Toronto has a new set of principals to sing Mamma Mia! and some 20 other ABBA hits that make up the smash musical, currently at home at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Not only has the show added new faces but also extended through April 1, 2001.
Replacing stars Louise Pitre and newcomer Tina Maddigan will be former TV talk show host and "Due South" star Camilla Scott (her theatre credits include the recent Taming of the Shrew musical, Romancin' The One I Love, Aladdin and Three Days Of Rain) as Donna and another fresh face to the Canadian theatre scene, Julie Martell, as her daughter Sophie. Playing Donna's best friends Rosie and Tanya will be Deann DeGruitjer and Tamara Bernier and the new trio of possible fathers are David Keeley, Andrew Wheeler and Richard Binsley as Sam, Bill and Harry.
Tickets to Mamma Mia! are $93-$25. To reserve, call (416) 872 1212 or 1-800-461 3333.
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Mamma Mia!, the British-born musical currently playing at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre, broke two of the venue's sales records, moving 7,321 tickets on May 24, the day after opening. Add that to the previous record-break for the show: 10, 298 tickets sold on March 20, the first day of Mamma Mia! sales. The well-received Toronto production opened May 23 after beginning previews May 11. Mamma Mia! is scheduled to run through April 1, 2001. It will tour Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC and Boston before checking into Broadway's Winter Garden in fall, 2001.
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Mamma Mia collects a couple dozen hit songs by the Swedish supergroup ABBA and shapes them around the story of a single mother and her young daughter's marriage on a Greek isle. While the daughter plans her future with the love of her life, her mother is haunted by three different men who may or may not be her daughter's father.
Among the songs used in Mamma Mia are such familiar 70s staples as "Dancing Queen," "Knowing Me, Knowing You," "S.O.S.," "Take a Chance on Me" and "The Winner Takes It All."
Andersson and Ulvaeus, the songwriting half of ABBA, previously wrote the musical Chess, which enjoyed an extended run at the Prince Edward in the 1980s in a production directed by Trevor Nunn, currently artistic director of the National Theatre.
