Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! …a role on the West End stage
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! …a role on the West End stage. As 14 wannabe stars compete in a new Abba-themed TV talent show, host Zoe Ball and judges Alan Carr, Amber Riley, Jessie Ware and Samantha Barks reveal the secrets from filming on a Greek island
- Contestants will be whittled down to two Sophies and two Skys
- READ MORE: Zoe Ball joins contestants in Greece as the search for the West End’s next Sophie and Sky gets underway in musical’s spiritual home
The sight of Alan Carr trussed up in a vicar’s cassock, complete with Greek pompom shoes, is more reminiscent of a scene from a Carry On film than a new, all-singing, all-dancing talent show.
Even more so given that the cassock’s too tight for the cuddly star, who’s been bingeing on Greek delicacies since his first fitting.
It’s all part of ITV’s new series Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream, which aims to find two brand new stars for the West End musical Mamma Mia! to mark its 25th anniversary next year.
The original stage show, set on a Greek island, tells the tale of Donna and her daughter Sophie, who’s trying to find out which of three men is her real father as she prepares to marry her lover Sky, with all the drama unfolding to the magic of Abba’s timeless pop masterpieces.
The musical was such a success it spawned two record-breaking films, Mamma Mia! The Movie and its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which featured a raft of A-list stars including Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Lily James and Cher.
Host of Mama Mia! I Have A Dream Zoe Ball with judges (L-R) Amber Riley, Jessie Ware, Samantha Barks and Alan Carr
And now the new eight-part TV show will see 14 young hopefuls compete to take over the lead roles of Sophie and Sky on the West End stage.
The seven girls and seven boys will work on Abba routines each week in couples, groups or alone, before performing in front of the judges.
Contestants will be judged on their singing, dancing, acting and chemistry and whittled down until just four remain – two Sophies and two Skys. The series will culminate in a grand finale, broadcast live from a London theatre.
Alan, 47, is one of the show’s four judges, alongside American actress Amber Riley, best known for the TV series Glee, pop singer Jessie Ware and West End star Samantha Barks, who first found fame when she finished third on I’d Do Anything, the 2008 TV search for an actress to play Nancy in a production of Oliver.
Zoe Ball is the irrepressible host, and they all decamped to a luxury villa on Corfu to film the show.
Among the highlights is a routine in which each contestant must write and perform their own vows for the wedding ceremony between Sophie and Sky… and yes, you guessed it, Alan is the vicar.
‘I started out as a comedy vicar,’ he chuckles. ‘I wore all the gear including the pompom shoes, but when it came to it I could barely get into the bloody outfit so they had to unpick my cassock, which sounds rather rude doesn’t it?
‘I’m fat anyway, but I got so fat out there in Greece. It was all Jessie Ware’s fault as she’d order everything, all the dips. I mean, how much taramasalata can one person eat!’
But just like the temperamental weather during the month-long shoot on Corfu, the mood was up and down.
‘There I was doing the fruity vicar’s voice, with Zoe as the mum Donna and everyone laughing,’ says Alan.
‘But I didn’t realise how emotional it would turn out to be as we started reading out the vows in this gorgeous church. Then I saw Samantha and Amber crying, and I welled up too because this is the contestants’ dream.’
The star-studded cast of Mamma Mia! The Movie. L-R: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski, Stellan Skarsgard, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters and Colin Firth
To add to the intensity the weather suddenly broke. ‘The thunder and lightning started and it seemed like God was angry at me for playing a vicar. It’s just my luck to get struck by lightning pretending to be a man of the cloth. I needed an ouzo after that.’
In the musical and the films the action takes place at Villa Donna, but for this show the stunning six-bedroom house on top of a hillside overlooking the Ionian Sea has been renamed Villa Zoe.
‘It felt like a James Bond lair, right on top of the island,’ says Alan. ‘I love Abba, I love Mamma Mia! and I love Greece, so it was all fabulous.
‘I’ve only ever been a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, slagging off their outfits, but I know what charisma is, what star quality is and what entertains me.
‘The other three really know their stuff though, between them I think they’ve performed on every stage going from the West End to Wembley Arena and Broadway.
‘So I’m basically Fred and Vera, sitting on the sofa at home like Gogglebox. There has to be someone for the people at home, and that’s me.’
Alan says the contestants – who are all between 20 and 30 bar one who’s 36 (but you’d never guess) and whose experience ranges from am-dram to theatre school – are an eclectic bunch.
‘It’s that perfect mix of professionals and novices, and every performance had its own little bit of magic.
‘There’s someone who works in a factory, someone who works in a coffee shop and people who’ve been to drama school for three years. But I think viewers are going to be blown away by all the performances.’
Each episode opens with a dance number, one of which re-creates a famous scene where Meryl Streep dances on the pier with a group of Greek women. It needed 150 extras, including locals who were taught basic routines.
Corfu doesn’t have a pier strong enough to hold the weight of the dancers though, so they shot the scene with drones outside a church on the water’s edge.
Ghost villages on the island and local shops were taken over for filming, and decked with washing lines, baskets and bunting.
Jesse Ware said she and Alan Carr were the naughtiest on the panel. One moment that stood out was when Alan did a catwalk down the jetty wearing Jesse’s hair extensions after a day of filming and a few bottles of rosé
‘The dance numbers are huge,’ says Zoe, 52. ‘Some in tavernas, some on the beaches, some down the cobbled streets of the old town in Corfu.
‘They look spectacular. It’s the closest to Mamma Mia! The Movie you can get.
