited.

Example “ The Winner Takes It All ”

Movie director can give audiences more chances to be closer to the specific characters When watching a musical performance, it is hard for audiences to focus on one role. We always see the whole stage, if we try to focus on a one side or one character; we will be bothered and interfered by other things or role on the stage.

Oppositely, movie directors can use a close-up shot to emphasize character ’ s physical features. Making a movie we have more selections to choose about which characters or plot we want to emphasize.

To sum up Not only director has more selections to develop the story than before, but also the actors and actresses can perform more freely.

But …… It not means that movie can take the place of musical, musical still has a lot of advantages that movies doesn ’ t have, such as musical can have more interactions with audiences and can deliver the emotion to audiences directly but movie cannot do it, but for “ Mamma Mia! ”, the form of movie is more suitable.

References Mamma Mia! The Movie DVD Mamma Mia! Stage to Screen Produced by Skymovies 2009 sky.com/movies Mamma Mia Musical Version on youtube Mamma Mia! Meeting the Stars Premiere Spectacular Produced by Skymovies

References broadwayworld.com zimbio.com broadway.tv telegraph.co.uk skopelos07.wordpress.com

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