In 1999, it launched at London’s West End as a groundbreaking ABBA jukebox musical before earning five Tony Award nominations on Broadway and becoming a blockbuster movie musical starring Meryl Streep in 2008.
Now, “Mamma Mia!” celebrates its 25 anniversary at the Kennedy Center in D.C. from Aug. 13 to Sept. 1.
“I did actually discover the Broadway musical first,” Actress Carly Sakolove told WTOP. “I had heard of ABBA and I guess I had heard a couple of songs, ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Take a Chance on Me,’ the big ones, but I didn’t really know what it was all about until I got an audition for ‘Mamma Mia!’ back in 2012, so that’s when I went and saw the show on Broadway. … This is the 25th anniversary, and we believe that the country has been craving this again.”
Written by playwright Catherine Johnson, the zany, feel-good story follows 20-year-old Sophie Sheridan on the eve of her big wedding. Seeking to find the father she’s never known, she secretly invites her mother Donna’s three ex-boyfriends, Sam, Harry and Bill, back to the sunny Greek island that they last visited decades ago.
“She finds her mom’s diary, reads the diary and finds out that she has three possible dads,” Sakolove said. “She wants to find out who her father is, so she invites all three men to come to her wedding under the guise of her mother. They think the mother has invited them, but she has invited them unbeknown to her mother. So you can imagine how Donna feels when it’s the weekend of her daughter’s wedding and all of her ex-boyfriends show up.”
Visually, you’ll be transported to the sunny and stony atmosphere of a Mediterranean island paradise.
“Everyone has either been to Greece or seen pictures of Greece and seen how visually stunning it is with all of the blue and white,” Sakolove said. “Our set is a very simple set, two white walls that rotate around and a lot of set decorating. But honestly, the star of the show is the lighting. The light brings everything to life. It is absolutely stunning. … The ensemble and incredible costumes really complement the simplicity of the stark white set.”
Best of all, you’ll hear all of your favorite ABBA hits written by Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus.
“You’ve got ‘Dancing Queen,’ which is one of their biggest hits everybody knows. ‘Friday night and the lights are low!'” Sakolove said. “We’ve got ‘Take a Chance on Me,’ which is the first ABBA song that I ever heard and is actually my song in the show. … Everyone has to make sure they stick around at the end after the bows because there’s a big mega mix with a lot of amazing costumes and amazing dancing and some of the best songs in there.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
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