Ridgewood Performing Arts will present ‘Mamma Mia’
Ridgewood High School Performing Arts will present “Mamma” Mia in April.
“This is a juke box musical. It doesn’t have music specifically written for the show,” said Music Director Haley Evans. “They took songs from ABBA, the 80s disco group, wrote a plot around the songs and a story to incorporate each one of the Mamma Mia songs. It is such fun music, and the dancing is incredible. The students have been having a fantastic time singing these hits from the 80s. It’s been really cool.”
Evans said show is set kind of in the 90s and the students are having fun wearing what they consider to be retro clothes.
“The students are having a great time and the music is so fun,” she said. “This was our 2020 musical when we shut down in March and the musical was to be two weeks later. We were almost ready but with the COVID shutdown we couldn’t do it. The kids are excited to come back. Our students who are seniors were freshman and students who were juniors were eighth graders so some of them were in the 2020 production that never was. It’s been fun to revisit these characters and revisit the music.”
The musical is centered on a girls group called the Dynamos that sings ABBA music from the late 70s and 80s. There are three girls in the group, Brenna Hoffman, Kyndall Stocker, and Keeley Carter who are all three good friends.
“It’s been fun to watch real life friends playing friends on stage,” Evans said. “It’s a challenge for the students to play people both older and younger than they are. There is kind of a collection in the show. Six of the kids are playing 40 years old and some are playing kids just a little older than them, like young people 17, 18 and 20 year old characters. It’s cool to watch the students that were in the show remember that dances from 2020. The show is still in their memories somewhere.”
A lot of shows have musicians playing in an orchestra pit. For this show there is a performing arts alumni singing quartet ensemble who have come back and are singing in the orchestra pit, Hope Asbury, Tayhani Cordero Miller, Zade Adkins and Kyla Geer.
“It’s fun to have two of the alumni who were supposed to be in the 2020 show come back,” Evans said. “The show is about friendship, family, love, and kind of about getting older. It’s been a fun adventure putting the show on again with the students.”
The students hope to sell 1,000 tickets.
“We’re hoping for about 300 people each night,” Evans said. “We want people to come and have a great time, laugh, and sing along with the ABBA songs. At the end there is an opportunity for the audience to sing along to ‘Dancing Queen’ if they want. Hopefully people will get out in the aisle, rock along with the disco ball, and enjoy an evening of some really fun music. Come and see us to have the time of your life.”
“Mamma Mia” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 14-15, and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 16. When selecting seats, try not to leave one single seat in between orders. Tickets are $12 and available at www.showtix4u.com/events/ridgewoodperformingarts. Tickets will also be available at the door. Contact the box office at 740-545-6345 during school hours to reserve handicapped seats.
Category: Arts & Entertainment
