Mamma Mia! is Shakespeare’s Tempest in campy musical disguise

By Elizabeth Schafer, Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, Royal Holloway, University of London

Mamma Mia!, the 1999 jukebox musical built around the songs of the pop group ABBA, became a huge hit in the theatre internationally and later a commercially successful feature film. It has inspired a host of spinoffs including a prequel film, an immersive dining experience and fan fiction.

What if I told you that it could also be Shakespeare’s The Tempest in disguise?

Both Mamma Mia! and The Tempest centre around a single parent figure – Donna, Prospero – who lives on a fantasy Mediterranean…

Read complete article

~	Can AI really spot the next football superstar – or is it changing the game in troubling ways?

~	Hong Kong: New powers for Chief Executive in ‘national security’ cases undermine fair trial rights

~	Jordan: New Application to Challenge Abusive Conviction

~	View from The Hill: Tony Abbott to tour the country, trying to energise Liberals

~	World’s first AI-designed vaccine explained

~	Can AI help coastal cities prepare for rising seas and extreme events?

~	How positive tipping points may be the key to protecting tropical rainforests

~	Pizza lovers and savoury snackers: what secondary school pupils choose to eat

~	Wes Streeting’s health bill brings back ‘democratic control’ of the NHS in England – but what does it mean?

~	Megacolon: when constipation becomes something more serious