Julie Martell as Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia! Photo by Stoo Metz.
When I was in Grade Eleven at Sacred Heart School the choir, of which I was a zealous member, was going to Toronto to do some concerts, and while they were there they were going to see Julie Martell star as Sophie in Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. I had never met Julie, she had no idea who I was, but I knew she was playing Sophie, and I knew that she was from Nova Scotia, and I knew that I couldn’t go with the choir to see her because I was in YPCo rehearsals for I Believe In Make Believe where I was playing a donkey.
I was furious, but it was futile. My High School best friend promised that she would bring back a programme for me, and that she would tell Julie that I wanted to be there but that I was in rehearsal, and we knew that she would understand… learning how to walk like a donkey comes first.
Twenty-Four years later Julie Martell and I sit and chat in the lobby of Neptune Theatre during the Media Call for Mamma Mia!, where she is now playing the role of Donna, Sophie’s mom, for the second time in Halifax.
Mamma Mia! is largely considered to be the pioneering jukebox musical of contemporary musical theatre; it features well established hit songs from Swedish band ABBA and a book by Catherine Johnson that fashions a story around them. It opened in the West End on April 6, 1999, and then the first North American production opened in Toronto at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in May 2000. This production starred Louise Pitre as Donna Sheridan, and Tina Maddigan as her daughter Sophie. This cast remained in Toronto for about six months before heading on a National Tour, and eventually opening on Broadway on October 18, 2001. Since the show had been so successful the producers at Mirvish wanted to find what is called a “sit down” company, which is a company, usually made up of Canadian actors, who will stay there in Toronto, usually for an open-ended run. Martell was fresh out of school, she didn’t have an agent, and she went to an open call with thousands of other girls to be seen for this “sit-down” company.
“I almost didn’t go,” she says, “My mom and sister flew up, [Martell is from Sydney]. I was in that moment of- I couldn’t get an agent, [thinking] ‘am I cut out for this business?’ And I remember they flew up and they’re like ‘you’re going.’ And then I went, and I just kept getting callbacks… it was like eight callbacks. And I got it. And it was crazy.”
“It was beyond incredible,” she says, “I was working with heavyweights in the business.” She lists some of her former cast mates: David Keeley who played Sam, Camilla Scott who played Donna, Deann DeGruijter who played Rosie, Tamara Bernier who played Tanya, Richard Binsley who played Harry, and Andrew Wheeler who played Bill. “I learned so much from the mature people in the company. And now I’m that person, which is so humbling.”
When I asked if she ever thought, while she was playing Sophie, that she might play Donna one day Martell grins and says, “I did.”
She had an incredible experience working on this show before it even opened on Broadway. “Phyllida Lloyd was directing us,” she says; Lloyd had directed the original West End production and would go on to direct the Broadway production as well. “Benny and Björn were around,” Martell says, referring, of course, to Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, who aren’t just the composers of this show, but also members of ABBA. “Judy Craymer, Catherine Johnson, all the people who wrote it, who were producing it, they were there in the room. That doesn’t happen a lot… and I’ve had a couple of experiences in my life when I’m learning and being mentored, and [being] given direction by the people who wrote it, which is mind-blowing.”
To this day she remembers a note she got about the music that she continues to take to heart about embellishment. “They wanted no embellishment, like no runs, no nothing. They were like, ‘we wrote this music, and we stand by this music. We don’t need any runs or embellishing. You sing what’s on the paper’… and the harmonies, if you’re just tight with those harmonies, you don’t need any fluffiness.”
Like most of us Martell had grown up listening to ABBA at home, and she sang sixteen bars of “Knowing Me, Knowing You” for her first audition, not yet knowing, since the show was so new, that Sam sings that song in the show. “”Under Attack”, which is a bit of a B-Side deep cut, was one of my favourite ABBA tunes before I was cast in the show,” she says.
In the Spring of 2018 Martell revisited the show that is so dear to her here at Neptune, this time playing Donna Sheridan. Over 33,000 people saw that production before Neptune added a second extension so it ran well into July. Even though it has only been seven years, Martell’s life and the world more broadly has seen enormous change. “I feel like a different person,” she says, “I feel like I’m able to bring a whole lot more to this role.”
She says that she knows Mamma Mia! can sometimes get a “bad rap;” it can be criticized as being frivolous, but she says, “especially right now with where the world is- everybody needs this. This is the glitter joy bomb the world needs. The fact that I’m able to [play this role] again, seven years later, is humbling… I’m so grateful and excited.”
The musical is set on the fictional Greek Island of Kalokairi where a young girl named Sophie is planning her wedding. She has been raised by a single mother, Donna, who runs a taverna, but she would really like for her biological father to attend the wedding. The problem is that Donna has never been forthright with Sophie about her parentage. After a bit of snooping Sophie discovers three possible candidates for who her father might be, and she spontaneously decides to invite all three to the wedding, and does not tell her mother what she’s done. Meanwhile, through the wedding festivities, Donna reunites with her best friends Tanya and Rosie, with whom she used to be in a girl group called Donna and the Dynamos. “It’s so much more than just ABBA music,” says Martell, “I think there’s a beautiful story with it [about a] mother [and her] daughter- it’s very much about female empowerment. Sometimes people hear.. it’s a woman with three possible dads, and they’re like, ‘I don’t really like that,’ but that’s just the hook. It’s really about women. It’s about women standing on their own, and a single mom raising her daughter, and then [SPOILER ALERT], at the end, the daughter realizing she doesn’t need a man to be happy. But, with that being said… if you want to have a deep meaningful connection with the show, I think it’s there, but if you also just want to come during the summer for some air conditioning, and great music, and a great band, and great singing, and a lot of laughter, it’s there. I think there’s something for everybody in this show. I just love it. It had such a profound effect on me. It was one of those core memories and moments in my life.”
And now Martell finds herself in a cast with many young folks who hopefully will have as profound and positive an experience with this production as she had at the Royal Alex in 2001. Dominique LeBlanc, who is from Halifax, is playing Sophie in this production. She and Martell did not know each other before they started rehearsals. “We got together and it was like peanut butter and jam,” she says. “No acting required, she is the sweetest, most talented, most generous scene partner. [She’s] fantastic, I can’t say enough about her.” She cites the entire cast as being incredible actors.
“You will laugh, you will cry, you will sing and dance in the aisles,” she says.
Truly, I believe Julie Martell can make a Mamma Mia! fan out of anyone. The deep love and respect she has for this work radiates out of her when she performs and when she talks about this formative experience in her life.
Mamma Mia! runs until August 31st, 2025 at Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall Stage (1593 Argyle Street, Halifax). Performances run Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7:30pm with 2:00pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets range in price from $40.00 to $119.00 depending on seating. They are available to buy online here, or by calling the Box Office at 902.429.7070, or visiting in person at 1593 Argyle Street. Tickets are already flying.
This performance is 2 hours and 30 minutes (including a 20 minutes intermission).
Please note: this show includes moving & flashing lights, theatrical fog, pyrotechnics, and confetti.
There is a Masked Performance July 13th at 2:00pm.
Neptune Theatre is fully accessible for wheelchair users. For more Accessibility Information Click Here.
