Here is part 4 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
ELISE McCann – Donna Sheridan
Elise – on taking on such an iconic role:
“It’s honestly a real privilege and such a joy. It is such a fun show, and it has all of that amazing heart as well as the humour and just the amazing music. It is a dream job. I know we say that all the time, but really, and I think because the roles are so well known. Anytime I can get mentioned in the same sentence as Meryl Streep, it feels like a total joy. But because the show has been around a little bit, there’s the freedom to make it your own. Because we’ve got an all-Australian creative team, they’ve given us the ability in the rehearsal room to play with who you think the person is. When you’re working on the big shows with the internationals, you don’t get to adjust anything for your flavour. So, it’s really just been such a dream. I love it.”
Elise – on making the role her own:
“I definitely did [make the role my own]. I didn’t re-watch the movie. I had done the show 15 years ago, some of you may remember. I was Ali and so I had somewhere in the back of my brain memories of the show and I knew what it was. But because it was a long time ago, I couldn’t remember specifically anything that anyone else had done. And I think that was really awesome for me because I knew where it needed to land, I knew where it needed to sit, but I wasn’t tied to hearing it in any particular intonation or anything. So I deliberately didn’t watch anything else again. I was like, I’m going to leave it.”
“In rehearsals, we got to sit around and talk about our backstory, decide how we became friends and where we met. And then we left the room and one of the young guns, one of the beautiful, glorious kids in the show said, you know that there’s like the sequel where they explain all that. And we were all like, ‘oh my god, we’ve never seen it.'”
Elise – on singing Winner Takes It All:
“It’s a real rush, but it feels really powerful, but also quite impactful for me because so much has happened by this time in the show for her and, and it is that like total raw heartbreak. And, you know, I had always loved the song, but it wasn’t until I got to sing it that I really looked at the lyrics. I think of it as a monologue and parts of the song I speak and parts of it I sing and parts of it I belt and parts of it I float. Because I feel like that’s the emotional range you go through, it always feels like a really big moment in the show for me because it’s such an emotional, cathartic moment.
I always think of it as it’s as if Donna feels like this is probably the last thing she’ll ever say to Sam. This might be the last time they ever see each other. So, I’m putting it all out on the table. And I’ve definitely been through heartbreak, and I had my heart broken a few years ago. And I, so that feeling like I can, I can connect with that feeling. And so, it feels like a real blessing to get to sing it because I get to process some of that and share that and hopefully connect with anyone in the audience that also has gone through that.”
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All images by Mallory Arbour.
TINSEL and TAP SHOES 