BWW Interviews: Georgia Kate Haege from MAMMA MIA, Talks ABBA the Unique Way She Got the Role of Donna

MAMMA MIA is a show full of many ABBA favorites such as "Winner Takes It All" and "Dancing Queen." The story is endearing and funny as a family tries to unite and work together preparing for the wedding of Donna's only child, Sophie. Georgia Kate Haege plays the role of Donna in the current North American Tour of MAMMA MIA. BWW caught up with Georgia who shared with us her joys of playing Donna and how she got the role.

How did you first get involved in performing?

I have to go back to being around 14 years old and loving to sing and I asked my parents can I have singing lessons and they said yes. So around 15, I started singing lessons, but I was sort of shy about it. I remember auditioning for school musicals and being super nervous and really tentative and never getting the lead always getting ensemble but getting in. I was just really shy which nobody would describe me as being that way now. I did a few shows and then I was bitten by the bug and decided I wanted to go to college to continue with my musical studies so that's what I did. I went to college in Australia and studied classical voice a Bachelor's of Music focusing on opera which was great. And then I started to audition but my heart was never in it. I was seeing if I could do gospel music and they kinda let me. But, I was never passionate about classical. I love it, I love to hear it but it's not for me. Then I came over to New York right after I finished my Bachelor's of Music. I came over with a friend of mine who had a job lined ups as an architect and I had nothing lined up and it was pretty scary. I thought I would go and see what it's like in New York and give it six months to make it a scouting mission and see what I can find. And six months turned into 12 years. Never left. The work kept coming for me and I was just loving having so many options. Even if I wasn't booking I was able to get out there and be seen for a lot of stuff and trying to find the work that I wanted. There's so much of it there. So that was my trajectory.

You have been in many shows. Which ones stand out as the most interesting for you?

I've never done the cookie cutter shows. All the shows I've done have been original works. Premieres. So, they're all interesting. They're all new works that were written in the last couple of years. That's fun. All the shows I've never done, like "A Christmas Carol" or any other traditional shows. I just never got into that world because when I got to New York, I went for musical theater auditions but got discouraged by the long lines and type casting and waiting all day to get seen. So I went off and did my recording stuff and band stuff. I got into the pop and rock and writing, singer in a band which is great for this role because she was a singer in a band. I never did those traditional shows. I don't know even know the shows. I've seen so many of them but I really don't have that much musical theater history. The only one that people may know is "Lost is Love" which is about Air Supply. It's like another jukebox musical. One of the really fun shows was the show called "Empire." It was in New York. It was off-Broadway in a big empty lot on 46th Street. I actually did it in Australia. They took it on tour in Australian companies. They did circus shows in Las Vegas and they had a singer and she went down to Australia to work in the show and then I came to replace her because she was going to do "Kinky Boots." It is actually the Tony winner, Lena Hall from "Hedwig." I took over for her. She helped me put my wig on the first night pin curled my hair because I had never worn a wig for a show. I was a singer in this song of all of these circus performers. I would sing while they were doing crazy stuff. It was really amazing. You would have to not watch them and get distracted because you would forget your lyrics. I've done backup for some great people like Meatloaf. I was on his album from a couple of years ago. I flew to California to do that. Some really interesting stuff. I still love recording and I have a band. We're putting out an album very soon.

Tell us more about that band.

We are a three piece group. The name is "Liquid Diet." We can be found on Facebook and on Soundcloud. We have music videos on YouTube. We have a music video out called "Daddy Issues" which is a little risqué and naughty. Some of the lyrics are a little "R" Rated. It's a lot of fun. It's me and two guys. One of them is the other lead vocalist and we write melodies and lyrics. The third guy is our instrumentalist. He makes all the music. It's a lot of fun. We put an EP out, "The Hand Dance." And we're putting out a full-length album soon. It's definitely more for adults. We have a couple of songs that are across the board for all ages and some of them kids listen to and they have no idea what we're talking about. We're more well-known on the gay scene because the two guys that are in the band, one is bisexual and one is gay and that scene is very embracing. It's a very disco pop like electro sort of group with male and female vocals. I think that really appeals to the LGBT community. We have a lot of fun with that and hoping to get placements on some shows or movies. We are actively investigating that right now. I think you'll hear more of us. We're definitely on the up and up. It's known pretty well in New York and a little in the Northeast.

