Kelowna Actors Studio musical will have you dancing in your seat
Mamma Mia is like measles: stay in the room long enough and you’ll get it.
It is that unabashed happy, uplifting feeling that all will be right with the world, and an equally bold desire to break out singing.
Which is a good explanation for why some of the cast from Mamma Mia busted out in a flash- mob-like improvisation in the parking lot after watching the latest movie of the same name.
“It just happened so naturally, we all just started singing, and then the ensemble came in at exactly the right moment,” laughed Anna Jacyszyn, who takes the lead as Donna in the Kelowna Actors Studio production. “People around us stopped and stared, it was fun.”
And all are super-pumped to be part of recreating Mamma Mia along with the infamous girl band Donna and the Dynamos, and bringing the story to life on stage this month at the Kelowna Community Theatre.
Kelowna Actors Studio has the chops to mount such a well-loved, iconic production, making excellent use of the talented performers, adding Laura Lebon as Tanya and Delphine Litke as Rosie to the character list.
KAS is moving this production from its usual location on Ellis Street to the larger Kelowna Community Theatre, downtown at the corner of Water Street and Doyle Avenue.
For anyone who’s been living under a rock for the past 10-plus years, Mamma Mia is the hilarious story of a soon-to-be-married young woman, raised on a lush Greek island by her single mother, searching for her birth father with hopes he’ll walk her down the aisle.
It sounds like a simple enough plot, but that’s not what Hollywood is about, and neither is the stage adaptation.
Instead of one possible “daddy,” there are three hunks who’ve enjoyed “experiences” with the determined Donna, who is oblivious to her feisty daughter’s plan to invite all three former lovers to the island for the
upcoming nuptials — surprising Mom to the depth of her soul, and the fun begins.
“This is without a doubt a dream role,” added Jacyszyn, who herself spent years “on the road” as an established singer.
“Donna has an unconditional love for her daughter, and she has a I-can-do-it-all-myself attitude. She’s brash, loveable, and has lived for years in a lot of pain and anger after she finds out Sam (a love interest) is engaged, and leaves the island.”
Her past is discovered when daughter Sophie (Sidney Cummings), reads her secret diary, and wonders about the three encounters Mom had that began with walking on the beach and ended with notations “and then…”
Backed by an ABBA soundtrack, this musical promises to pull out the stops, and have people dancing in their seats.
Even though it’s been 10 years since that funky, spunky movie hit the silver screen, the ripples are still being felt as yet another generation warms up to the catchy lyrics and dance-vibes of ABBA.
Revelling in the free-spirited vibe of the ’80s, the movie starred Meryl Streep as Donna, a single mother trying to run a hotel on a sun-soaked Greek island; Pierce Bronson as one of the possible daddies; Colin Firth as another daddy-in-running and Stellan Skarsgard, another candidate.
As a romantic comedy musical Mamma Mia is rollicking tale that has everything a music/musical lover could hope to embrace in one tidy tied-up bundle of fun.
Songs like Dancing Queen, Take a Chance on Me, Chiquita, Waterloo and Fernando are sure to bring make memories for some, and create great new ones for many others in the Kelowna Community Theatre as Kelowna Actors Studio unfolds the magic.
Be assured the audience will be overwhelmingly female.
And yes, we all know the words.