Mamma Mia, set to music by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, is a decidedly completely different sort of whodunit, drenched in a bombastic pop rating that calls for you dance within the aisles (“Honey, Honey,” “Cash, Cash, Cash,” “Dancing Queen,” “Figuring out Me, Figuring out You,” et al.). Greater than 70 million folks have seen the present, which has grossed $4.5 billion worldwide since its 1999 debut, and its revival, freshly put in within the Winter Backyard, didn’t precisely tiptoe again into city. Its seven previews raked in additional than $1.5 million, and, in its first week on Broadway, it positioned fourth among the many prime 5 earners (simply behind Depraved, The Lion King and Hamilton).
British author Catherine Johnson concocted the plot that pops up periodically between songs. It’s a few 20-year-old bride-to-be, born out of wedlock, who desires a father to stroll down the aisle along with her for her nuptials. She desires it a lot that she investigates her mom’s diary from twenty years again and invitations the candidates probably. They stretch over three continents: an American architect named Sam Carmichael, an Australian writer-adventurer named Invoice Austin and a British banker named Harry Vivid. Which one will the fountain bless? We by no means discover out. Upstaged by extra urgent nuptials, the paternity thriller is shoved apart and by no means solved.
The present revival holds it to only two continents, dropping the Australian accent altogether—which is a blessing for a Birmingham boy like actor Jim Newman. “After I received the script, Invoice Austin was born and raised in America,” he tells Observer. “They stopped making him Australian on excursions, I feel, as a result of there have been so many dangerous Australian accents they usually received laughs.”
Which is simply effective with Newman. “After we surrender performing college and are available to New York, we expect we’re going to play this nice vary of characters—however why?” he wonders. “Over time, we be taught that it’s higher to not suppose you’re a very completely different individual. It’s higher to take a look at this character and discover components of him which can be such as you. Then, you possibly can determine tips on how to react as Jim Newman in case you’re residing the lifetime of this character. I feel that makes it lots simpler, and in addition, I feel it makes the character appear extra sincere to the viewers. It’s all an journey.”
For Newman, this journey started in 1997. “That’s after I began working professionally in New York, doing horrible performs and numerous dangerous Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. A couple of years in the past, I took up nationwide touring (Massive, Joseph and the Superb Technicolor Dreamcoat, Kiss Me, Kate), and my physique feels yearly of that, imagine me. I knew in some unspecified time in the future I must pay the piper. Doing eight reveals every week—particularly as a singer-dancer—I knew that my physique was going to take a toll.”
One night time, after an Off-Broadway present he was doing, the stage supervisor got here as much as Newman and mentioned, “Liza is ready for you in her limo.” After all, he thought he was kidding, however when he placed on his backpack and began to go away, the stage supervisor mentioned, “I used to be critical. Liza Minnelli was on the present tonight, and he or she desires to see you. She’s in her limousine.” When he went out the stage door, the limousine door opened, and he or she mentioned, “Jimmy! Jimmy! Take me to dinner.” She took him to Sardi’s and mentioned, “Subsequent yr I’m doing a present on Broadway on the Palace, the place my mom made her huge comeback. It’s all about my dad’s motion pictures.” And a yr later, he was on the Palace, standing on stage together with his arms round this one who had change into his good friend, setting the lights for his or her duet. “It was an awesome expertise for me. Individuals have mentioned to me, ‘This present is simply about Liza and her boys within the refrain. You’re type of again within the ensemble,’ and I say to them, ‘Some jobs you’re taking to additional your profession. Some jobs you’re taking for the expertise. Liza is—Liza. There isn’t any one like her and by no means might be. She’s such an enormous a part of our leisure material.’”
“Throughout the run, at any time when there’d be stars within the inexperienced room after the present, Liza would come into my dressing room and say, ‘Jimmy! Jimmy! There’s any individual I need you to satisfy,’ and he or she’d take me into her dressing room. The door would open, and it could be Gregory Peck, sitting there with a cane, or Debbie Reynolds—unbelievable icons. It was actually, actually a significant expertise, and I’m so glad that I didn’t let my ego make that call for me.”
The factor that Newman says he’s proudest of is his relationship with John Kander and Fred Ebb. “I grew up singing their songs, they usually turned associates of mine. They had been simply the most effective.”
His first Kander and Ebb was 1997’s Metal Pier, in regards to the Thirties dance marathons, with Karen Ziemba, Daniel McDonald and Gregory Harrison. “It was my first contract, and my first authentic Broadway forged. Debra Monk was my love curiosity, and Kristin Chenoweth—it was her first Broadway present, too—was my spouse. It modified my profession—nevertheless it didn’t final 4 months.”
He additionally caught them on the tail finish of their collaborations—in Over and Over, a 1999 musical that by no means made it in, regardless of a forged that included Dorothy Loudon and Mario Cantone. It was an attractive rating, however musicalizing Thornton Wilder’s The Pores and skin of Our Enamel proved heavy lifting.
Ebb had died by the point his final musical with Kander—2007’s equally star-stuffed Curtains—got here to Broadway. “Not having Fred there was slightly unhappy as a result of there’s a lot of him in that present,” Newman mentioned. “He would have been so completely satisfied that it didn’t lie there, and it received produced. The explanation they had been such a profitable workforce is as a result of John is that this hopeless romantic and Fred was this acerbic, hilarious, go-for-the-jugular type of man.”
Newman’s an awesome believer in affixing one’s personal persona to the position at hand. “I’m that happy-go-lucky man—the one on the occasion who’s first to take over the dance flooring. I feel that was at all times in my nature, at the same time as a child. I used these qualities to attach with my character, Invoice Austin. This present is basically in regards to the ladies, let’s not child anyone, and the lads are introduced in for the battle, however in case you’re any sort of actor, you’ll have the ability to discover your story in that world.
“Invoice has come to this wedding ceremony simply considering it’s going to be a celebration, and he’ll see some outdated associates. Then, he discovers he could have an grownup daughter! At first, he doesn’t know what to make of that. However by the top of the play, he’s considering, ‘You realize what? I haven’t left any roots on this earth. It may be good to have this stunning, cool child because the roots I go away behind.’”
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