"Mamma Mia!" in French and on tour

Imagine for one moment you hadn't seen the title of this piece, and instead you were asked to sing - in English - the lyrics of "Dis oui, dis oui, dis oui, dis oui, dis oui", "Un homme après minuit", or "Viens tenter ta chance".

How would you fare?

Would you even know which songs you were being asked to sing?

"Mamma Mia! (screenshot from tour trailer)

Just for the record (ouch) they are in order, "I do, I do, I do, I do, I do," "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" and "Take a chance on me".

Yes welcome to Abba sung in French.

After a hugely successful two-year run at Le Théâtre Mogador in Paris, "Mamma Mia!" is on tour - packing 'em in at every stop.



The whole shebang kicked off in September 2012 and is due to wrap up at the beginning of March.

There's no need to recap the rather thin plot. You're probably all familiar with either the original London show which opened back in (gulp) 1999 or one of the many international productions, and most probably the 2008 (ah, that's better) film starring Meryl Streep.

It was and remains a vehicle for Abba songs - and there's nothing wrong with that.

"Mamma Mia! (screenshot from tour trailer)

So what of the French version of the "Worldwide smash hit"?

Well it lives up to the positive reviews it has received. The acting, although not brilliant, isn't required to be. Hence the "hammed up" and ever-so-slightly camp aspect in no way detracts from enjoying it for what it is - a musical.

The choreography is simple but fun and effective and the set design colourful. The voices are good, but not great - one thing perhaps in the cast's favour is that they're most definitely not trying to be Abba. Well they couldn't really.

All in all it remains as karoake-inspired as ever (sorry for fans of either the stage musical or the film) with one major exception of course. It's in French.

"Mamma Mia! (screenshot from tour trailer)

Unless you've surfed the Net beforehand to take a gander at the lyrics and maybe memorise them, or bought the album, then seeing and hearing such familiar songs without being able to join in, might come as something of a shock.

Now, no matter how much of an Abba fan you might be, and regardless of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson's undoubted talent for writing some pretty good pop tunes for them, along with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, to belt out, the lyrics were sometimes rather...how to out this kindly..."dodgy".

Catchy, the tunes definitely were: well crafted and produced too. But the words?

Well, let's be honest. They weren't and probably were never meant to be (too) deep. After all, we're talking pop here.

Clever, yes. But from the very first time we all heard, "My my at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender, Oh yeah and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way. The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself" it was clear this was light and fluffy at its commercially rhyming best.

Funnily enough though, the real strength of the French version of "Mamma Mia!" probably lies in the lyrics.

"Mamma Mia! (screenshot from tour trailer)

The dialogue (such as it is - see the French and Saunders film parody clip at the end for perhaps the fairest appraisal) was translated by Stéphane Laporte and the all-important songs - although they also needed the seal of approval from Ulvaeus -  by Nicolas Nebot.

"I sent him (Ulvaeus) my translations and he was especially keen to keep the sonority and the catchiness of the phraseology," Nebot said.

"He didn't want a word-for-word translation."

And Ulvaeus, along with audiences in France, didn't get it either.

Instead Nebot has managed to breathe new life into old favourites and in the process, give an additional pleasure.

Now this will only work if your French is up to it, but look at what happens to the beginning of "The winner takes it all" or "La loi du plus fort".

"I don't wanna talk
About things we've gone through
Though it's hurting me
Now it's history
I've played all my cards
And that's what you've done too
Nothing more to say
No more ace to play

The winner takes it all
The loser's standing small
Beside the victory
That's her destiny"

"Je n' veux plus parler
De ce vide entre nous
J'ai purgé ma peine
C'est d'l'histoire ancienne
J'ai tentè ma chance
Tu as jouè tes atouts
Sans aucun regret
Les jeux étaient faits

C'est la loi du plus fort
Moi je m'incline encore
Et derrière la victoire
Je lis ton histoire"

All right already, not the stuff of which either great literature or poetry are made but francophone Abba fans (and there surely must be a fair few based on the success of the musical since it opened) will most certainly get a kick hearing an old favourite revisited.

Mamma Mia! the musical opens in France

It's the moment French fans of Abba have probably been waiting for; the opening at the Théâtre Mogador in Paris of the hit musical Mamma Mia - in French.

Screenshot from Mamma Mia trailer

The blurb surrounding the opening is almost as full of overblown superlatives as the phenomenal success the Swedish quartet achieved during their career.


Mamma Mia, l'évènement Europe 1
envoyé par Europe1fr. - Regardez la dernière sélection musicale.

First staged in London back in April 1999, the musical has, according to its official site, been seen by more than 42 million people in 40 countries and every evening attracts more than 17,000 people.

Mamma Mia! (exclamation mark obligatory) we're told, is "a worldwide phenomenon" that has been translated into 10 languages, including German, Russian, Spanish and Japanese, which might for some raise the question as to why it has taken so long for a version in the language of Molière.

The explanation apparently is provided by the fact that while the translation of the lyrics by Nicolas Nebot also required the approval of Abba's Björn Ulvaeus.

"I sent him my translations and he was especially keen to keep the sonority and the catchiness of the phraseology," Nebot is quoted as saying.

"He (Ulvaeus) didn't want a word-for-word translation," he added.

The musical's dialogue has been translated by Stéphane Laporte.

The publicity machine for the musical has already been in full swing for several months and seems to have paid dividends with 125,000 tickets sold, the entire month of November fully booked and the run extended to April 2011.

So the French can finally enjoy the musical in their native tongue for the first time, but can anything really replace the original?

Perhaps not.

But there again there's always the version with which you might not be familiar from the British comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

Made by the pair for Comic Relief in 2009, it's a parody of the film starring Meryl Streep and is...well judge for yourselves.




And if that wasn't enough for you, here's part II.