Interview: Let the Sun Shine In: Mark Martino Directs MAMMA MIA at MSMT

"We are excited to have the audience open its eyes to some sunshine. [Artistic Director] Curt Dale Clark and I were just saying this morning that this has been an intense season so far, and Fiddler on the Roof and Evita cannot let in much sun. But we stream that light in Mamma Mia, and we hope it will provide a chance to breathe in the joy of the Greek Isles. If we do it right, we will all feel an uplift."

Director/choreographer Mark Martino is waxing eloquent about his latest project and one which constitutes his Maine State Music Theatre debut: a new production of the 2001 Broadway smash it musical Mamma Mia, based on the songs of ABBA. Martino has what he calls "a very short history" with the show, having mounted a production for the first time in June of this year at the Theatre Aspen. "The two will be staged very differently," he explains. "Aspen is a 200-seat thrust stage, and here they have a 600-seat proscenium theatre. The Pickard Theater gives me an opportunity to expand the show. Our cast at MSMT is about one third larger than in Colorado - some twenty-seven actors - which is even a bit larger than the twenty-four in the original Broadway production. The production values are going to be large and lavish, and the cast has a huge amount of energy, so for me it is an opportunity to revisit the show and make different pictures and entirely different choreography."

Martino recounts how he came to be invited for the first time to Maine to mount this show. "I have known Curt Dale Clark for many years; we have worked at many of the same theatres, and we knew each other's reputations. He asked me last summer if I would like to direct something at MSMT, but I didn't have a slot available then. When he called me this year to say they would be doing Mamma Mia, I gave him an enthusiastic yes. It is a big bonus for me as a director to be able to deepen and develop my work on this musical."

Martino recalls casting the show witH Clark, Gary John La Rosa and Marc Robin, the other directors working at MSMT this summer. "We must have all seen some seven hundred actors for the nine principal Mamma Mia parts. And, of course it is a puzzle, because MSMT has to find artists who can play more than one role in a season. That we have an actor who can play both Motl, the tailor, and Bill Austin or Avram and Harry Bright is amazingly wonderful!"

He goes on to talk about the MSMT ensemble. "I was looking for really good actors who had a sense of fun, and with whom we could elevate the material. The show is not complex; the writing is simple, so I needed people who could make those scenes resonate. I wanted to believe these were real people with whom I wanted to spend two hours on a Greek island. A few of the cast members were artists I had worked with before: Mylinda Hull is my Rosie, and she been a spectacular Adelaide for me in Guys and Dolls, and my Dance Captain and I had done Sweet Charity together." And, of course Lauren Mufson had played Donna Sheridan on Broadway. Martino thinks there are also huge benefits to having a young cast here at MSMT, courtesy of the intern program. "I get to slot into the show these insanely talented kids as Sophie's pals, and it works perfectly. The score for this musical requires lots of backup vocals, so I've got these cast members backstage changing clothes and singing backup at the same time." The director feels it is crucial to give the audience everything they expect of this show in terms of singing, dancing, and production values. "They come ready to be entertained, ready to jump in and invest in the experience, and we have to be sure to fulfill those expectations and really ENTERTAIN them."

As part of his efforts to do just that, Martino will create his own choreography, something he prefers to do "because it gives the work a terrific sense of unity and seamlessness, though there are some fantastic choreographers with whom I also love to work." Because of the new space, this choreography will be significantly different from his June production in Aspen. "I took my inspiration from Greek dance and then let that evolve into a pop sensibility that was prevalent in the late 1970s - which is right in my wheelhouse in terms of my age. I am giving it a world music/disco feel from that era rather than using jazz, ballet or other social dancing vocabularies. The audience should feel that what they see could take place in a club." In keeping with that 70s ambiance, Martino says costume designer Jeff Hendry's clothing will focus "on two different looks - for the young Greeks, resort wear on beautiful young bodies and for the adults platform shoes, go-go boots and all that period fashion."

And then there is the evocative set by Charles Kading with projections by Dan Efros. "We wanted to have the scenery put us on an island, so we used a surround and circular projection screen floating inside the set which rotates open and gives you a sense of ebbing and flowing and of being surrounded by water, sky, and sun. Suggesting an island is tricky thing to do in a proscenium," he adds by way of complimenting the designers. Martino also feels confident about the skills of MSMT's technical staff. "I am very impressed at what you can do overnight if you have fantastic artists and when Curt [Dale Clark] and Stephanie [Dupal] have built leadership that works. And our actors are all enormously prepared even though the rehearsal schedule is so tight. With so many people doing double duty (performing in Fiddler at the same time), if you add up the hours I will have them next week, for example, it comes out to only one full day!" Martino says because of this schedule "I like to get the show up on its feet first and then polish it. If the blocking and dancing are second nature, then we can concentrate on the characters. I come with all of it in the book, but whatever I've created can all go by the wayside if I see an actors' feet are taking them somewhere else. After all, they are walking in the character's shoes, and if I have great actors they will lead me."

