Here we go again, for the last time.
All over the world, the hit musical Mamma Mia! has earned blockbuster ticket sales and it's sole touring company in North America has been ringing up more miles than Meryl Streep has Oscar votes (Streep acted in the film version of the stage play).
Those miles are now numbered.
The touring company has announced this is the final junket for the massive travelling event, and in honour of past success here, Prince George was added to the last Mamma Mia! roadshow. The Broadway musical will be performed at CN Centre on Wednesday.
For those who have never heard the details of the show, Mamma Mia! is a fictional love story combined with the music of ABBA.
The entire show is a litany of the mega-band's best loved pop hits from the 1970s and '80s - songs that did more than just ignite the charts, they ignited people's imaginations. ABBA was and still is a beloved group of musicians, and it was that appreciation that inspired the creators of Mamma Mia! to immortalize their music in this unique way.
"It opened in London first and Toronto was the first North American stop. They wanted to test the water before Broadway," said Chris Santillan, the associate music director for the tour.
He was also in the audience that night as a young lad looking for direction in life. "Mamma Mia! was the first Broadway show I ever saw in Toronto."
Santillan is not from Toronto, though.
He is an Ottawa-Gatineau kid and that's where he took his love for music and channeled it into this form of performing arts.
He was a piano player who focused on musical theatre as he obtained his degree at Carleton University.
Along the way he founded a musical theatre club at the university that is still doing productions, he branched off to work with community musical theatre companies, got some professional credits, and then he won the position on the Mamma Mia! tour.
"I remember when we had our rehearsals, it was like rediscovering the music again and discovering things within the music I'd never noticed before," he said.
"They are known for integrating a lot of folk elements from their Swedish culture, they are known for a particular style of vocal harmonies, and they are known for a very clean, catchy sound."
Perhaps his fanboy colours were showing in the auditions, but as you can tell, Santillan was one of those ABBA aficionados from back in their heyday.
"The funny story is, when I was young I was a huge ABBA fan. I was about eight when I got my first ABBA album and I was so dedicated, I actually went to the library and checked out language resources because I wanted to learn Swedish," he said.
He would seek out lyric sheets, even for the band's Swedish-language songs, and try to self translate them.
He went on to fluently learn three languages - English, French and Spanish - but Swedish still isn't one of them.
He joked that learning to speak fluent ABBA was the next best thing for him.
"It was a straight forward process to learn how to play the book, and because this is a jukebox musical you have to go to great lengths to stay true to the music the audience knows so well," he explained.
"That's part of the beauty of the process: it's not rigid and you are going deep into the appreciation and respect for the music as it was composed. That's what gives you that motivation every show. No matter how big or small the audience, no matter what kind of theatre you are in, you have to do your very best to be true to ABBA."
He hasn't met any of the members of ABBA, but he disclosed his secret wish that since this is a farewell tour, there might be some visitation at some point along the way.
Santillan has several more cities to do on this tour, and he is looking forward to the dates on the Prince George leg.
He has never been to B.C. before, so he is doing research on each town in which the Mamma Mia! cast and crew will spend time.
Of the 30 people in the cast (all the dancing, acting and vocals are done live by this highly trained ensemble) and the six in the orchestra (Santillan on piano, a keyboard player, two guitars, bass and drums), there are two Canadians in the mix - Santillan and one performer with dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.
All the rest are from all over the United States.
Santillan is the chief ambassador among them, when the show is on the north side of the 49.
Mamma Mia! has one show only in Prince George. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
It was a full sellout in 2012 when it came through then.
Tickets are on sale now at the CN Centre box office or online via Ticketmaster.
