Mamma Mia!

THERE ARE very few contemporary musicals that engender such consistent affection from audiences and this has got to be the best of them.

Essentially, you have to love Abba to really get your maximum enjoyment out of it. But even if you don’t, there’s plenty to appreciate in this silly, fun, and frivolous show - filled with Abba-solutely fun music that everyone knows.

From the first moment to the last, the almost-capacity opening night audience were entirely into it. To see some 800 people on their feet at the end shrieking, yelling and singing along to Dancing Queen and Waterloo, was a sight to behold not to mention a testament to their collective enjoyment.

Five years ago the Townsville Choral Society first mounted Mamma Mia!, and I admittedly wondered whether this was perhaps not too soon to have a second run. I could not have been more wrong. Clearly, there is a great thirst in our society at the moment for precisely this sort of entertainment where one can forget one’s troubles for a few hours and come out with a smile on one’s dial!

Lindsay Nobile was again director, along with the creative team of Paul Neilson (musical director), Katie Grice (choreographer) and vocal director Claire Davies. It is always tempting from a creative perspective to fall back on to what you remember from the last production, but clearly this team not only tightened but also improved on the first production. There was impressive musical direction and vocals - it is notoriously difficult to reproduce those tight Abba harmonies - and slick choreography. Add to this an excellent set as well as a costume colour palette totally in keeping with the holiday atmosphere of the setting.  

While many of the cast repeated their roles from the 2020 production, the “newbies” included the two lead actors.

Melissa Donges-Curro played the delicious Donna. This is a challenging role which requires magnetism as well as high levels of energy and concentration. After a somewhat hesitant start as she found her energy levels to match the other actors, her vocals really took off in the second act with a stunning take on The Winner Takes It All, which drew enormous appreciative applause from the audience.

Jakaya Drysdale first came to critical notice in the 2023 production of Chess, and again in 2024 with Alice by Heart. She was ideal as the young ingénue Sophie who is just about to embark on marriage and invites the three men from her mother’s past to her Greek island wedding, suspecting that one may be her father. Her voice rang true from her first note in the opening I Have a Dream and this was a delightful and attractive performance. 

Five of the actors repeated their roles from the 2020 production, and for them it was clearly comfortable territory where they could flex their comic muscles and enjoy themselves.

It was such a joy to see Sandra Neal and Jodie Bell like a couple of old warhorses taking over the stage in their scenes. Clearly both actors had enormous fun recreating their roles: Sandra as the slightly cynical Rosie and Jodie as the ravenously man-eating veteran of three marriages.

Jodie chewed up the scenery (as the saying goes) with her hilarious Does Your Mother Know, and Sandra’s comic turn with Glenn McCarthy to Take a Chance on Me was a delight.

For Luke Reynolds, Glenn McCarthy and Nick Christie, it was clearly a fun return to the roles of the three prospective fathers.

In other roles Declan Keyes-West, who has been extremely busy in local musical theatre with three contrasting major roles during 2025, played Sophie’s love interest, Sky, while the magnetic Sam Stewart (who played Sky back in 2020) competed with Jodie Bell in the scene-stealing stakes.

Just about every song – some with lyrics slightly altered – was a song that you knew, delivered by an exuberant cast whose unadulerated enjoyment infectiously spread into all parts of the theatre.

The Townsville Choral Society were quite right to have this second season of Mamma Mia! and with all those happy, smiling faces leaving the theatre, this show will undoubtedly sell out.  So, my advice is be quick!

Trevor Keeling

Photographer: Alex Doherty