Having toured the country following the 10-day run of the Mamma Mia! musical in Colombo, Lucy May Barker and Phillip Ryan who play Sophie and Sky, have decided to hold their dream destination wedding in Sri Lanka
Mamma Mia! ends with a wedding bait and switch when young lovers Sophie and Sky admit that they are not ready for marriage and instead opt to travel around the world.
But that is not the case for Lucy May Barker (26) and Phillip Ryan (28), the young actors who play Sophie and Sky in the Mamma Mia! musical. They have done their fair share of travelling and are now ready to walk down the aisle, for real this time.
The couple have been together for three years and plan to tie the knot right here in Sri Lanka. The date could be sometime between April and June, they reveal. Talking to the Sunday Times last weekend after a week spent travelling around Sri Lanka following Mamma Mia’s suc- cessful 10-day run in Colombo, the two admit they really didn’t expect to find love on the job. They were more focused on making sure that they remembered their lines and choreography because they were filling someone else’s shoes. But as soon as they were more comfortable on stage, the chemistry that was so obvious on-stage never left.
Before their starring roles in Mamma Mia! which has taken them all over the world, the couple worked hard on their respective careers back home. Philip played the role of Sick Boy in Trainspotting Live at Edinburgh Fringe while Lucy’s notable roles include Ilse in the original London cast of the four-time Olivier Award-winning Spring Awakening in 2009, the titular role in Annie in the 2001-2003 tours, Johanna in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street alongside Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton, which transferred to London’s West End in 2012, as well as many others on stage and screen.
However it was not love at first sight for the two when they first met at auditions back in 2015, Lucy laughs, recounting her first impressions of Phillip. “Phil had his hair all bleached because of another job and I remember thinking ‘this boy has not got the best hair do’”.
Lucy believed they would tie the knot after their international tour had ended. Phillip had another agenda. By December 2017 he had the ring he designed, made and hidden in the