Mark Martino is undaunted, however, as he discusses the challenges. Perhaps that is because Mamma Mia is a show which imparts such energy and joy not only to its audiences, but to the entire artistic team as well. Asked why he thinks this show remains such a perennial musical theatre favorite and why it elicits an almost frenzied cult response from its fans, his response demonstrates that he has clearly asked himself that question before. "I think there are three reasons. The first is the ABBA music. Except for the Beatles, no one else has sold more records than ABBA. [ABBA signifies the Swedish pop group of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad]. We all have an acquaintance with their songs that are so quirky and catchy and perfectly pop that they live in our heads. It is music we always love to revisit. I defy anyone not to know how "Dancing Queen" goes. Somehow you just know it. Mothers pass it on to daughters and it comes around again and again so that it becomes family music. Actually, the entire musical writing is very clever; there are complex harmonies; they overdub themselves many times, and all the hooks are so singable and memorable. At the same time there is an underlying current of Swedish melancholy that tugs at the emotions."

"Then, secondly, the story [book by Catherine Johnson, music/lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Stig Andersson] that is built around the music is so sweet, so charming, so unabashedly sentimental, so romantic! It is about love and loss, and all those things which tug at our heartstrings. Lastly, it radiates pure joy. When it opened on Broadway in 2001 right after 9/11, many people thought it wouldn't work, given the tragedy that had just happened. Yet somehow, it proved to be the perfect time precisely because it is so joyful that the audience's enjoyment is directly proportionate to what is on stage. There aren't that many shows where the cast gets to have as much fun as the audience, and this is one of them. That comes irresistibly across the footlights. The plot is really very simple: 'Who's my Dad?' But is has a sweetness and humor; it's accessible and moving, and when it opened, it also helped that you couldn't get a ticket for such a long time!" (The sell-out phenomenon is something which MSMT is already experiencing, having added two additional performances in its three-week run.)

Mark Martino not only seems able to inspire energy and infectious enthusiasm in his cast and creative team, but he exudes these qualities himself. Born and raised in Indiana in a large Italian-American family, he reminisces how after graduating from the College of William and Mary with a theatre degree, he taught for two years, saved his money and then moved to New York City to begin his career. "There I studied dance intensively, taking five classes a week. I was primarily an actor for twenty years, and I did do quite a few song and dance roles." Indeed, these were often big triple threat roles like Bernardo in West Side Story at Kansas City Starlight Theatre, Danny Zuko in Grease at Pittsburgh's CLO, and the lead in State Fair on national tour, and Martino's performing career eventually took him on five other national tours and to virtually every major regional theatre in the country. But when the offer to direct and choreograph came from the Cape Playhouse, Martino jumped at the chance. "I realized that I could visualize a production in the larger picture and that as an actor, I was not being asked to use those big ideas - just to focus on my own character." And so for last decade or so Martino has made a name for himself directing and choreographing for stage, screen [Rock N'Roll Hotel], and television [NBC's Miss America Pageant, PBS Christmas Special, Count Your Blessings], and for concert performances with leading symphony orchestras. On his upcoming agenda is a production of White Christmas in November/December and one of The Producers in January 2017.

But first, there is the August 10-27 run of Mamma Mia at MSMT. If audience and public anticipation is running high, so, too, is Mark Martino's sense of expectation. "I'd like them to feel when they leave," he says of the Mamma Mia audiences, "that they have spent a couple hours with people they would like to know better. I would also like them to take away a sense of the tremendous versatility and talent of this resident company because Mamma Mia is something entirely different from what the company has been doing earlier this season. I want the public to understand MSMT's range. And, of course," he adds with a twinkling smile, "I would love to have the audience think that they should be dancing, too!"

Photo courtesy of Mark Martino

Mamma Mia, directed/choreographed by Mark Martino runs at MSMTR's Pickard Theater in Brunswick, ME, from August 9-27, 2016. www.msmt.org 207-725-8769

To post a comment, you must register and login.