Mamma Mia, how can I resist you?
Tight knit cast produces upbeat show
December 11, 2019
This year’s fall musical, “Mamma Mia” showcased student talent in an upbeat way with performances on Nov. 21, 22 and 23.
The story begins on a beautiful Greek island, Skopelos, with lead Sophie Sheridan (sophomore Sarah Boush) delivering invitations to her wedding to fiance Sky (senior Ben Macneil). The invitations are going to three strangers that could possibly be her father. She goes behind her mother’s back, Donna Sheridan (junior Miranda Slingluff), to try and find her own identity through discovering the identity of her father. The mother-daughter connection is brought to life through the strong bond between the two leads.
“Miranda and I are really close friends,” Boush said. “We are used to working together so it’s amazing to share the spotlight.”
The “Mamma Mia” soundtrack is completely composed of ABBA hits.
Sophie reads about her mother’s past scandals in the song “Honey Honey” alongside friends Ali (junior Sonja Mott) and Lisa (sophomore Mari Fellenbaum). The song sets the cheerful mood for the rest of the passionate play.
“I like ‘Honey Honey’ because it is really upbeat and happy” junior Caroline Raps who was a part of the Taverna ensemble said. “It just makes you feel good.”
The theme of the power of three is present within the two contrasting female friend groups of Sophie and Donna. As Donna’s crew, Tanya (senior Samantha Hostage) and Rosie (senior Kaitlyn Wilber) arrive at the glorious Greek island for Sophie’s wedding. The audience is shown the charismatic nature that “Donna and the Dynamos” possessed in youth and the present day through the vivacious song “Super Trouper”.
“[One of my favorite songs to perform was] ‘Super Trouper’ because of those costumes, man those were so awesome,” Slingluff said. “I felt like such a rockstar.”
As the story continues the play introduces the three suspected fathers Sam Carmichael (sophomore Thomas David), Bill Anderson (senior Preston Green) and Harry Bright (sophomore Juan Benatuil). Sam the architect, Bill the adventurer and Harry the English banker all find a special connection with Sophie, although they don’t realize she could be their possible daughter until it was time to walk her down the aisle.
Despite the smaller cast size, according to Boush, the play was successful in bringing in a large audience to the auditorium.
“[Having a smaller cast] almost helped us in a way because we all became super close by the end of the show,” Boush said.
The smaller cast also had its perks for director and Fine and Performing arts teacher Maura Morrison.
“I think that when it comes to collaborating and creating, less is more; even though 42 is still a lot of people to work with,” Morrison said. “It gave our choreographer a chance to work more closely with students, which provided more challenging choreography because there was more space.”
With more advanced choreography, some castmates found the most challenging aspect of the play to be the dancing.
“Dancing [was the most challenging aspect] and I didn’t even have to dance that well,” David said.
In song and performance, Benatuil faced a challenging obstacle as he played his difficult role.
“My British accent [was the most challenging aspect ] for sure,” Benatuil said. “That was really hard.”
Sophie realizes that it does not matter who her dad is because it does not define who she is. Her and Sky ditch the wedding, leaving Donna to rekindle the romance with past lover Sam and get married herself.
As the production ended, some castmates felt inspired to have others try out for the musical for an experience similar to their own.
“Try out for the musical!” David said. “These past few months have been the best months of my whole life.”
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