Ten years after the film adaptation grossed more than $600 million around the world, Craymer produced an all-new original movie musical based on the songs of ABBA, Mamma Mia!
They were impressed by the team Craymer had gathered around her to create the show; Phyllida Lloyd (a "cerebral director blessed with a popular touch") and "highly savvy writer" Catherine Johnson.
[7] In 1996 Craymer formed Littlestar Services Ltd with Andersson and Ulvaeus to produce Mamma Mia!,[5] which opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End on 6 April 1999 and swiftly became a huge global success.
The show has been nominated for numerous Olivier and Tony awards and was the first West End and Broadway musical to be performed in Chinese.
This success naturally attracted the interest of Hollywood, and in 2005 and 2006 Craymer made a deal with Universal Pictures to make a film of Mamma Mia!
Unusually for Hollywood, the project was helmed by the three women who created it, with Craymer, Phyllida Lloyd and Catherine Johnson reprising their roles as producer, director and writer on the film.
[4] Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski, opened in 2008 and was the fifth highest-grossing film of the year.
More recently, Craymer also produced Viva Forever!, a musical based on the songs of the Spice Girls, which was written by Jennifer Saunders and opened at the Piccadilly Theatre in late 2012.
Here We Go Again, reuniting the original cast of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried and Christine Baranski to reprise their roles.
[16] In 2022 Craymer was honoured with the Variety Club Silver Heart Award for Outstanding Global Achievement in Cinema, Theatre and Music.
[22] Her early interest in competitive showjumping ("Horses were my obsession as a teenager and you never lose that love") led to her becoming an ambassador for the sport in 2011.