Dancing queens
Cast of upcoming production hard at work and having fun
Stars of ‘Mamma Mia!’ excited about upcoming opening
As the sun has been shining on St. John’s this week, the cast of “Mamma Mia!” is hard at work with rehearsals for the production opening Aug. 5 at the Holy Heart Theatre.
The show’s leading ladies, Tina Maddigan (Donna), Julia Dunne (Sophie), Shelley Neville (Rosie) and Michelle Doyle (Tanya) are busy developing the real-life friendship their characters will portray onstage.
The bond between Maddigan, Neville and Doyle, who will play best friends in the show, is clear.
“We sit next to each other in rehearsal and we goof around a lot,” Neville says about her relationship with Doyle.
The pair has been rehearsing together for the past week and is excited for Maddigan to have finally joined them.
For Neville and Doyle, the characters they are playing are the opposites of the roles they play in their real-life friendship and a wonderful opportunity to play off of and learn from each other.
The four women are excited to perform in a show that people know so well, from the music to the characters.
“There’s a little bit of Donna in a lot of us,” says Doyle.
For Dunne, this production has the added excitement of being her professional debut.
“I’m looking forward to learning from everyone in the cast and taking little things from the people I like,” says Dunne, who in the fall will commence her final year at Sheridan College — the same school at which both Maddigan and Doyle trained.
“I’m looking forward to the big numbers everybody knows, ‘Mamma Mia!’ ‘Waterloo,’ ‘Dancing Queen,’ those are the fun ones for me,” says Neville. “We’re in such capable hands with the people who are putting all this together.”
The production being staged by Theatre St. John’s differs greatly from the one Maddigan participated in on Broadway. The actresses all happily noted the intense amount of dancing their characters are doing, something the leads were not required to do in the New York production.
Maddigan said she is most looking forward to the song “Slipping Through My Fingers.”
“As a mom, it sort of changes just a little bit. I mean, time really does go fast,” Maddigan says about how having children changes her relationship to the song.
The song has always been one that stood out for Maddigan, who remembers the song being very emotional for Louise Pitre, who played Donna when Maddigan played Sophie in the Broadway production of the show.
For Maddigan and Doyle, both of whom have been living elsewhere for close to two decades, this show is an important way to be part of the community they miss and love.
“To be able to come back to Newfoundland, it’s awesome,” said Maddigan.
Neville quickly added that “Newfoundland has the most appreciative audiences,” and it means a lot to have Maddigan and Doyle in the show.
“I’m excited that it’s home on the Rock because there’s just so much going on with ‘Come From Away’ and talk about Newfoundland,” Maddigan said. “I think it’s awesome to be able to come back home and do something here that I did in New York for so long. But a different character, she’s beefy and meaty.”
“It’s nerve wracking, a home audience,” says Doyle.
The four lead actresses agree they’re always more nervous performing in front of their families, who will be the first to tell them if they don’t like what they see.
The energy of “Mamma Mia!” is well matched with the energy of Newfoundland, they say. Maddigan said people treat each other like family in the province, and “Mamma Mia!” is a family show about people coming together to enjoy a celebration.