Who’s her daddy?
That’s the mystery that Sophie Sheridan hopes to solve before her wedding day on the Greek island where she was raised by her mother Donna.
Sophie and Donna’s story will be filled with ABBA’s lively music when Music Theater Works presents “Mamma Mia!” by Catherine Johnson (Book) and Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (lyrics and music) Aug. 19-29 at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie.
Performances are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays, plus 1 p.m. Aug. 19 and 25, and 2 p.m. Aug. 28.
Heather Banks, who plays Sophie, describes her as “this earnest, passionate person that has a really interesting life and doesn’t quite know it until the end. I think she is smart but still finding her way and that’s the beauty of the journey in the show. She keeps talking about wanting to find herself and find who she is and she thinks that’s with her dad but I think it’s actually finally accepting her relationship with her mom.”
Banks is a longtime “Mamma Mia!” and ABBA fan. “I saw the touring show with my parents when I was younger and then fell in love with the ABBA music from there,” she said.
Banks particularly enjoys singing “The Name of the Game” and the ending song, “Waterloo.”
The actor praised director Justin Brill and choreographer Shanna VanDerwerker for helping her “find new things and allow me to dig deeper into the character,” she said.
In terms of the show, Banks added, “Justin and Shanna really brought this energy of making these people real people.
Alexis Armstrong, who plays Sophie’s mother, Donna Sheridan, was also an ABBA fan before being cast in this show. “They were on my ‘getting ready to go out’ music for college,” she said.
Armstrong described Donna as “strong, resilient, full of love, determined. What makes her truly happy is her daughter finding herself and her daughter figuring her own dreams out and following her road.”
Armstrong’s favorite aspects of her role are when her character connects deeply with other characters, including Sophie’s possible dads, her girlfriends who have come to the island for Sophie’s wedding, and especially with Sophie.
The challenge of the role for Armstrong is that “it’s a roller coaster,” she said. The actor has to “flesh out all those ups and downs and give the truth to them.”
Armstrong admitted that her favorite song in the show changes constantly. “Right now, ‘One of Us’ might be my favorite although ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ is a close second,” she said.
Armstrong thinks the strength of this production is that “it’s a group of actors who really connect on a very emotional level although it’s still fun and joyful,” she said. “It’s very powerful.”
VanDerwerker is the choreographer of the dance-filled show although director Brill, who happens to be her husband, considers her his codirector. “Justin says that I am his codirector because he is so collaborative,” she explained. “We are absolutely working hand-in-hand on this show together.”
VanDerwerker laughingly admitted that she was not an ABBA fan before she begin working on this show. She certainly sounds like she is a fan now.
The choreographer said that she is trying to keep the dance routines “true to the time period which is back in the early 2000s,” she said.
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“I was Sophie’s age when this show first came out so basically I’m just moving the way I move and dancing the way that I dance when I’m having a good time. The choreography when it gets into heightened reality places, because we’re inside these characters’ minds, can be a little more dramatic. I’ve also tossed in a lot of partnering.”
What makes this production distinctive, VanDerwerker said is that “Justin and I wanted to make it very heartfelt and real. We wanted to focus on the family aspect of it — your chosen family as well as the family you’re born with.”
‘Mamma Mia!’
When: Aug. 19-29
Where: North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie
Tickets: $39-$106; tickets are half price for ages 25 and under
Information: 847-673-6300; northshorecenter.org/event/mamma-mia/all
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.