By Angelina Tang
Get ready for musical season, East! Our spring of 2024 musical will be Mamma Mia, a production using ABBA’s greatest hits to tell the story of Sophie, a 20-year-old girl trying to find out who her father is at her wedding on a Greek island. It’s fun, it’s upbeat, and the show will surely be stunning.
The story of Mamma Mia is based on ABBA’s music and written to incorporate it into the plot. Sophie, who is engaged to be married to Sky, wants her father to walk her down the aisle at her wedding on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi. She invites three men she suspects to be her father–Sam, Bill, and Harry–based on diary entries of her mother, Donna, twenty years prior. Shenanigans ensue, Donna reunites with her former dates, and Sophie’s wedding goes not quite as expected. It’s very crazy, very fun, and vividly emotional.
East’s production has begun to come together. Following the announcement of the musical at an informational meeting on Wednesday, December 6th, auditions for dance and vocal parts were held on Wednesday and Thursday, December 13th and 14th respectively. All of those who were auditioning had to attend both days. Callbacks were sent out December 15th and took place after school. The cast list was posted on Monday, December 18th. Everything has been very quickly paced so that students will have the maximum amount of time possible to work on their parts. The music and scores will either be distributed after winter break. Pen Fang, a member of the ensemble, says about the auditioning experience, “It was a really welcoming environment! This is just a really fun musical to get excited about.” Congratulations to all of those who received their desired roles!
In addition to being a very fun show, this year’s Mamma Mia is unique for several reasons: for one, the pit orchestra is entirely different from the traditional musical pit orchestra we’ve had in years past. There are no strings; instead, Mrs. Ieda describes it more as a “rock band.” While the score and parts have yet to come in, she reports that there will be “keyboards, guitar, electric bass, and percussion. Unfortunately, we don’t know how many people will be involved yet.” As Winterfest is the priority of this final week of December, thought into who may be fitting to fill these non-traditional instrumental roles has not yet been dwelled upon. In addition, perhaps even more dramatically different, Mrs. LoVullo will be our director for the production! Due to the swift shift from doing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Mamma Mia, the original out-of-district director let go of the position as they were unprepared to direct a whole new show, so our very own drama club advisor has stepped up to the spotlight and taken on this task. We wish her good luck in this endeavor!
The announcement of Mamma Mia has brought a great deal of joy and excitement to the student body. Enthusiasm for this switch-up has been widespread; drama club president Elizabeth Buckingham said, “I can’t wait to be a part of it! It’s such an upbeat and positive show with a bunch of iconic songs. I’m so excited that we can keep that energy up following Wendy and Peter Pan!” East, look forward to March 7, 8, and 9th for the musical Mamma Mia!
