Mamma Mia! coming to Fort St. John this month

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Fans of the popular theatre production Mamma Mia! have the chance to experience several live shows in Fort St. John later this month.  

Mamma Mia! tells the comedy story of a woman searching for her father in Greece, and discovers three men from her mother’s past as possible candidates. 

The musical will be performed at the North Peace Cultural Centre on February 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th and March 1st. 

The play’s director Ted Sloan told Energeticcity.ca that Mamma Mia! is the second musical being produced by Stage North and is expected to be one of the biggest of the year. 

“It’s been really fun to watch, the whole cast are really good performers and so there’s a lot of laughs in it, there’s some unexpected sadness, which is also very emotionally beautiful,” says Sloan. 

The director says he wanted to do the musical because of how fun and well written he finds the story with meaningful messages. 

“When I pitched this musical, I was like, I’m gonna do it because it’s fun, the main thrust that made the motivation for the play is finding joy in unexpected places.”

Sloan hopes to make the experience unique with a sing-along show and a and some sensory-friendly performances. 

The idea for choosing Mamma Mia! as Stage North’s next project came after wrapping up its last musical Footloose and cast members were eager to do another. 

“We had about 30 or 40 cast members say, ‘hey, this was so much fun’ and said ‘we’d like to do another musical’ and so I offered to volunteer to direct Mamma Mia!, and I thought that would be great,” said Sloan.

Sloan says the cast consists of 45 members between the ages of 15 to 65 who work together extremely well. 

“We have our younger actors listening to our older actors, we have our older actors having a lot of fun keeping up with the younger actors, and they’ve done a really good job having that family-like feel,” says Sloan. 

Sloan noted that the musical, due to its vast popularity, made it difficult to get the rights costing around $12,500. 

“Mamma Mia! the musical is actually the most popular show in the world right now,” said Sloan. “As many people are doing it, rights are a bit astronomical.”

Tickets cost $30 each for adults and can be purchased here.