Here is part 2 of 4 of the cast and creatives interviews from the Mamma Mia! the Musical media call. You can also see more Mamma Mia! related things as seen on this blog. More to come!
SPOILERS!
For more information and tickets, go to: mammamiathemusical.com.au
DREW Livingston – Harry Bright
TIM Wright – Bill Austin
MARTIN Crewes – Sam Carmichael
Drew, Tim and Martin – on how audiences have taken to the show:
Martin: “The audience response has been in every state amazing, but particularly [at Melbourne’s Princess Theatre]. I don’t know if it’s because the theatre is so intimate, but we really can hear every laugh, titter and obviously the screaming at the end. And it just so happens that the three of us get on very well, so it makes it a hell of a lot easier. When we arrive the dads don’t really know each other, but it makes the on-stage rapport very easy, which is just as well because we spend a lot of time together backstage.”
Harry: “Yeah, I’ve noticed as we’ve gone on how much people in the audience really relate to our characters. We see people after the show and a lot of times they’ve really connected to one of our stories. We’ve had really nice compliments from people because of that. It’s actually one of the strengths of the show. The music, obviously, is awesome, but one of the strengths of the show is that it has so much heart and it’s very, very relatable.”
Drew, Tim and Martin – on being fans of ABBA:
Tim: “I was a massive ABBA fan. When I was a kid, my sister and I used to go across the road to my best friend’s house. He had a sister around the same age as my sister and the four of us we would do ABBA concerts in his loungeroom. I was Bjorn [and] we would just mime to the songs.”
Drew, Tim and Martin – on their favourite number from the show:
Tim: “It changes for me because there’s so many great songs in it. My favourite at the moment is Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! It’s just so much fun.”
Drew: “It keeps changing for me. Like, I always think, ‘oh, I think that’s my favourite song. And then I hear the next song, I’m like, oh, no, no, no, that’s my favourite.’ I think Take a Chance On Me is kind of there for me at the moment.”
Martin: “I find still that I wake up every morning with a different song, which lasts about three days. And I’ll be sort of humming it through the morning which is a testament to all of the music. I just find, melodically and harmonically, they never do what you expect them to do. There’s these great sort of counter melodies and things that go on. And then apart from the lyrics, just fantastic songs.”
Drew, Tim and Martin – on the complexity of ABBA’s music:
Martin: “I grew up with ABBA, like all of us, but actually working on the show, hearing the music, then hearing the band for the first time and the orchestrations, made me much more aware of how complex the music is. The other thing is that all of the songs are about something. Which, for pop songs, is not always the case, which is what enables them to be put so successfully into a dramatic context because they’re all about the human condition and the stuff that we’re all living through. So, yeah, certainly my level of appreciation for the brilliance of ABBA has really gone up being involved in the show.”
Drew: “I think too, what reflects the strength of the writing is, like, I know the songs, I know them all, but then I hear someone like Marty sing them through the lens of your character and I’m like, ‘oh, that has a different meaning.’ And that’s a testament to how good the writing is.”
Drew, Tim and Martin – on inspiration taken from the films/previous productions vs. making the roles their own:
Drew: “I have to confess; I have never seen the movie [and when I was cast in this] I was like I don’t want to watch it, I don’t want to know what Colin Firth [who plays Harry Bright in the 2008 film of the same name] does. I’m just happy to live in blissful ignorance.”
Tim: “I did watch the movie when we were doing our first press thing right at the very beginning. I was staying in a hotel, and I didn’t have the kids, and I thought I’d watch it. But no [I’m] creating [the character] from scratch. I haven’t taken anything.”
Martin: “I actually haven’t seen the movie either, but I’ve seen the show probably five or six times. I saw the original London production back in 1998, whenever it was, but even then, the way that we got to rehearse for the show, the director was very much open to having a round table discussion about the history of our relationships with Donna and so on. So, we have that sense of creating the show even though it’s 25 years old or whatever it is.”
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All images by Mallory Arbour.
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 