From Stage to Screen

ABBA-solutely fabulous!

Just ask the folks who perform "Mamma Mia!" seven times a week at Mandalay Bay what they think of the new movie version, which opens at multiplexes Friday.

They're obviously experts on the smash musical, which more than 30 million people have seen onstage in eight languages and 160 cities -- including Las Vegas.

And if the prospect of seeing drama queen Meryl Streep metamorphose into a singing-and-dancing queen in spandex and platform boots doesn't pique your interest, perhaps gorgeous Greek island vistas will.

Or the soundtrack, which features new renditions of all-time hits by the '70s Swedish supergroup ABBA, the focus of a special limited Sirius satellite radio channel keyed to the movie's release.

Members of Mandalay Bay's "Mamma Mia!" cast and crew needed no special incentive, however, to turn up for a recent preview screening at the Rave Town Square multiplex.

After all, the movie's very existence means extra attention for their production.

"The show supports the movie and the movie supports the show," says Carol Linnea Johnson, who plays Donna Sheridan, the same role Streep takes on in the movie version.

As for playing Streep's role (or, more precisely, Streep playing hers), "I'm hugely flattered," Johnson acknowledges, especially because "the same people who cast me cast Meryl Streep," making "the thought that I might share a similar quality to Meryl Streep" complimentary indeed.

Of course, Johnson's 4-year-old daughter, Linnea, had a bit of trouble figuring out why somebody else was playing the role; she spotted a photo of the movie's cast on the screening invitation and said, " 'That doesn't look like you,' " Johnson recalls. (Mom's perfectly reasonable explanation: People take turns playing the role, "and it'll be my turn tonight.")

Robin Baxter, who portrays Donna's longtime pal Rosie in the Las Vegas production (a role played by Oscar nominee Julie Walters in the movie), thought the big-screen adaptation "was cute, adorable, very loving -- and I was horribly jealous." Jealous, because the movie cast got to frolic on a Greek island, while the Las Vegas cast makes do with the make-believe version on the Mandalay Bay Theatre stage.

The movie's release will "ignite more interest" in the local production, predicts Victor Wallace, who plays one of Donna's ex-flames, Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan is his onscreen counterpart), in the local production. "It's just exciting. It's like a free advertisement for the stage show."

And Ron McClary, who plays another Donna ex, Bill (Stellan Skarsg?rd has the movie role), calls the movie "fantastic and so inventive."

"I think people will feel the same way coming out of the movie as they do coming out of the show," he says.

That is, on a cloud, over the moon and singing along with such all-time ABBA favorites as "Dancing Queen" and "Waterloo" -- the group's first U.S. hit, which no one ever figured out how to shoehorn into the plot, so it doesn't turn up until a post-finale encore in both the stage and screen versions of "Mamma Mia!"

The musical's transition from stage to screen may have been inevitable, but the show's creators were determined to maintain control over any movie adaptation.

As soon as "Mamma Mia!" became a hit onstage, producer Judy Craymer was approached by Hollywood, but "very wisely decided not to sell the rights, but wait until the show was established just about everywhere in the world and then develop the movie herself," recalls screenwriter Catherine Johnson, who adapted the book she wrote for the original show.

"We've been so creatively involved, I didn't want to sell the film rights for a lot of money and walk away and hope somebody made it one day," Craymer told the Review-Journal's Mike Weatherford in February, during an interview about the Las Vegas production's fifth anniversary. "We wanted to make it, we wanted to control it, we wanted to oversee it."

Original director Phyllida Lloyd also made the transition from stage to screen with screenwriter Johnson and producer Craymer, who describes herself as "so hands-on, you wouldn't believe it." No wonder, considering "it's my baby."

Although a movie version of an international theatrical smash might seem like a no-brainer, "we had a lot of hurdles to jump over," Craymer acknowledges. "Just doing a stage show as a film -- that's obviously not what the intention was. The intention was to make it a true movie and the show and the film will complement each other -- and I hope that the audience (members) that love the show will love the movie."

Even so, "I think the movie version will intrigue people who have never seen 'Mamma Mia!' in the theater," Catherine Johnson says in an e-mail. "Obviously, we wouldn't want audiences to stop going to the stage show," and "maybe those who have will want to go back to compare!"

That's definitely true for Mandalay Bay's top "Super Trouper," Phoenix-area resident Jim Sebert, who has seen "Mamma Mia!" onstage a mere 61 times. (His wife, Melinda, and 13-year-old daughter, Miranda, are way behind: Melinda has seen "Mamma Mia!" 55 times, while Miranda's total, so far, stands at 48.)

And although Sebert loves the stage show (obviously), he's not so sure he'll love the movie.

Recalling how disappointed he was in the 1985 movie version of the legendary musical "A Chorus Line," Sebert's curious "to see how well they've taken a great story" and transferred it to the screen.

From what he has seen in the "Mamma Mia!" trailers, however, "it looks like they've tried to keep the movie following the stage production," he says, "whisking us away to a Greek island."

Which was precisely the plan, Craymer notes.

"When you think about it, it's a location piece," she points out. "It's set on a Greek island and so we've really gone to a Greek island."

As a result, "the songs kind of explode off the screen and you're kind of completely bathed in the gorgeousness," the producer says. "It's every summer holiday that everybody wants, I think."

And that, in part, helps explain "Mamma Mia's" enduring appeal.

"I think it's become symbolic of a good time and happiness," notes Scott Greenstein, president of entertainment and sports for Sirius satellite radio, where an all-ABBA-all-the-time channel (continuing through this weekend) features guest DJs from Nancy Sinatra to Martha Stewart introducing original ABBA hits and the soundtrack renditions.

After all, "why do people go to the movies?" Greenstein says. "It's to take a moment out and get a little bit of fun and lightheartedness."

It's virtually the same reason people keep flocking to the stage version -- and the same reason why James Sebert and his fellow "Super Troupers" plan to keep trooping back to Mandalay Bay until "Mamma Mia!" hangs up its spandex in January.

"There's something about being there live," Sebert says, "with somebody up there in front of you, to make that work and make it real."

Which is just as it should be, in Carol Linnea Johnson's view.

"Onstage, the audience is the final character," she observes, "and they dictate the show you're going to see."

Review-Journal reporter Mike Weatherford contributed to this story. Contact reporter Carol Cling at ccling@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272.