Which Mamma Mia Character Are You?

Learn More About Mamma Mia

Mamma Mia! began as a stage musical, with a book by Catherine Johnson built around songs by ABBA composers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The 2008 film adaptation, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, brought that sunny story to the big screen with Meryl Streep as Donna Sheridan, a single mother running a small hotel on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi.

The premise is delightfully chaotic. Donna’s 20-year-old daughter Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried, secretly invites three men from her mother’s past to her wedding: Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan), Harry Bright (Colin Firth), and Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgård). Sophie believes one of them is her father, and the film follows the comic scramble to figure it out while Donna’s old bandmates, Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski), arrive to help.

Most of the outdoor scenes were filmed on the Greek island of Skopelos, including Kastani beach, with additional filming on Skiathos and a full set of Donna’s villa built at Pinewood Studios in England. The film opened in July 2008 and grossed about $706 million worldwide against a $52 million budget, making it one of the biggest hits of the year and, for a time, the highest-grossing live-action musical.

Critics were mixed, but audiences adored it. Part of the fun was the casting of actors who were not known as singers, and Pierce Brosnan’s vocals in particular drew plenty of teasing. Meryl Streep, who had trained in opera as a child, anchored the music with real emotion, and her performance earned a Golden Globe nomination.

A sequel followed a decade later. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, written and directed by Ol Parker, premiered in London on 16 July 2018 and opened in the UK and US on 20 July. It works as both a sequel and a prequel, jumping between the present day and 1979, when a young Donna, played by Lily James, graduates from Oxford and travels to Greece, where she meets young Sam, Harry, and Bill.

The sequel added Cher as Ruby Sheridan, Donna’s glamorous singer mother, and Andy García as hotel manager Fernando Cienfuegos, who turns out to be Ruby’s long-lost love. Cher performs ABBA’s Fernando in a show-stopping finale. Filming took place largely on the Croatian island of Vis, along with locations in France, Sweden, and England, and the film earned roughly $402 million worldwide.

The soundtrack for the sequel included Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Super Trouper, Knowing Me, Knowing You, and I Have a Dream, all of them ABBA songs. Both films treat the music as a shared language between mothers, daughters, and friends, which is why so many fans know every word.

The casting stories are almost as entertaining as the film. Amy Adams, Mandy Moore, and Zooey Deschanel were among the actresses who auditioned for Sophie before Amanda Seyfried won the part. At the film’s Swedish premiere in Stockholm, all four members of ABBA were photographed together for the first time since 1986, a moment that made the movie feel like a genuine celebration of the band’s legacy.

If you love a good movie musical, you might also enjoy our Grease character quiz, the High School Musical character quiz, or the Wicked: For Good character quiz. Stage fans can try the Hamilton character quiz or find out which Broadway musical you are.