Even though Lisa (who was the Original Sophie) is the sweetest girl you can ever meet I'd say The Swedish Cast is the best...And it's got the whole overture
I'd love to hear the Swedish cast. In addition to the London, I also own the German and Spanish recordings. The Spanish recording has a good cast, but plays pretty fast and loose with the ABBA orchestrations, adding their own little touches here and there.
I actually prefer the German to the London recording -- although I don't speak German. It's live, which is always a plus for me, and the cast is terrific.
there is a japanese one. IMO, it sounds better than the original.
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They sell it at Dress Circle in London, just visit their Website...I wouldn't mind getting the german one, is that the one where Jasna Ivir plays Rosie? Haven't seen her for ages...she's still in germany playing Donna, i think!
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Jasna Ivir ist playing Donna in Stuttgart in Germany. Actually we have two productions of Mamma Mia here. The cast recording is with the Hamburg cast. I also like the German recording and I know the dutch version, which is okay in my opinion but nothing special.
The German Hamburg one (2004) The Dutch Utrecht one (2004) The Spanish Madrid one (2005) The Swedish Stockholm one (2005) The Japanese Tokio one (2005)
In 2004 Little Star(Judy Craymer, Björn Ulvaes, Benny Andersson and Richard East)and Stage Entertainment agreed on a joint venture for European productions of Mama Mia (Scandinavia excluded) Dutch theatre mongul Joop van den Ende convinced the Abba men to record other Mama mia productions. At first were not that enthousiastic about it all cause they were quiete dissapointed about the original 1999 London recording. After seeing the Dutch and German production they agreed and gave their veto for it.
In several interviews Björn and Benny spoke out that they are really fond of the Dutch production,they especially liked the Dutch actrice who plays Donna.
Upcomming "local language" Little Star/Stage Entertainment productions will soon premiere in Italy, France, Russia,Poland and Portugal, and the recent Belgian, Antwerp one. All Little Star/Stage entertainment productions were recorded now, so we have a lot of foreign language recordings to look foreward too!
My favourite recordings arem great STUDIO one with the original Swedish lyrics from the Stockholm cast, and as in the LIVE recording i agree with the Abba men: the Dutch Utrecht cast. Also the Madrid cast is a real energetic one, not sure about certain voices though.
The OLC just has a daft studio recording, it just doesn't succeed in translating the energy we see on stage putting on cd
The 3 live recordings i have the Dutch, German and Spanish versions just do the musical so much more justice. It also has a lot more dialogue and some underscore which isn't on the OLC studio one
For the one of you who understands German or Dutch just listen to the ouverture, it's a blast !
How i cherish and love my spandex lycra suit; "Mama mia here we go again,my my how can i resist IT"