60 free Mamma Mia! trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
54 free Mamma Mia! trivia questions with answers. Mamma Mia! started as a West End gamble and became a multibillion-dollar stage phenomenon, a record-breaking 2008 film and a sequel that gave Cher a boat and a ballad. This quiz covers all of it: how one determined producer talked Benny and Björn into it, who Sophie's three possible fathers really are, which songs were cut, where the film was actually shot, and why critics were so cruel about Pierce Brosnan's singing. It is built for anyone who can sing along to Dancing Queen without the lyrics on screen, whether you saw the show in London, wore out the DVD, or only discovered it through Here We Go Again. Questions range from easy warm-ups to details only a real fan would know. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles for the musical, both films and the ABBA song, so what you learn here you can safely repeat at your next quiz night.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which British playwright wrote the book for the stage musical?
Catherine Johnson
She later adapted her own book into the screenplay for the 2008 film and shares story credit on the 2018 sequel.
Q 02Which producer conceived the show after deciding ABBA's catalogue had theatrical potential?
Judy Craymer
She met Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus in 1983 and spent more than a decade persuading them to let their songs become a musical.
Q 03The producer first met Andersson and Ulvaeus in 1983 while they worked on which Tim Rice musical?
Chess
The duo were unenthusiastic about a jukebox musical at first but not completely opposed, which was enough of an opening.
Q 04Which ABBA song first suggested to the show's producer that the group's pop songs could work on stage?
The Winner Takes It All
The song became Donna's big second-act showstopper, sung at Sam just before the wedding.
Q 05Who directed both the original stage production and the 2008 film?
Phyllida Lloyd
She joined the project in 1998, a year after the book was commissioned, and later directed The Iron Lady.
Q 06In which year did the musical open in London's West End?
1999
The show's opening coincided with ABBA Gold returning to the top of the UK album chart.
Q 07At which West End playhouse did the show premiere on 6 April?
Prince Edward
It later moved to the Prince of Wales in 2004 and then to the Novello in 2012, where it still plays.
Q 08Critics said the plot resembles which 1968 film about a woman unsure which of three men is the father?
Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
That film is set in Italy, and critic John Simon speculated the musical was set in Greece to make the connection less obvious.
Q 09What is the name of the fictional Greek island where the story is set?
Kalokairi
The name comes from the Greek word for summer, which is why the wedding, the taverna and the tans all make sense.
Q 10In the stage musical, possible father Bill Austin is a writer and adventurer from which country?
Australia
The film renamed him Bill Anderson and made him a Swedish sailor, played by Stellan Skarsgård.
Q 11What was the name of the girl group the three old friends once fronted together?
Donna and the Dynamos
The trio dig out their old costumes for Sophie's bachelorette party and belt Super Trouper.
Q 12Which song does Donna sing about the struggle of running the taverna single-handedly?
Money, Money, Money
It comes right after her friends arrive, and it is the first hint of how hard she has worked to build the place.
Q 13Sophie suspects Bill is her father after learning which relative of his funded the taverna?
His aunt Sophia
Q 21Who originated the role of Donna in the West End?
Siobhán McCarthy
She earned an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Musical in 2000.
Q 22Which original West End cast member won an Olivier Award for playing Rosie?
Jenny Galloway
She won Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in 2000, beating castmate Louise Plowright, who was nominated in the same category.
Q 23Who originated Donna on Broadway, earning a 2002 Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical?
Louise Pitre
She had already played Donna in Toronto and on the first US tour before the Broadway opening.
Sharing a name with the woman who paid for the place feels like proof to Sophie, and Bill reluctantly agrees to walk her down the aisle.
Q 14Which song do Sam and Donna share in Act II, admitting they still love each other?
SOS
It is the only number in the show that Sam and Donna sing as a two-hander before the wedding.
Q 15Rosie propositions Bill in the second act with which ABBA song?
Take a Chance on Me
The pair get interrupted by arriving wedding guests, leaving Rosie stunned.
Q 16Which song do Donna and Sophie share while Donna helps her get dressed for the wedding?
Slipping Through My Fingers
In the film Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried sing it while painting Sophie's toenails on the villa balcony.
Q 17What does Harry reveal during the wedding scene?
He is in a gay relationship
The film gives him a partner named Petros, who turns up at the villa in the final scenes.
Q 18At the climax of the stage show, which couple actually gets married?
Donna and Sam
Sophie halts her own ceremony, so Sam proposes on the spot to stop the preparations going to waste.
Q 19The wedding march Sophie walks down the aisle to is a slowed-down arrangement of which ABBA hit?
Dancing Queen
The same song gets a full-costume reprise in the encore, when the three dads join in for the finale.
Q 20Which song was cut during the London previews, where it had covered a wedding-rehearsal scene?
Summer Night City
A small instrumental fragment survives as underscoring late in Act II, and a few lines turn up in the entr'acte.
Q 24For its limited six-month Broadway return in 2025, the show went back to which theatre?
Winter Garden
That was its original Broadway home from 2001 until the 2013 move to the Broadhurst.
Q 25In July 2024, the West End production celebrated which milestone performance?
10,000th
It closed only once in 25 years, for the COVID-19 shutdown, reopening at the Novello in August 2021.
Q 26Which Las Vegas resort hosted the show from 2003 to 2009?
Mandalay Bay
It passed 1,000 performances there in 2005, becoming the longest-running West End or Broadway musical to play Las Vegas.
Q 27Roughly how much has the stage musical grossed worldwide since its debut?
$4.5 billion
More than 70 million people have seen it across over 440 cities.
Q 28Which ABBA member was involved financially in the production and appeared at many of its premieres?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Benny and Björn were involved creatively from the start; she was the fourth member most visibly attached to the show.
Q 29In the 2008 film, Meryl Streep's character runs a hotel called what?
Villa Donna
It gets a rename in the sequel, when Sophie reopens it in her late mum's honour.
Q 30Who plays banker Harry Bright in the 2008 film?
Colin Firth
He returned for the sequel, where Hugh Skinner plays his younger self.