<P>With more productions playing around the world than any other musical, the international sensation MAMMA MIA! has been seen by over 30 million people. Now a different audience will experience the phenomenon when “Mamma Mia! The Movie” opens July 18 on screens nationwide. MAMMA MIA! has enjoyed so much worldwide success because of the timeless ABBA songs woven throughout the story, says Christine Baranski who stars in the movie and is currently in the Tony Award-winning play BOEING-BOEING on Broadway. “It’s kind of an ingenious combination of all those great hits that were just joyous background music to our lives and a rather wonderful, poignant story of a girl’s search for her father and her relationship to her mother.”
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“Mamma Mia!” tells the story of <i>Sophie</i>, who’s on a quest to discover the identity of her father on the eve of her wedding. When all three potential dads show up, much to the surprise of Sophie’s mom, <i>Donna</i> (played by Meryl Streep), comedic chaos ensues. Baranski plays <i>Tanya</i>, a wealthy multiple divorcée, old friend of Donna’s and one of three former singing members of “Donna and The Dynamos”. “There’s a whole reminiscence value to this film because when those three women show up, it’s about how they’re reliving their past and how reckless and silly they were,” says Baranski. “They go back in time and they’re back to being ‘Dymano’s’ and performing (the ABBA song) ‘Super Trooper’.”  
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Many in the typical Broadway audience grew up listening to ABBA songs in the 1970s and ’80s, including Baranski. “Every song takes people back to a time in their life when ABBA was playing all the time and I hear those songs and it just takes me back to that era,” she shares. She believes that young people who are unfamiliar with the songs but see the movie will fall in love with the music and become the next generation of ABBA fans. The “Mamma Mia!” movie follows the Broadway show closely but has two additional songs not in the stage show. According to Baranski the movie also gives more of a sense of the reality of the characters’ depth and relationships than on stage. “I think the story actually comes across much richer on the screen,” she opines.
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“Mamma Mia!” was filmed over ten weeks last summer; half in London and the other half in the Greek Islands, where the story is based. Baranski, who has enjoyed much acclaim on film, television and the stage, had a wonderful time making the movie and especially filming a musical. “Honestly, of the many projects I’ve done this is one of my all-time favorites because on so many levels, it was just this magical experience.” Like many others who have seen the stage show multiple times, she’s seen it twice and thinks that will be the case with “Mamma Mia!” movie-goers as well. “I have a feeling that people are going to see this movie again and again and again.”  
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By: Beth Cox</i>