Next year, Canberra audiences will finally get the opportunity to experience one of the most successful hit musicals in their home town. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced the new professional production of Mamma Mia! will premiere at the Canberra Theatre in November 2017 at the start of its Australian tour.
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The musical – which features hit songs by ABBA including Dancing Queen, Money, Money, Money and SOS – will run for three weeks in Canberra before moving on to five other Australian capital cities. No creative or casting announcements have been made yet.
Louise Withers, who is producing Mamma Mia! with Michael Coppel and Linda Bewick, has been in the theatrical business for three decades both on and off stage. She was executive producer of the first Australian production of the show in 2001-5 and co-producer of the 2009-10 revival and is currently co-producing the Australian productions of Matilda and Fawlty Towers. Her productions of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap (2012) and A Murder is Announced (2014) had come to Canberra but this was the first time she had brought a musical to the national capital.
"Some productions couldn't play the Canberra Theatre Centre but there are many that could," Withers said.
She said Mamma Mia! was "a timeless classic" that would provide Canberra the opportunity to prove it was a viable destination for touring productions, drawing audiences from the surrounding region as well as the city itself.
That was certainly the aim of the Canberra Theatre Centre's director, Bruce Carmichael, who said he had been in discussions for "a couple of years now" with producers to bring a major musical to the Canberra Theatre.
"Louise Withers is one of the best in the world," he said, adding that it was "a big vote of confidence" in the Canberra Theatre. He said it was the first time a major touring professional musical production had premiered in Canberra as well as the biggest such show to come to the theatre since Opera Australia's production of My Fair Lady in 2008.
He said he expected the reach of the show to extend down to the south coast and that half the audience for Mamma Mia! would be "brand new" for the Canberra Theatre.
Director of VisitCanberra Ian Hill said it was supporting the initiative both in cash and in kind as part of its aim of increasing the value of tourism in the ACT economy from the current $2 billion a year to $2.5 billion a year by 2020.
"This is the first time we've done something for a show at the Canberra Theatre," he said.
Mamma Mia! will be on at the Canberra Theatre in November, 2017. Subscription bookings open on October 17, 2016. General public tickets will be on sale before Christmas, 2016. To register interest or go on the waitlist for tickets, see canberratheatrecentre.com.au/mamma-mia.waitlist.
