- Performances: 5,758.
- Open / Close: October 18, 2001 – September 12, 2015
- Theater: Started at the Winter Garden Theatre, moved to the Broadhurst Theatre in 2013.
- Tony Awards: Nominated for 5 but did not win any of them in a year where “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Urinetown” won several. Judy Kaye, who was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, had won a Tony in that category in 1988 for “Phantom of the Opera.” Louise Pitre, who was nominated for Best Actress in a Musical, has never won a Tony but has won 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, which are Toronto’s Tony Award surrogate.
- Fun Fact: In the initial workshop version of the show, Tanya’s husband comes to the island with her but was dropped as a character when it was decided he didn’t add anything to the story.
Podcast
For this episode, we hurtle up the list of long-running productions to give everyone something to celebrate and lift our spirits. “Mamma Mia!” may be the longest-running jukebox musical ever to run on Broadway (so far) but it’s story transcends that reductive label. As expertly elucidated by Grey Garrett, who won a Best Supporting Actress in a Musical award for her performance as Tanya, this is a show that foregrounds female life experience and friendship in a somewhat revolutionary way for a show created in 1999.
Drawing from the experience of playing Tanya twice, Grey highlights the cycles of life that the show touches on, relates her own experiences of “falling in friend” with cast members, and the vital enjoyment of communal effervescence that the show fosters. In the meantime, I uncross my grumpy old arms and, at least in this one case, learn to love a jukebox musical.
This may not be the only time we talk about “Mamma Mia!” but it’s a lively start to the consideration of a show that has broken a crazy number of records and continues to bring joy to “Dancing Queens” across the world.