BRIGHTON ACTRESS IS HAVING ‘THE TIME OF MY LIFE’
Madison Deadman wasn’t taking a great chance to be part of the latest touring company of “Mamma Mia.”
The Brighton native has been a big fan of the 25-yearold musical, built around songs from the Swedish group ABBA, since she was very young. “My first professional show I ever did in Michigan was at the Encore musical theater company (in Dexter) — ‘Evita’ when I was 12 years old,” Deadman, 27, remembers. “Dan Cooney, the director, asked me, ‘What’s your favorite musical?’ and it was ‘Mamma Mia’ hands down.
“I love the joyousness,” adds Deadman, who saw the 2008 film adaptation before she saw “Mamma Mia” on stage. “I love ABBA music. My mom and dad met in the ’70s at a roller skating rink; they can do all the ’70s skating dance moves, and of course, a lot of that was ABBA. Then we got to see it at the Winter Garden on Broadway, which was the first time I ever got to step foot on a Broadway stage.
“So, yes, (‘Mamma Mia’) has been part of me for a long time. This is kind of a full-circle moment.”
“Mamma Mia” is, in fact, the first national tour for Deadman, who’s part of the company and understudies for the lead role of Sophie, an aboutto-be-married 20-year-old on the fictional Greek Island of Kalokairi who surprises her mother — a former pop star singer — by secretly inviting the three men who might be her father to her wedding.
Deadman’s love affair with theater began when she was “really young,” catching the bug while playing sports and
taking dance classes and figure skating while growing up in Brighton. “I loved the performance aspect of all that,” Deadman says now. After seeing a cousin act in a community theater production of “Cinderella,” “I remember pointing to the stage: ‘I want to do this! I want to be up there!’
“It’s always been in me. I was always playing dress-up, always singing. I had a little boom box when I was a little girl that I would bring everywhere. I’d put a Disney karaoke CD in it, and as a ‘gift’ to friends and family, I would sing Disney Princess songs,” she adds, with a laugh.
Deadman’s first time on stage was at 6 years old, playing Gretl in a Howell community theater production of “The Sound of Music.” But it was the “Evita” experience that allowed Deadman to truly entertain the idea of making theater a career.
“This is what I’ve been aiming for for a pretty long time. It comes with a lot of challenges. It’s definitely hard to uproot and be away from home, but I’m doing a show that is full of so much joy and I’m surrounded by great people and a great company.”
Madison Deadman
“I was working with people from New York and seeing that they made a living doing it and were traveling around the country and everything,” she says. “That’s when it hit me: ‘Omigosh, if I’m doing this now, at this stage with people at this caliber, then, yes, I can do this. I can make a living doing what I love.’ So all through high school, that was the plan.”
After a brief time at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, where she also studied nutrition as a backup,
Deadman transferred to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she appeared in “Godspell,” “Home Street Home” and “Rocket Science,” among other shows before graduating in 2020. Deadman also acted in regional productions of “Cabaret,” “Les Miserables,” “The Addams Family,” “Little Women,” “The Miracle Worker” and “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” before landing her role in “Mamma Mia.”