Twenty-three years ago, Martha Banta received a call. Would she like to come on as the associate director for Broadway’s “Mamma Mia!”?
It was October 2001 and the musical, which had opened to success in London in 1999, was in preview performances at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theatre. The team was in the home stretch of the creative process, making last changes before officially opening on Oct. 18; “Mamma Mia!” (as with all shows) would need an associate director to maintain its creative integrity throughout the run once director Phyllida Lloyd moved to her next project. “I actually said no,” Banta told Broadway News. Banta had served as the associate director of “Rent” during its first four years on Broadway, and, while she loved the job, she didn’t want her whole directing career to revolve around the upkeep of another director’s work. But “Mamma Mia!” general manager Nina Lannan persuaded Banta to “just come see it and meet the director.”
“I’m watching the show,” Banta remembered back to 2001, “and I spent a lot of my time looking around at the audience. I was like, ‘Wow, people love this.’ They were so into it in a way that I hadn’t seen.” Between the audience reaction and the fact that the creative team was led by women (Lannan, producer Judy Craymer, director Lloyd and book writer Catherine Johnson), Banta was intrigued. Lloyd sealed the deal.
“She said, ‘I really want a director to take this on and make the changes you need to make in terms of casting and other [aspects] — tell the story that [I] set up, but keep it alive,” Banta recounted. “She even said, ‘I want somebody who will go away, direct other things and come back and be a fresh eye.’” With that, Banta’s “no” turned into an enthusiastic “yes.” Sine then, she has been the associate director of “Mamma Mia!” through its 14-year Broadway run and multiple tours (including this one).
The longevity of “Mamma Mia!” continues to make history. The musical constructed around a score of ABBA hits has played more than 9,300 performances around the world. Approximately 70 million people have seen a professional production. And with that they see the directorial vision of Lloyd and the fingerprints of Banta.
Prior to “Mamma Mia!,” Lloyd had never directed a musical. She was more famous for her mounting of Shakespeare and Greek classics in England than a jukebox musical on Broadway. But her experience with that kind of rich text and deep dramaturgy is what Banta anchors “Mamma Mia!”
“To the outside eye, it feels like, ‘Oh, it’s fun, it’s ABBA music, it’s silly in-Greece-on-vacation fare,’” Banta said. “It was called the Bubble Gum musical when it was first reviewed. People liked it but didn’t take it seriously. And the thing is: Phyllida always grounded this as much as possible.”
“[The stakes] have to be super important for all of the characters,” Banta continued. At the center are the mother-daughter pair of Donna and Sophie. Donna owns a rundown hotel in the Greek Isles and has raised her daughter on her own. But when Sophie gets engaged, she wants her father to walk her down the aisle — only she doesn’t know who her father is. After perusing Donna’s adolescent diary, Sophie narrows it down to three men and invites them all to the wedding — without telling her mom. When the men show up, Sophie asks them not to spill the beans — to act like their attendance is a coincidence. “All of that tension should build so that the audience knows more than the characters right from the beginning, so they’re kind of on the edge of their seats to see: How is this going to play out?” Banta said. “It has to build so that when we get to [the end] it’s like everything explodes and the top comes off the roof.”
