by Judy Craymer makes an excellent impression of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Its main merit is that it is a combination of the two Abba stars. Craymer says that whenever she and her two business partners consider a new project, they are initially wary. “Bjorn and Benny are like ‘Ní dunno, the third movie, really?'” she says, deepening her voice and adding a Swedish lilt. “Our partnership has always been an aspect of his concern and my hope.”
This weekend marks 25 years since the curtain went up Mamma Mia!, the West End musical based on Abba. He has since toured the world and spawned two great films.
Behind its success is Craymer’s Littlestar Services, co-founded by Andersson and Ulvaeus and based in St James’s Place. The offices sit well away from the theatre, on the edge of the suits and royals of the West End.
Her office is filled with memorabilia that would delight Abba fanatics, from branded mini-trucks and customized ouzo to the hard hat emblazoned with the words “Jude, don’t touch” that she wore in the film. A huge wooden “Bella Donna Hotel” sits behind her spacious desk, along with a stunning collection of Mary McCartney portraits of her. The basement is full of costumes.
“I’m against the term ‘jukebox musical’,” she says. “That is used as an excuse to put songs on a biopic. Mamma Mia! it felt like the Abba songs were originally written for the show.”
The mega-concerts should not be tolerated. They have a huge impact on the cities they live in
Judy Craymer
Set on a Greek island, it tells the story of a bride-to-be who is trying to find out which of her mother’s three ex-boyfriends is her father. The theater show has made over £4.5bn at the box office, from 50 productions in 450 cities and 16 languages, seen by 70 million people.
Both films featured high-flyers including Meryl Streep, Cher and Pierce Brosnan. From tourism to merchandise, the phenomenon is estimated to be worth more than £1.9bn in London and £11.5bn worldwide. Meanwhile, the band are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their first Eurovision win.
But in addition to pop harmonies, colorful outfits and camp frolics, a serious, steady money machine provides the engine for growth, and Craymer, Andersson and Ulvaeus are after the money (money, money). In the last ten years alone, they have shared more than £60m in royalties and more than £5m in dividends from Littlestar.
How does Craymer feel when music is described as a cash cow? “I’m just worried, really,” she laughs. “When you’re planning for theatre, you just think you’re going to pay back and have a successful run. You don’t really go into a technology business thinking, ‘In three years we’ll be millionaires and we’ll be billionaires.’
“The mega-operas should not be taken for granted. People say, ‘Oh they’ve been going on for a long time,’ or ‘They’re just trying to make people money.’ Really, that kind of soft power has a huge impact on the cities they’re in.”
Craymer has all the glamor of her industry, wearing her trademark cluster of oversized rings, but in a very matter-of-fact way (no air kisses in sight). She is one of the West End’s holy trinity, along with Cameron Mackintosh (Les Misérables) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (The phantom of the Opera) of people who have had a musical career for over 25 years. She says she thrived “under the shadow” of both.
Growing up in north London, Craymer spent her holidays grooming horses and, defying her solicitor father’s initial hopes that she would study law and choose stage management instead, him, but he said that the price would be to sell his horse, Tarquin. .
Early posts at the Old Vic and beyond Cats by Mackintosh afterwards, before Chess, the musical Andersson and Ulvaeus created with Tim Rice in the 1980s. Encouraged by Rice, she later presented the idea Mamma Mia! for the (usually cautious) pair as a joint venture.
It took 10 years to get it to the West End, and the early years of it Mamma Mia! was not ready. Weeks after opening night in 1999, three bomb attacks hit London, and tragedy struck again as 9/11 wrapped up preparations for its Broadway debut. She recalls that New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was eager to get Broadway started again: “There was an incredible community of people trying to pull together.”
Recently, the Pandemic closed theaters around the world. “We had no idea it would be this long. The theater is about putting on a show every night: closing was unheard of, even during the war.”
Littlestar and co received £50,000 each in 2021 to wind up their production team, sparking controversy in light of their much-maligned co-founders Abba. The money has not been returned.
“I don’t see why they should pick up the bill,” says Craymer, defiantly. “They are extremely rich from their singing. I see Abba’s songs as a gift to the world. They are very humble and low key. They are the rightful owners; they don’t run the business. No one took dividends during that time. We could be closed and never come back.”
The show came back, of course, and last year Craymer took it into the world of reality TV, using the ITV show to choose his next pair of West End leads. A US version of the format is mentioned, but it can be difficult to line up with a stage production.
“I felt very protective of that music – I still do. That’s really the point Littlestar. They know I don’t do anything they don’t like, and things always run over them,” says Craymer.
She’s clearly not working with stars, she’s creating a Cher biopic, after the two ladies hit it off on the Mamma Mia! set. “She’s truly an inspiration – always relevant, always resurrected.” As a result of Craymer’s tenure as chairman of Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record company had a major float in 2021.
Not everything is a triumph, though: her 2012 musical Spice Girls Viva forever! held for less than seven months after suffering a critical surge that left her “heartbroken”.
Meanwhile, Abba’s tour – the retro-futuristic avatar show – is drawing delighted audiences to east London from 2022. Craymer has nothing to do with that venture, but she’s not worried about fans deserting Mamma Mia!
“It’s interesting – in the years I worked with them, people were like, ‘Abba will never do anything again’ so the circle is closing and 1712427458 they are promoting new technology and new music, which will be in the new film.” If they let her do it.
“Benny likes [lowers voice again], “Oh, no one knows.” Don’t bet against them taking (another) chance on her.
CV
Age 66
Family “Nothing. The work was always much more exciting than the boys actually”
Education Mill Hill School of the Hill; Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Pay No salary. Who received millions in dividends and royalty payments.
Last holiday “Don’t do anything. Something is always happening. Work takes me to nice places”
The best advice she has been given “My father would laugh at all the challenges I had, being a girl who is not a lawyer: life is contracts, negotiations, personalities, finances, tax”
Biggest career mistake “There’s so much I couldn’t talk about”
A phrase she overuses “Don’t overthink it”
How to relax her With seven horses in Warwickshire
