Even before the curtain rose on the smash-hit musical Mamma Mia! at the Hull New Theatre on Wednesday night, we in the packed venue were already singing along to a medley of Abba songs played by talented musicians in the orchestra pit.
Mamma Mia! takes its name from the Swedish superstars’ song which appeared on the group’s third album in 1975.
Written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, the musical is based around the music and lyrics of Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and it’s their recognisable, singalong-to tunes that showered us in feel-good vibes from the off.
Set on a Greek island paradise, the opening scene has bride-to-be, 20-yeer-old Sophie Sheridan (Lydia Hunt), posting wedding invitations to three men, strangers, whose names she has discovered in her mum’s diary in notes from 21 years ago.
Mum, Donna Sheridan (Jenn Griffin) owns and runs a small taverna on the island, bringing her daughter up as a single parent; meaning Sophie has never known who her father is.
Putting two and two together after reading the diary, Sophie hatches a plan to get the three men back on to the island to discover which one is her dad.
What follows is a series of madcap, riotous, jolly, emotional, energetic, rip-roaring shenanigans that never ceased for the entire production.
As Sophie welcomes her two best friends Lisa (Eve Parsons) and Ali (Bibi Jay) to the island, she shares her secret with them, but things soon begin to unravel when the three men arrive.
English banker Harry Bright (Richard Meek), architect Sam Carmichael (Luke Jasztal) and travel writer Bill Austin (Mark Goldthorp) are all perplexed at first as to why they have been invited to a stranger’s wedding … until the penny eventually drops.
Any one of them could be Sophie’s dad. Donna had been a popular girl two decades earlier.
Adding to the chaos are Donna’s two besties, glamorous Tanya (Sarah Earnshaw) and homely Rosie (Rosie Glossop), plus the groom-to-be Sky (Joe Grundy) and his irrepressible chums who are all full of boundless, excitable energy.
This impossible-not-to-enjoy musical features arguably the best popular songs every written, and on Wednesday evening the most wonderful singing voices did more than justice to Abba’s tunes.
Griffin, as Donna, sang gloriously throughout, performing hits such as Money, Money, Money, Mamma Mia!, Super Trouper, SOS, Our Last Summer, Slipping Through My Fingers, and the emotional solo The Winner Takes It All. Her vocals are a definite highlight.
Her daughter, Sophie, joins in with the above, but also adds Lay All Your Love on Me and I Have a Dream to her repertoire, all sung beautifully by Hunt.
Comedic moments came thick and fast – a highlight being Tanya’s flirty dance with a lad young enough to be her son, while singing Does Your Mother Know. It’s a scene I well remember from the 2008 Mamma Mia! movie and Earnshaw carried it off to perfection.
Rosie (Glossop), meanwhile, sets her sights on Bill and has us in stitches as she chases and eventually corners him – exhausting herself in the process while urging him to Take a Chance on Me.
The “dad’s” realisations that they night be Sophie’s father brought a different, more thoughtful, layer to proceedings with Harry revealing that Donna was the first and last woman he had made love to; Sam being more serious, letting Donna know his true feelings and adventurer Bill calming down and fervently hoping he is her biological dad.
But what happens when the time comes to discover the truth?
All the singing is accompanied by the most wonderful music played live and it’s here I must mention the sound engineers who got everything just right on the night. Sometimes, live music can drown out on-stage vocals, but every word sung and uttered on the night was as clear as could be, meaning we could not only enjoy the sounds on stage, but also the music from off-stage, without one drowning the other out.
The stage setting was quite minimalistic, but expertly did the job. Pale-coloured partitions, sometimes streaked with light, gave the effect of sun-bleached taverna walls with two sun-kissed blue doors providing exits and entrances with tables and chairs in a courtyard. The partitions were frequently manoeuvred to show the taverna’s interior of a bedroom and strings of lights appeared for the nighttime scenes.
Summer clothing was interspersed with the glittery outfits and platform boots associated with Abba in their heyday, especially during the finale where we were treated to song after song, ending with Waterloo, the Andersson/Ulvaeus composition that first brought these Swedish superstars to our TV screens when winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton.
Mamma Mia! the musical features a cast bursting with talent and energy; none more energetic than the groom-to-be’s friends whose athleticism managed to be hilarious while leaving us wondering “how the heck”.
The whole production is a feel-good blast from start to finish.
Recommended age 5+
Mamma Mia! runs until Saturday, April 18th, 2026, at Hull New Theatre with tickets available at (01482) 300306 and www.hulltheatres.co.uk
Reviewer: Jackie Foottit
Reviewed: 8th April 2026
North West End UK Rating:
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