HERE WE GO AGAIN
Unseen, unsung, but vital to stage show Mamma Mia! is the show’s choreographer and musical stager Leigh Evans. She talks to Diana Dekker.
‘ANYTHING that moves, I do it,’’ Leigh Evans says. Anything sung, she ‘‘does’’ a lot of that, too. Evans is responsible for musical staging and choreography for Wellington Musical Theatre’s Mamma Mia!.
She has the great advantage that she’s dealing with Abba’s mega-popular tunes, the songs around which the fanciful story of the musical are woven.
‘‘There’s nothing not to like about Abba music,’’ she says.
‘‘Even children of 11 or 12 I teach to dance sing Mamma Mia at the top of their lungs. It appeals to all generations.’’
Evans is Wellington Musical Theatre’s go-to choreographer. She’d hardly signed off Grease when she was asked to do Mamma Mia!.
‘‘ Grease opened in the Opera House in mid-July and in earlymid-August we auditioned for
popular songs.
Leigh Evans, choreographer for the Wellington Musical Theatre’s production of Mamma Mia!, says there’s ‘‘nothing not to like’’ about Abba’s universally Mamma Mia! and 10 days later started rehearsals.’’
The 30-strong cast she had to work with are all local – ‘‘apart from one Auckland import’’.
Mamma Mia! is choreographically demanding, with 23 musical numbers, 12 of them ‘‘big production’’ numbers. Evans needed to concentrate on songs such as Money Money Money, Gimme Gimme Gimme – ‘‘a sexy number with more choreography, a lot of dancing’’ – and Voulez Vous. ‘‘That’s one of the big dance numbers.
‘‘Then there are three encore numbers after the show – Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Waterloo, the favourites of Abba lovers.
‘‘The audience gets up and starts dancing. People have waited through a two-hour show busting
‘Then there are three encore numbers after the show – Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Waterloo – the favourites of Abba lovers. The audience gets up and starts dancing. People have waited through a two-hour show busting to get up. It’s like, wait – there’s more.’
Leigh Evans to get up. It’s like, wait – there’s more.’’
Evans describes Mamma Mia! as a fun show. ‘‘You can’t take any of it seriously. It becomes more ridiculous as it goes on.’’
The show is set on a Greek island where a young woman invites three men from her solo mother’s past to her wedding, believing she will know which of them is her father when she walks down the aisle.
Evans joined the show when the cast had mastered the vocals, to marry the movement, lyrics and music. She was not only responsible for this harmony. She also taught, or still teaches, some of the onstage cast, and others singing offstage backing vocals, at Whitireia’s Musical Theatre and Commercial Dance course.
She has tutored there for more than a decade.
‘‘It’s not just about putting the show on. It’s the whole experience. If the timing is right and the stars align, they’re all allowed to come and audition.’’
Mamma Mia! performers range in age from 17 to their 70s, in the case of Lloyd Scott, who makes a cameo appearance as the priest marrying the couple.
Lower Hutt-born Evans ‘‘hooked into a musical theatre world’’ decades ago after her hopes of being a ballet dancer
McDonald’s Young Entertainers shows. She also directed and choreographed pre-match entertainment for sporting events, and ran a dance studio. ‘‘There are lots of little pies I have my fingers in in this industry. I say yes and figure it out later.’’
Fortunately none of them require her or her proteges to be tall.
‘‘For Mamma Mia! there’s a random array of tall and shorts. It’s a Greek village. You do look at heights. Everything is in where you place people.’’
Her work, she says, ‘‘is not all about bellowing orders.
‘‘I like not to stifle creativity, to give leniency with movement. It’s a two-way collaboration.
‘‘And energy feeds energy. They can see when you need their energy and you can see when they need yours. You don’t get anything out of anyone if you’re a mopey.’’
Evans habitually attends two performances of the shows she’s involved with.
‘‘I see the opening night and go away and come back for the final night. Over the years I’ve been less nervous on opening nights and more trusting. The more I hand to the performers, the more they rise to the occasion. I have to get them as prepared as possible in the time and they have to do their best.’’ British troubadour David Gray will play Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre next year. Gray is best-known for his 1998 hit album White Ladder, which he recorded in his bedroom and includes such songs as Babylon, This Year’s Love and Sail Away. The singer-songwriter will play here on April 15 in the first of three New Zealand shows. Gray has recorded 10 studio albums, and said of his latest effort, Mutineers, that he ‘‘didn’t want to sound like David Gray’’ anymore. He first played Wellington in 2003. The late New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere’s huge mural Godwit/Kuaka has been on display at Wellington’s City Gallery since September. It’s coming down this weekend, and two poets with close connections to the artist, Hotere’s former wife Cilla McQueen and collaborator Bill Manhire, will mark the moment with a discussion about some of his influences. Hotere’s daughter Andrea will also take part. The talk is on Sunday at 2pm. The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – (Rhythmethod)