Mama Mia the Party begins where the musical ends, in a cute little taverna on the island of Skopelos. We are greeted by landlord Nikos, along with his family and friends. They are our hosts for a non stop party where you can eat, drink and sing ABBA songs to your heart’s content.
Mama Mia the Party is Mama Mia the Musical’s older and more raucous sibling. It takes the setting, atmosphere and music from the first show and turns the experience into a non stop party. In doing so, the producers of the new production have created a new story and added several new characters to ensure that the feels fresh.
The show debuted three years ago at the Tyrol restaurant in Stockholm. The production was an immediate success with diners relishing the opportunity to spend a few hours in the sunny and tuneful world of the musical. After a long run of sold out shows and unanimous critical acclaim, the show has now transferred to London’s O2.
Mama Mia the Musical is one of the most successful theatre productions in the world. Beginning as an experiment, the producer of the show, Judy Craymer, set out to discover whether she could create a musical backwards, using established songs and creating the story around them.
Fortunately, the answer proved to be a resounding success with writer Catherine Johnson providing the story and Phyllida Lloyd taking up the reigns as the show’s director. Mama Mia opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in the West End in 1999 and since then the production has gone from strength to strength. At the last count, over 60 million people had seen the show, bringing worldwide gross receipts of over £2 billion pounds since the show debuted in 1999 debut.
Mama Mia the Musical is the seventh longest running show in West End history. The musical has also spawned two smash hit movies, with a star studded cast led by Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan.
Mama Mia the Party is currently running a reduced programme due to the pandemic. More information about the production can be found here.
Information about other musicals in London can be found here.
