Happy Mahaney’s favorite moment of “Mamma Mia!” comes at the very end of the show, when he turns his back to the audience and walks off stage.
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“It sounds silly, but it’s true,” says the Los Angeles-based actor, who will play the role of Sky in the hit Broadway musical for the 400th time this weekend. “I like the energy of the 2,000 people right on our backs. I love that moment. It’s a great feeling.”
Since August 2010, Mahaney has spent all of his professional life on the road with “Mamma Mia!” The musical comes to Merrill Auditorium in Portland for four shows beginning tonight for its Maine premiere. Portland Ovations hosts the national touring production.
It’s among the most popular musicals of the past decade, and leaves audiences on their feet screaming. At press time, tickets for both Saturday shows were sold out, and only a handful of tickets were available for Friday’s show. So tonight’s show is the best option if you haven’t yet purchased tickets.
Touring with a show this popular makes it relatively easy to stay pumped for each performance, says Mahaney. That is especially true with this portion of the tour, which is playing in smaller markets before audiences that haven’t had a chance to see it until now.
“It’s a challenge to do the same role so many times, no question about it,” said the actor. “Aside from being inspired by the audience reaction, to keep it fresh, you come on stage and you listen for the first time again.
“Sometimes it’s easy to fall into what we call autopilot. But for me, I try always try to come on stage and just listen to what’s going on. If you listen, you react to what is going on in the moment.”
The fun and peppy musical is based on the music of the Swedish pop band ABBA, which enjoyed massive success in the 1970s and early 1980s and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Besides the title song, “Mamma Mia!” includes “Dancing Queen,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “Take a Chance on Me” and many more.
The witty script tells the story of 20-year-old Sophie, who is about to marry her fiance Sky on a Greek island. She hopes that her father will participate in the wedding ceremony.
Problem is, she isn’t sure who her dad is, and neither is her mom. Her mother’s diary suggests Sophie’s father could be one of three men, so she invites all of them to the wedding without her mother’s knowledge or approval. The show evolves from there, with the music of ABBA telling the crux of the story.
The musical debuted in London in 1999, opened on Broadway in 2001, and is still running. The play has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. A film adaptation with Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan came out in 2008, and became the highest-grossing film musical worldwide.
Mahaney loves his character. Sky is a laid-back guy who likes to have fun. But at the same time, he is a serious fellow with a background in finance.
“He has come to this island to let loose and forget about his rigid ways,” Mahaney says. “For me as an actor, it’s a nice, easy role to be working on the road eight shows a week. I am on stage for 20 or 25 minutes the whole show. But what I do on stage is a lot of fun.”
Fun is the nature of the show. “Mamma Mia!” has a lot of energy and infectious humor. Even cynical husbands who are dragged to the show by their dancing queen wives generally leave the theater feeling pretty good.
Mahaney committed to this tour through August 2012. When it ends, he hopes to go back to Los Angeles and resume a career in TV and possibly film. He’s appeared in a few TV shows over the years, including “Rules of Engagement” and “Women in Law.”
“This is my return to theater,” he said. “I did a lot of regional theater out of college, up and down the East Coast, and then I decided to move to a major market — New York, Chicago or L.A. I chose L.A. I got a lot of good commercial work, sitcoms and some really horrible cult horror films.
“But that is about it so far, and then I booked ‘Mamma Mia!’ So I want to go back to L.A., and would like to be a series regular on TV. That’s my goal.”
Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or:
bkeyes@pressherald.com
Twitter: pphbkeyes
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