Baker Smith

In October 2001, Mamma Mia! opened on Broadway, just weeks after the horrific events of 9/11, and most pundits had little inkling that the show – a jukebox musical comprised of ABBA hits and the story of a young girl trying to divine the identity of her father from among three of her mother’s suitors some 21 years earlier – would go on to become the ninth longest running musical in the history of the New York theatrical enclave. But Mamma Mia! was exactly what the theater-going public needed in the aftermath of an epoch-shattering and historic event: an enormously entertaining, fast-paced show set to an eminently hummable, danceable score of songs that could whisk them away to another time and place.

Neneh Cherry continually draws inspiration from her surroundings. In the late '80s, she traversed between post-punk London nightlife and the burgeoning hip-hop movement in New York. Capturing these unique experiences, and also shaped by the influence of her musical family, she exploded onto the pop music landscape by closing out the '80s with her internationally acclaimed debut album, Raw Like Sushi. This melting pot of musical styles and streetwise lyrics that take on life and love with equal parts tenderness and toughness is set for a 30th Anniversary celebration befitting its global impact.

It will be a 'Page to Stage' day when Queens Theatre hosts a Queens Children's Book Author Meet and Greet along with two performances of the famed musical, Anne of Green Gables, on Sunday, April 28th.