Century High School students will hold a series of high-energy performances of the ABBA-inspired jukebox musical “Mamma Mia!” this weekend and next. The show will “exude fun,” director Lucas Hewitt said.
“We really want the audience to get into the groove with the music,” Hewitt said, “and really feel the fun that is the ABBA cannon.”
Performances are set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and April 11 and 12 at the high school, located at 355 Ronsdale Road in Sykesville. There will be a 2 p.m. matinee performance on April 12.
Tickets cost $15 and can be purchased at the door or online. Tickets purchased online allow the buyer to reserve a seat, though online transactions include a $1.50 service charge. To buy, visit: tickets.centurydrama.com
As a jukebox musical, “Mamma Mia!” features performances of hits from the Swedish pop supergroup ABBA, bound together by an original plot. The show is more mature than a typical high school musical, Hewitt said, and would carry a PG-13 rating, only because the plot features a character trying to uncover the identity of her biological father.
“It’s a little bit more mature,” Hewitt said, “and the characters are significantly older than our high school students, so the students have really embraced that challenge of playing older characters and characters who have a lot more life experience. In terms of the maturity challenge, they’ve been really able to be mature about the content and play it so that it’s still high-school appropriate. You just can’t get away from some of the plot elements that the show contains.”
Students have been asking Hewitt to select “Mamma Mia!” for the school spring musical for years. The director said he selected the show for this year’s musical to expose students to performing a wider variety of music and characters, and because he feels that the school’s drama company is right for the show this year.
“This is our first jukebox musical that we’ve ever done,” Hewitt said, “which means it uses like popular songs from the radio, and the kids love ‘Mamma Mia!’ They just love the ABBA songs, and they love the music in the show because it’s like different than musical-theater style.”
The show features a cast of 40 student actors and 28 student crew members, who contribute to the technical elements of the show. Hewitt said a larger cast is great for a show with multiple large-scale dance numbers like “Mamma Mia!”
“It is a pretty big cast,” Hewitt said. “Actually, we decided not to cut anyone, so everyone who wanted was able to make it. We just really wanted the whole thing to be fun for everybody. We wanted the whole thing just to exude fun, so we were able to keep everyone, and hopefully make it as fun as possible.”
Audience members are encouraged to stick around after curtain call, for three additional singalong numbers, which is a typical feature of the show “Mamma Mia!” Some audience members will also be invited to dance with the cast on stage. Hewitt said those who want to maximize their chance to participate in a dance number should sit near the front and close to the aisles.
“We always do things differently here at Century,” Hewitt said, “and we really want the audience to have an experience, and not just come to veg out and watch a show. We’re trying to get the audience to have fun, so there are times when the actors will come out in the audience and sing with microphones in the audience and maybe get the audience to sing along with them. We’re going to pull a few audience members up onto the dance floor, so that the audience can dance on this really cool dance floor with some of our actors, to make it more like an immersive, interactive concert experience, as well as a regular theatrical production.”
Hewitt said he is particularly pleased with how the set incorporates dance floors, complete with party-ready LED lights, thanks to the expertise of one parent volunteer. The idea of using LED features in a show was considered during rehearsals for “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” this fall, but did not materialize in time to become a part of that play.
Through the experience of rehearsing for the musical, students have learned to let go of their anxieties and stage fright, in favor of having as much fun as possible on-stage, Hewitt said.
“They start to learn more about themselves and that they can do it,” Hewitt said. “Their confidence grows, their self-efficacy grows, and they just have fun. They have a great experience doing live theater, and that’s really what I want for them.”
Have a news tip? Contact Thomas Goodwin Smith at thsmith@baltsun.com.
