Remembering one’s youth has its distinct pleasures, and traumas. For the lucky, if the fates have been kind, it lifts the spirits to reminisce and relive the excitement of younger days. Unless, of course, those days come back to haunt you!
Before you is the story of Donna Sheridan, willful and strong, a singer with her own band, with a free-enterprising spirit that is accountable to no one. I know this girl. Her allure is vivacious and irresistible. What nobody could know about Donna, however, is that she would end up on a Greek isle, the working class owner of a taverna and mother to a daughter, Sophie, whose father is one of three men, though Donna cannot discern which one. Ah, yes, those were the days!
And here we are now, twenty years later, as our story unfolds on the eve of Sophie’s nuptials. She acts out, starving to know her paternity, by reading her mother’s diary. The soulful, young girl then secretly invites the three men about whom Donna waxes romantic in her journal. Sure enough, the prospective fathers, Sam, Bill and Harry, arrive intrigued… but clueless to Sophie’s plot to discover the identity of her father.
All of this storytelling is made all the more fun as told to a string of internationally chart-topping hits millions have come to love. These tunes were penned by ABBA, one of the most successful pop music bands of all time, inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010!
This story fascinates. It is so needed and welcome these days to reflect on the good that life can bring out in us and in our relationships. Though unwittingly, beautiful Sophie surely does that. A traditional girl creates a non-traditional family all for the love of wanting to find her father… and she finds even more!
-Jim Corti, Artistic Director and Director of Mamma Mia!