So, how did you get cast for the MAMMA MIA Tour?

When I applied by emails, from an ad in "Backstage Magazine," and I tried out for the role of Donna or Tonya. I thought those were the ones I'd probably suit more and not so much a character actor like Rosie who is the third dynamo. They responded and said, "Great. Love to have you come in. We'll be having auditions." This was in December of 2012. They said they would be holding auditions in the next couple of months in 2013. So I went off and did the show "Empire" and by the time they were ready in March, I said, "I'm actually on a tour in Australia." And they said, "No problem. Can you send a tape?" I was busy doing eight shows a week. And I was so busy that I just dropped the ball. I knew I was coming back to the states soon and I figured I could go and see them then. The casting lady was so lovely. She would gently remind me every now and then. I then told her I was coming back to New York in April and said, "Can I see you in person?" She said, "We will have finished up but send the video." I just wasn't anxious about it. It was really funny. I got back to New York and I went off to an audition for another show. I wasn't going to go but I had one resume and one headshot left in my bag so I thought, "I'll just go. I'm already up in midtown. I did a few auditions that day. I turned up to this audition but the casting people were the same as MAMMA MIA. So I got in the room and I see (the casting director) and I said, "I'm so sorry, I never sent you the video." And she said, "Don't worry about it. Do you know 'The Winner Takes it All?'" And I said I worked on it a little with my vocal teacher for this reason. She gets out her iPhone to record me. The piano player pulls up the music on his iPhone...this tiny little screen to play and I pull up the lyrics on my iPhone and we had this technological audition situation. She filmed me singing it and sent it to the producers and I got a call very quickly like that night or the next day saying they were very interested to meet you. So I then went in for one callback in person with the whole creative team from Broadway. Luckily, I didn't know it at the time because I would have been so nervous. And then I got the callback. So I think they'd been looking for a while for somebody that was right and they had a lot of trouble trying to find the age. She's gotta be able to be the mother of a 20 year old daughter. I'm actually a little younger, I'm 36. They needed someone of a certain age but still kind of spunky and fun and still had a bit of the sex appeal. I think they'd been having a hard time finding someone of the right age and all of that stuff. I was lucky with timing and all of that played a big part in being at the right place at the right time and being right for the role. It's a really good role for me. I often marvel at how they're aren't a lot of roles out there for my age group but they are coming more up I guess like Idina Menzel and that show she is doing on Broadway, If/Then. There are more roles for sure, but I'm in a bit of an in between. I'm not the ingénue anymore and I'm not the older woman. There aren't a lot of leads for this age. I feel very lucky because it's so much fun and you still get to feel young and sexy and wear the jumpsuit. Then you're also the mother; the nurturing figure to your daughter getting married and that pain of her leaving to start a life with her husband. Plus, you know, I get to sing the ballads and the beautiful stuff and then there's the big belting numbers and all that. It's not like a one trick pony. You get to show off your chops and sing the whole gamut. I feel like it's not just one style which I really didn't know until I started to do the show because I'd never seen it. When I got cast, I saw the show and I watched the movie and learned all the songs but I didn't know quite a few of those songs. I knew a lot of them because ABBA was huge in Australia but I didn't know "Slipping Through My Fingers." I've never heard it before. It was one of my favorites. The other ballad is "One of Us." I've never heard that. That's another favorite. I love it. They're the harder ones to do because you've just been screaming at someone and you have to let go into this beautiful singing. It's definitely challenging on your voice. And then of course, "Winner Takes it All." The range of the songs go from so low down, like "Money, Money" way down there in your bootstraps to really singing high. Those girls, Agnetha and Anni-Frid, had amazing voices, they really did that they could sing. You don't really think of ABBA as that. But, they really were, the more I've come to know them, they had beautiful pitch and sang so high and so low and I think that is one of the secrets to their success along with the amazing songs that they wrote.

MAMMA MIA plays at Bass Concert Hall from January 20-25, 2015. Tickets can be purchased by going to their website. You don't want to miss this one.

PHOTO CREDIT: Joan Marcus