When it comes to a feel-good, singalong, put-a-smile-on-your-face musical, it’s tough to beat “Mamma Mia!” Set on a Greek island and featuring an immensely hummable collection of ABBA tunes, the show is escapist entertainment at its best, which helps explain the 14-year run on Broadway and subsequent movie starring Meryl Streep that grossed more than $600 million.
It has also produced a happy moment for Naperville’s BrightSide Theatre, which is finally able to stage its production of the show starting June 3, more than two years after initially scheduling it.
“When we had to shut down in March of 2020, we already had cast the show and had started production,” said Jeffrey Cass, BrightSide’s artistic director and the director of the upcoming show. “We postponed it to the fall of 2020, and then that didn’t happen. Considering that we’d been talking about this show for a few years before it was scheduled, we’ve been waiting a very long time for this one.”
For Cass, the show is the perfect way to end BrightSide’s current season.
“The music is so much fun and infectious, and we want everybody to come in and have a good time and enjoy being in the theater again,” he said.
“Mamma Mia!” begins with Sophie, a 20-year-old bride-to-be searching for the identity of her father. After reading her mother’s diary, she finds three potential dads and decides to invite them all to her wedding on the Greek island where her mother, Donna, owns a small inn.
“It’s funny, when you describe what the show is about, it sounds like it could be pretty serious,” Cass said. “But the key is it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s supposed to be fun and lighthearted. It’s more about everyone being in on the joke together and having fun with the music.”
The show is packed with 22 songs originally recorded by ABBA, including “Dancing Queen,” “Super Trouper,” “Take A Chance on Me,” and “The Winner Takes it All.”
The show is also a bit of a homecoming for Max Martin, who plays Sophie’s fiance, Sky, in the upcoming production. The Naperville native and graduate of Neuqua Valley High School first worked with BrightSide when he played Fredrich Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” in 2015 when he was 15.
“That was probably my first professional stage gig,” Martin said. “I’d had my first experiences with theater in middle school and high school, but this was something different.”
Martin decided to pursue acting as a career, attending the Chicago College of Performing Arts for a year before moving to New York to enroll in The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. The two-year conservatory is best known for teaching Sanford Meisner’s acting technique, and Martin was finishing up as the pandemic hit.
“Just as I was about to get started, everything shut down,” he said. “My dad happened to be in town, and we drove back to Naperville, where I ended up staying for quite a while.”
As theaters opened up again in the past year, Martin started taking on roles in the Chicago area and reconnected with Cass and BrightSide. He’s very excited to be working on “Mamma Mia!” in his hometown.
“I feel like a lot has changed, but at the same time, it still feels familiar,” Martin said. “We’ve stayed in touch over the years, but it’s been great to work with them again, especially on a show like this that’s so much fun.
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“This show is interesting because so many people love it, even if they aren’t familiar with other kinds of theater or shows,” he said. “It has a special place in their hearts, and there’s something to be said for a show that can pull in a crowd like this one can.”
“It’s a show that’s uplifting and fun,” Cass said. “It’s the type of show that we really need right now.”
BrightSide Theatre’s ‘Mamma Mia!’
When: June 3-19; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays
Where: Theatre at Meiley-Swallow Hall, 31 S. Ellsworth, Naperville
Tickets: $28-$33
Information: 630-447-8497; brightsidetheatre.com
Jeff Banowetz is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.