One of the world’s most successful musicals has returned to Glasgow, bringing the songs of ABBA and a little Greek island sunshine to the King’s Theatre.
Mamma Mia! is at the Bath Street theatre until Saturday 29 August, as part of its latest UK and international tour. The Glasgow run opened on 13 August and includes evening performances from Tuesday to Saturday alongside Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees.
More than 27 years after it first opened in London, the musical remains one of the great crowd-pleasers of the West End era.
The story follows Sophie Sheridan, a young woman preparing to get married on an idyllic Greek island. After discovering her mother Donna’s old diary, Sophie secretly invites three men from her past to the wedding in the hope of discovering which one is her father.
The show runs through a succession of reunions, misunderstandings and romantic complications, woven around some of ABBA’s best-known songs.
The score includes Dancing Queen, Super Trouper, The Winner Takes It All, Take a Chance on Me, Voulez-Vous, Knowing Me, Knowing You and, inevitably, Mamma Mia.
The current touring company lists Jenn Griffin as Donna Sheridan, with Hazel Baldwin as Sophie. Sarah Earnshaw plays Tanya, Lauren Woolf is Rosie and Samuel George Downey plays Sophie’s fiancé Sky. Donna’s three former loves are played by Richard Taylor Woods as Sam Carmichael, Arvid Larsen as Harry Bright and Simon Victor as Bill Austin.
The musical was the idea of producer Judy Craymer, who saw the potential to build an original story around the songs written by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.
Writer Catherine Johnson created the mother-and-daughter story, while Phyllida Lloyd directed the original production. Mamma Mia! opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in London on 6 April 1999, exactly 25 years after ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo.
It has since developed into a global phenomenon. More than 70 million people around the world have seen the stage musical, while its success also produced the two hit films Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
The Glasgow production runs for approximately two hours and 35 minutes including an interval.
Performances continue at the King’s Theatre, 297 Bath Street, until Saturday 29 August.