As bars in Leeds welcome fans for the England vs Croatia match, I find myself at the Grand Theatre wearing a sequinned hat.
I’m sitting in a football-free zone, in a bar decorated with mirror ball bunting with a foil curtain backdrop below letters spelling out “dancing queen”, waiting for the start of the Mamma Mia! musical.
Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Mamma Mia! is not just an escape from the 2026 World Cup, but also from modern times in general. Envisaged in the 1990s by producer, Judy Craymer – and where the story is seemingly set – the musical transports you to a fictional Greek island without rain, without the internet, without mobile phones, without Brexit.
Back in the 1990s, politicians would have had you believe that one of the greatest threats to the UK was unmarried mothers and single parents. TV networks were also excited by fatherless children, commissioning three seasons of a hit US sitcom called “My Two Dads” about two men raising a 12 year old child conceived in a 1970s summer fling. With this in mind, it becomes clearer why the plot is premised on young Sophie Sheridan looking to discover who her father is – quaintly writing wedding invitations to mysterious men she reads about in her mother’s diary, rather than looking them up on social media.
However, the real drama of the show comes from the emotional turmoil of her mother, Donna Sheridan, who is not only placed on the cusp of ‘empty nest syndrome’ by her daughter’s imminent marriage but – owing to her daughter’s search – is forced to confront the heartache of her own 1970s summer of romance. The arrival of friends and former love interests also bring back memories of giving up her life as an adventurous traveller and free spirit and becoming a full time carer for an elderly woman, becoming a business owner and raising a child.
If you haven’t seen the film or the stage show before, what makes Mamma Mia! compelling is not really the story but the live performance of Abba songs that run all the way through. They don’t always fit perfectly with the narrative, but provide a rich emotional quality to the story. The performers also lean into the fairly constant jokey humour that feels very British, often physical and sometimes quite fruity. Finally there are regular, often high energy, choreographed dance numbers from a huge ensemble cast of thirty performers. You can also expect a very similar show over the years as 50 productions of Mamma Mia! have toured the world to an audience of millions with the same script, producer and director, Phyllida Lloyd.
Phyllida has built her reputation on directing shows with strong female leads and Mamma Mia! is a perfect example. For the current tour, Jenn Griffin plays Donna Sheridan. She is rarely off stage and gives a consistent performance that audience members described to me as “fabulous”; made even more remarkable given that her acting career began just 6 years ago at the age of 33. She is well cast as the mother of Sophie, played by Lydia Hunt, as they have a believable relationship and family likeness and Jenn strikes a good balance between showing tenderness whilst maintaining the air of an intimidating and fiercely independent woman.
Alongside Jenn, longstanding stage actresses – Sarah Earnshaw and Rosie Glossop – provide comic relief as her middle-aged best friends, saucy Tanya and playful Rosie. Together, the trio have great chemistry and you are keen to see their characters triumph – not least by getting their old band, Donna and the Dynamos, back together. Individually and together they get to sing most of the Abba hits, from Winner Takes It All to Waterloo to Dancing Queen and dance with high kicks and splits. Much more energetic than the shuffling dance of the original members of Abba at Eurovision.
The love interests from Donna’s past – gentle Harry, serious Sam and intrepid Bill, played by seasoned theatre performers Richard Meek, Luke Jasztal and Mark Goldthorp respectively – keep up with the antics as Sophie attempts to sleuth which of them is her dad… It feels to me that each actor manages to present how they might have caught the eye of your Donna except Sam, that is until his rendition of Knowing Me, Knowing You, giving a sense of the emotional maturity and vulnerability of the man he has become.
Sophie’s husband-to-be, Sky, played by Joe Grundy, and his chosen family (the group of hard-drinking athletic lads he spends time with – Flipper Boys) give a nod to the distinct lad culture of the 1990s. From stripping to their trunks to brilliantly co-ordinated straddlejumps, they bring a lot of the spectacle that makes this such a beloved stage show. Sky and Sophie are largely portrayed as innocent, naive and curious – ready to take their next steps. This means they get left out of the saucy undertones brought by the character of Tanya and Sky’s friend and local bartender, Pepper, played by rising star Joseph Vella; undertones which climax in a spicy intergenerational flirtation and performance of Does your mother know.
When members of both generations come together for dance numbers like Voulez-Vous, the hard work of the creative team can really be appreciated as the precise coordination of everyone’s movements is clearly down to more than the talented individuals.
The night concludes with an encore of Abba bangers that gets pretty much everyone out of their seats and moving, everyone who enjoys pop music (especially the music of Abba), musicals and were born anytime from the 1950s inward. I meet many Mamma Mia! super fans on the night who assure me that this was the best cast they had seen outside of London in the last two decades and I can believe it. The tour started last year and everyone is clearly confident and comfortable in their roles and in their co-stars.
After the show, many of the cast rush to the nearest bar to grab a pint (it’s thirsty work) and, their 70s glam rock costumes swapped for shirts with 3 lions, they watch the second half of the World Cup opening game, to see England win 4:2. I’m not really a football fan or a musical fan but I can’t help but be caught up in the euphoria of the evening.
If you don’t have the time or money to plan a family summer holiday and the inevitable passport related
bureaucracy, Mamma Mia may be the next best thing!
Tickets are available here.#
Main image: Lydia Hunt as Sophie with the cast.
Photography by Brinkhoff Mogenburg.
…and here’s our Geraldine, complete with sequinned hat………!
