It’s back! Mamma Mia! The fabulous, the funny, the smash hit,
25–year-old anniversary edition is back to Chrysler Hall!
From March 4th to March 9th with matinees and evening shows on Saturday and Sunday!
Who doesn’t need a little joy in their lives right now? Mamma Mia! is the perfect antidote for your end-of-winter blues. Set on a sunny Greek isle, Mamma Mia! is the story of a mother, a daughter who is about to get married, and three possible dads.
This is the 25th anniversary tour of the show that ran on Broadway for 14 years and is still playing on London’s West End. It’s been seen by millions of people around the world and has spawned two hit movie musicals.
What’s the magic of Mamma Mia? I had a delightful conversation with Victor Wallace, who plays one of the three possible dads, Sam Carmichael. Wallace says that first and foremost, it’s the catchy pop tunes of the Swedish group ABBA that anchor the story. Unlike other popular “jukebox musicals,” Mamma Mia! is not a story about the musical group ABBA. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeuś, ABBA members, and Catherine Johnson, a British playwright, wove a clever story around the ABBA catalog of songs.
Victor Wallace notes that this show “has a little something for everyone.” The kids know the story and the music from the two movies. The parents grew up with the songs. Wallace says, “Mamma Mia reaches out to a broad demographic. It’s about family, friendship, forgiveness, and past loves. You can’t help but fall in love with all these characters.”
Wallace should know. He’s been involved with the show since 2003, when he was cast as Sky, the young man that Sophie, the daughter, is planning to marry on that sunny Greek isle. Wallace played Sky for two years in Las Vegas before he moved to New York to pursue his Broadway dreams. He came back to Las Vegas and Mamma Mia! in 2007 in the role of Sam Carmichael. Wallace finally made his Broadway debut in 2012 as the understudy for Sam and in the ensemble cast. He feels privileged to have been able to close the Broadway run of Mamma Mia! in 2015 as a leading character, Sam Carmichael. After many years of other roles, on Broadway and off, and two years of the pandemic, when Wallace went back home to Wisconsin, he’s back at the role of Sam in this 25th anniversary edition of Mamma Mia!
I asked Wallace what it was like to play the same role hundreds of times. He answered, “There may be times you don’t feel it 100%, but this show is so joyous, and you get back so much from the audience, that once you get started, you just kind of take off and away you go.” He says, “Every show is different. Every audience is different. There is a different energy for every show.”
This will be a homecoming of sorts for Victor Wallace. He spent three summers performing at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, while he was in theater school at Ithaca College. It was his first time getting paid to perform, and he loved it. Busch Gardens taught him “stamina, doing the same show multiple times every day, keeping it fresh and fun for me and the audience.” A good lesson for his entire career.
Spoiler alert – Wallace comes out with the other possible two dads at the end of the show in a “yellow banana suit with a codpiece” to perform a mini rock concert with the rest of the cast. He feels like he’s spreading joy with every show. “You can’t leave this show without feeling good.”
Don’t miss this show. For more information and tickets, go to https://www.sevenvenues.com/events/detail/mamma-mia
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