What’s it all about?
Brightly coloured Lycra and the greatest pop songs ever written.
Okay, there’s clearly more to ABBA musical Mamma Mia! than this, but those costumes are iconic and those toe-tapping tunes are phenomenal.
The story is set on an idyllic, sun-drenched Greek island, where Donna is preparing for her daughter Sophie’s wedding. But weddings never go without a hitch, do they? The hitch here is that Sophie doesn’t know who her dad is – don’t judge Donna, she wears the Lycra which makes it fine – so has invited all three candidates behind her mum’s back. What could possibly go wrong?
Casting coup
Who hasn’t been in Mamma Mia? Its list of leading ladies reads like a who’s who of the West End over the past decade and a half. Among them Dianne Pilkington, Siobhan McCarthy, Louise Plowright, Helen Hobson, Linzi Hateley and Sally Ann Triplett. It might be less known, though, that Downton Abbey’s Mrs Patmore and Mr Green, Lesley Nicol and Nigel Harman, are also Mamma Mia! alumni.
Fascinating fact
If you laid all the rhinestones used during the show’s London run end to end, they would stretch further than the length of 141 jumbo jets!
Olivier Awards history
Back before Mamma Mia! had made lots of Money Money Money and had Super (Trouper) success across the world on stage and on film, it received four Olivier Award nominations in 2000, Jenny Galloway going on to win for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical. The Dancing Queens are yet to make the shortlist for the Audience Award.
They say…
“We have too much fun [in the show]. The music is so good and it’s becoming a really great British musical that has been here for a long time and is still going from strength to strength. People still love it, [the house] is still full and people still get up and dance at the end.
“We performed at the Oliviers last year with [ABBA’s] Benny and Björn, which was very exciting. It’s such a prestigious set of awards and this is a particularly nice one because the people who support us get a chance to tell us how much they like us.” Mamma Mia!’s Dianne Pilkington
We say…
We’ve been saying Thank You For The Music to Mamma Mia! for more than 15 years now. The combination of the catchiest songs in the history of pop and a cast with enough energy to power the entire south of England has made it a hit with audiences year after year. But they know The Name Of The Game and need you to Gimme Gimme Gimme them your votes for Mamma Mia! to make it to the shortlist. The Winner, as they say, Takes It All.
Mamma Mia! is booking at the Novello Theatre until 24 October. You can book tickets through us here.