Super Troupers
‘Mamma Mia!’ is a high-energy hit coming to the Embassy

By Cindy Larson clarson@news-sentinel.com

Even if you’re not an ABBA fan, Laurie Wells believes you’ll find “Mamma Mia!” irresistible.

Of course, Wells is biased — she plays Donna, one of the lead roles in the smash Broadway hit coming to the Embassy Theatre next week. But she says even her own dad, who hates musicals, enjoys the show.

Billed as a “global phenomenon,” “Mamma Mia!” has 11 productions running worldwide, including the North American tour, which is coming to the Embassy, and an international tour. The show has been running nonstop on Broadway for five years.

“Mamma Mia!” is based on the songs of ABBA, a Swedish pop group from the late ’70s responsible for hits such as “Dancing Queen,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “Take a Chance on Me.”

The show, written by Catherine Johnson, unfolds on a Greek island where a young woman named Sophie tries to figure out, on the eve of her wedding, who her father is. Sophie brings three men from her mother’s past back to the island they’d last visited 20 years ago.

Wells has been playing Donna, the mother, for 10 months.

“Ever since I got the script and auditioned for the part, I knew I was going to do it,” she said.

She said Donna is “very independent, left home early. She’s very much like me.”

Wells moved from California to New York when she was 21 to start her career. She’s been with the show for three years, originally cast as Donna’s understudy.

Although Wells isn’t a mother, she admires Donna for raising her daughter alone while running a restaurant on an island. “I think she’s a hero. I think she’s a great female character.”

Before “Mamma Mia!,” Wells was familiar with ABBA’s songs, but “I had never really sat down and listened to their lyrics. The greatest thing about doing the show is I get to deliver these lyrics as dialogue, put them into the storyline. They’re so poignant and so moving. Now I’m a huge fan. Now I think they’re one of the greatest pop groups ever.”

But even those who aren’t enamored of ABBA’s music will still enjoy the show, Wells said. Either they’ll relate to one of the characters, enjoy the funny story, or love the costumes and dancing.

And although the story is mostly funny, it has its serious moments, too. Wells’ favorite song is “Slipping Through My Fingers,” a song she sings when she’s helping Sophie get into her wedding dress. She says the lyrics “kill me. Every single night I get choked up. … I do not get tired of this music.”

Nor does she get tired of the shiny spandex costumes with wild bell-bottoms and tall platform boots.

The rigors of the show allow Wells time for little else besides performing and resting.

“I live like a nun,” she said. “I go home after the show (to her hotel room). I sleep. I rest. I work out. I don’t do a lot on weekends. It is exhausting, especially my emotional journey throughout the show. My day off, I don’t speak.”

It’s a tough schedule. “You either absolutely love it … or you die,” she said.

Wells plans to stay with “Mamma Mia!” for a while, and when she’s done, she’ll move back to New York and start auditioning again.

As for now, however, Wells is having the time of her life — and she promises audience members who go to the show will, too.