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Academy Award winner Meryl Streep heads the cast of the film version
of “Mamma Mia!” Streep plays the role of single mother Donna
Sheridan, the part created on Broadway by Louise Pitre.
Mamma Mia! showcases the hit songs of famed pop
group ABBA to tell the story of Sophie Sheridan, a young girl who
hopes to discover the identity of her father. On the eve of her
wedding, she brings three men from her mother Donna’s past back to
the Greek island they visited over two decades ago. Producers
include Judy Craymer and Gary Goetzman; executive producers are Tom
Hanks and wife Rita Wilson as well as ABBA songwriters Benny
Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Phyllida Lloyd, who directed both the London and
Broadway staging of the international hit musical, will make her
feature-film directing debut on Mamma Mia! which was shot in both
Greece and London. Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book for the
musical, penned the movie script.
Producer Craymer was quoted as saying, “She [Meryl
Streep] was always at the top of our wish list, and she encapsulates
the spirit and energy and has the powerhouse qualities that
character requires.” Although Streep has previously sung in the
films Postcards From the Edge and A Prairie Home Companion, Mamma
Mia! would be her first movie musical.
Mamma Mia! features the music and lyrics by
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, a book by Catherine Johnson,
direction by Phyllida Lloyd and choreography by Anthony Van Laast.
In New York, the musical plays at the Winter Garden Theater, which
is located at 1634 Broadway.
Streep last regaled worldwide audiences by way
of her fabulous performance as the magazine editor Miranda Priestly
in The Devil Wears Prada and she is excited to have landed this one.
Streep was quoted in an interview, “I thought I was washed up at
40 so now I’m really thrilled. There just weren’t a lot of
interesting scripts. I generally could find only one a year.” The
actress added there are more interesting roles available for older
actresses nowadays because more women hold influential positions in
the film industry.
She explained, “Movies are really just a
projection of the fantasies of people who pay for them and so for
years those were just the fantasies of guys. Now there are women who
say, ‘Well, this woman is still sexy and interesting at 40 or
worth listening to or looking at.’ ”
Meryl Streep is unparalleled as far as
recognitions are concerned. She won Oscar statuettes for her
performances in Sophie’s Choice and Kramer vs. Kramer. She was
also Oscar-nominated for her work in Adaptation, Music of the Heart,
One True Thing, The Bridges of Madison County, Postcards from the
Edge, A Cry in the Dark, Ironweed, Out of Africa, Silkwood, The
French Lieutenant’s Woman and The Deer Hunter. Streep received a
Tony nomination for 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, and her other Broadway
appearances include Happy End, The Cherry Orchard, Secret Service
and Trelawny of the “Wells.”
Mamma Mia! the feature film adaptation of the
ABBA musical also stars Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård,
Amanda Seyfried and Julie Walters.
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