‘The performances in front of the judges take place on the villa terrace decked with fairy lights as the sun’s going down and the moon’s coming up. It’s beautiful.
‘We also had an audience made up of villagers, expats and holidaymakers. It was really magical. You could hear a pin drop.’
Zoe had to take time off from her Radio 2 breakfast show to take part. ‘I’m very grateful to my lovely boss who happens to be a massive Abba fan and said I could go,’ she laughs.
‘Every time I play Abba on the radio at the moment I have a little squeal. The music takes me back to my childhood when we’d go to my friend Claire’s house and do routines to Voulez-Vous. Unlike my daughter Nell, who does complex choreography from TikTok.’
As mum to 13-year-old Nell, the Abba song Slipping Through My Fingers about a mother’s regret at how quickly her daughter is growing up strikes an emotional chord with Zoe.
‘Abba’s music is quite special to me and my family. When I went to the musical I sat next to these lovely ladies and I said to them, “I’m going to apologise now because when they do Slipping Through My Fingers I’ll sob my heart out.”
‘When I went away filming Nell put a barcode on the back of a picture of the two of us so that when I press it on my phone it plays Slipping Through My Fingers.
‘I become an absolute basket case when I hear that song, so when they did it in the show’s workshop I asked to be removed from the set.’
She admits her dancing on taverna tables when required left a bit to be desired, but she did get to be Donna briefly.
‘The wedding scene was pretty special because I got to walk the Sophies down the aisle. That meant everything to me,’ she smiles.
So too did dressing up in the costumes. ‘I couldn’t get into any of the Sophie costumes and I don’t generally wear dresses, but we all had to have a costume and we all got quite outrageous with them,’ she recalls.
‘I had a long red dress and I loved it even though I had to wear fat pants underneath. I had to roll them up too because they came down below the seams.
‘Everything appears glam but there’s a picture of me where I’m sitting awkwardly in the dress, trying to hold everything in and not crease it while stuffing pizza into my face. But I really was living my best life. It made me feel so young.’
The same goes for chart-topping singer Jessie Ware, 39. ‘I’m not ashamed to say that I begged them for the job,’ she says.
‘Greece is a very special place to me. It’s where I got married and where I go on holiday, and this was a great chance for me to do something different.’
She and Alan were by far the naughtiest on the panel. ‘We were like giggling schoolchildren, very giddy,’ she admits.
‘My abs got such a workout every day just through laughing. We had to remind ourselves we were judging a competition. One great moment was Alan doing a catwalk down the jetty wearing my hair extensions after a day of filming and a few bottles of rosé.’
THE ABBA BOYS THOUGHT MY IDEA WAS MAD
Judy Craymer brought Mama Mia! to life
She’s the super trouper who had a dream and brought Mamma Mia! to life. Judy Craymer was working for Tim Rice when he was writing Chess with Abba’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, and she struck up a friendship with the pair after being sent to collect Bjorn from the airport.
‘I wanted to know more about the songs,’ she recalls. ‘I told them, “There’s a musical here,” but they thought I was mad, especially as they were moving away from Abba then. So it was pure persistence.’
It took ten years to persuade them her idea – developed with writer Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd – could work, but in 1999 the show finally opened in the West End.
‘I had to sell my flat to pay off a large overdraft and I remember going out to dinner with Catherine and Phyllida and thinking, “Please choose the set menu – I can’t afford it otherwise.” It was hand-tomouth, but somehow we did it.’
Will there be a third Mamma Mia! film? ‘Oh yes, I very much want to do one,’ she reveals.
‘It’ll involve the past, present and future. Alan Carr’s already offered to play a part and he’s been sending me cash to get it!’
And yet Jessie’s advice proved invaluable to the contestants. ‘I’m a pop star who doesn’t have the training but I have a passion for musical theatre, so I was always rooting for the people who were maybe less trained.
‘One of the boys got me so emotional, and I had lots of frustration with another boy I was rooting for. I was moved to tears, particularly when we had to send people home.
‘The most important thing was telling the contestants to enjoy themselves. As soon as I started enjoying myself as a singer and not feeling like I needed to apologise, things really took off for me.’
For award-winning theatre star Samantha Barks it’s a return to the talent-show arena after her experience with I’d Do Anything.
‘I feel honoured to be part of this because I’ve been through the same experience, I’ve been in their shoes,’ says Samantha, 33, who’s currently starring as Elsa in the West End musical Frozen.
‘I was 17 then and I jumped in feet-first because I didn’t suffer from nerves. But confidence, as well as the self-discipline to do eight shows a week, is a big thing because sometimes people have more talent to give than they think they do.
‘What I really wanted was for them all to be able to leave with their heads held high.’
But she acknowledges that more expectation can bring nerves. ‘My dog Ivy comes to the theatre with me every day as she’s a very calming influence. She’s the loveliest sidekick, so it’s a little bit like therapy.’
Meanwhile, Glee actress Amber, 37, also wanted to reassure the contestants.
‘Maybe they weren’t exactly right for Sophie or Sky, but there have been things that I’ve auditioned for that I wasn’t right for either. Then there have been things that I’ve auditioned for that I got right away.
‘I saw some trained contestants loosen up and find their own voice, I saw shyer ones come out of their shells and I saw wallflowers blossom before our eyes.
‘Unfortunately it’s a competition and not everyone wins, but you can win by taking away something from the experience. Leaving the show isn’t the end.’
For many of the 14 hopefuls, it will be just the beginning.
- Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream begins Sunday at 6pm on ITV1.
Source: Read Full Article