Breaking Baz: As ITV Prepares To Unveil Its ‘Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream’ Talent Show, Original Show’s Producer Judy Craymer Teases A Third Movie — And A New Project With Cher
01.05.2023 - 18:33
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: As the West End production of Mamma Mia! enters its 25th year on stage, Judy Craymer, its creator and driving force, is expanding the MM! universe with ITV’s Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream talent show. Set on an idyllic Greek island, it’s aimed at finding MM! stars of the future. There’s definitely a desire to see MM! back on Broadway in 2025, Craymer confirms, and she says she’s also pushing to make the dream of a third MM! film a reality.
“It’s in its earliest stages,” she says, revealing that she has come up with a way to bring back all of the previous movie’s favourite characters. Which is no mean feat given that those parts involve stars such as Meryl Streep, who played the independent, fierce and spirited Donna Sheridan onscreen, and Cher, who played Donna’s vivacious mother Ruby in 2018s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
So far, there’s nothing “official” about MM!3 cautions Craymer. “I don’t want to over-egg it, but I know there’s a trilogy there,” she says brightly.
“There is a story there, and I do think Meryl should come back —— and if the script is right, she would, I think, because she really loved playing Donna,” Craymer tells me as we settle into a comfy banquette at Charlie’s, a delightfully swanky restaurant located at Brown’s hotel in Mayfair.
Later, as I walk along Piccadilly, I find myself smiling at a memory from possibly 28 years ago, when I was due to lunch with Craymer, at her invitation. But all of her money, including an apartment in London’s posh Holland Park area, was tied up in trying to put Mamma Mia! together. Funds were low — she couldn’t even afford to fix her car — so we scratched that lunch and went for tea and coffee instead. She remembers using her first royalty fee to get the car