Mamma Mia! - The inside scoop.

​The musical from 1999 -- based on the songs of Abba – is coming to life on stage April 16-18 in Fishburn Auditorium starring Lily Lenkowski ‘28 as Donna and Belle McNamara ‘30 as Sophie.
 Set in a hotel on a Greek island run by a woman whose daughter is getting married, Mamma Mia has been described as a jukebox musical(a musical based on already existing songs and a romantic comedy). 
Thomas Costello, Fine Arts Department Chair, Musical Theatre and Choral Director is directing this year’s spring musical. 
“He (Costello) picked Mama Mia because everyone wanted to do it,” Lenkowski said, “and he was like ‘this is finally the year, I think we have enough people to do it, I think we have the right people to do it,’” 
Surprisingly, Lenkowski did not watch the movie before her first audition. 
“I didn’t know the show,” Lenkowski said , “I knew it existed, I didn’t know what it was about or anything but it looked fun.” 
Lenkowski said that she watched the movie after being called back for Donna, the protagonist who balances her role as a mother to her engaged daughter, Sophie and the increasing drama in regards to her three past lovers. She explained that during the audition, she did not know much about the role she was auditioning for, however, during the audition she only had to “sing and do a dance.” For callbacks though, Lenkowski did more research on the role. 
“I didn’t think I was going to get Donna at all,” Lenkowski said, “I got called back for Donna but I also got called back for Tanya and Rosie, the two friends, so I kinda focused more on them and then through that I kinda saw stuff for Donna but I didn’t take it that seriously until the day of callbacks.” 
Lenkowski explained that it was not until after callbacks for the role of Donna that she really wanted the role. Initially, Lenkowski had been more interested in the role of Tanya or Rosie. 
“It would be so much fun if I could get to be Donna,” She looks forward to performing the song “Slipping Through My Fingers.” 
“I think Slipping Through My Fingers is a very emotional song, and I really want to push myself to act really well.” Lenkowski explained how thrilled she is to be able to perform the song with McNamara. “I am really excited to get to work with Belle because we already have that mentor-mother-daughter relationship anyway so it was nice how we could get together for that.” For Lenkowski, getting Donna was a big deal. “This was my first lead role I’ve ever gotten…I didn’t look even to see if my name was on the first section you’d see, I looked for Belle’s name because I know she was going to be very excited and when I saw that I got the part, I literally cried, I screamed and I ran around my house.” 
Akali Koeda ‘28 explained that she plays Tanya alongside Maggie Bibby ‘26 who plays Rosie, both of whom are Donna’s wild but supportive best friends. 
“I auditioned for Lily’s other best friend,” Koeda said. “I auditioned for Rosie but Maggie was perfect for Rosie and I was cast for Tanya, which I was extremely excited about.” 
Koeda explained how one of the roles Lenkowski initially auditioned for was Tanya and they had hoped to play the parts of Rosie and Tanya together. 
“But she’s an amazing singer,” Koeda said, “so she got Donna and it all worked out really well.”  
Koeda said that she was ecstatic about the castings. 
“I was very happy when I found out I got Tanya.” 
Furthermore, Koeda said she was happy for Lenkowski. 
“I was so excited for her,” Koeda said of Lenkowski. “She’s so talented at singing, she sounds amazing, and I think she can really nail the roll down and I was so proud of her.” 
Koeda looks forward to one scene in particular.  
“My solo scene with Liam Gibbs, who is Pepper, my little fling. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Because I really get to embrace my role, my character, and it’s also with people that I usually don’t act with.” 
Koeda also enjoys working with Lenkowski and Bibby as a trio of best friends, “we are so funny together,” Koeda said, “and we work perfectly together.”
Bibby, as a senior, showed ambition auditioning for Rosie and Donna having never done a production before. 
“It’s a bigger role,” Bibby said, “so the fact that I got it, I was really surprised.” 
Bibby relates to her role as Rosie in the sense that they both have a similar energy. 
“I feel like Rosie is a bit like me in a way,” Bibby said. “Obviously she’s older, she’s in her late 40s maybe early 50s but some of the jokes that she makes, and her personality in general kind of resembles me a little bit, so I don’t feel like I have to ‘act’ that much.” 
Bibby goes on to say that  she would probably say some of Rosie’s quotes in her life anyway. 
“It’s interesting because obviously they’re younger than me but it’s kind of fun together,” Bibby said about working with Koeda and Lenkowski. “Obviously most of the scenes that I’m in, we’re in together because we are supposed to be best friends, we are visiting the island together, we’re visiting Donna for the first time… Getting to know them more just outside of the roles and as people is a lot of fun.” 
For any prospective audience, Lenkowski shared some teasers for the show.   
“You’re going to have a really wild night,” she said. “It is a very high energy show and we’re going to try and implement that as much as we can.” 

Photo of Lily Lenkowski '28 by Morgan Kemp

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