NKU’s first production of “Mamma Mia!” premieres Friday at the School of the Arts. Filled with ABBA classics and plenty of disco dancing, the popular musical — held at Corbett Theatre through April 19 — has already sold out several shows.
With songs such as “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” and “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia!” blends energetic dance numbers with enduring themes of love and family. Opening on Broadway in 2001 and adapted into two blockbuster films, the play follows Donna and Sophie Sheridan, a mother and daughter duo.
Swept up in preparations for Sophie’s wedding on a whimsical Greek island, Donna doesn’t know her daughter has invited three men who could potentially be her father, setting the stage for chaos.
“It’s just such a joyful show,” musical theatre student Mabrey Rice said. “It’s a show that is a little bit more joyful than what we usually get to do. I feel like a lot of times the stories that we tell are super important, but they can be really emotionally heavy for the actors and heavy for the audience.”
Rice plays Donna, the hardworking, spirited mother who runs an island hotel while raising her daughter. Alongside Donna’s two best friends, the three comprise the music girl group, Donna and the Dynamos. “Mamma Mia!” is a celebration of female relationships.
“I know I found a lot of joy for myself within Donna, and seeing a lot of myself in her, and in her little moments of anxiety,” Rice said. “But getting to see her relationship with [the Dynamos], getting to see her relationship with Sophie, and with the dads and getting to find the joy in each of those has also brought a lot of joy to me.”
Sophie is played by Grace Owen, a musical theatre freshman starring in her first main stage production. Owen took inspiration from actress Amanda Seyfried in the 2008 film “Mamma Mia!”, but added more grit to her character, feeling Sophie deserved some more power.
“Working on ‘Mamma Mia!’ hasn’t been like any other show I’ve ever done before,” Owen said. “Because we’ve had guest choreographers come in, which has been super interesting. You get to learn from people that have all these skills and morph them together into one amazing production.”
With several different choreographers, SOTA’s production emphasizes dance more heavily than the typical musical. Additionally, the director decided to take inspiration from ABBA’s music videos from the 1970s.
Musical theatre student Jathan Briscoe plays Bill Anderson, one of Sophie’s three possible fathers visiting the island, not knowing the mayhem that lies ahead.
“The concept behind this ‘Mamma Mia!’ is more accurate to what Greece is really like,” Briscoe said. “It’s more focused on the music video aspect of ABBA. So it’s paying a little bit more tribute to what they had laid down, foundation-wise, for this show.”
“Mamma Mia!” will be the last theatre production of the 2025-2026 school year. Remaining tickets can be found here.