Interview: Allison Pearce of MAMMA MIA! at Transcendence Theatre Company

Transcendence Theatre Company will bring Mamma Mia! to Sonoma for the first time August 13–30 at the Field of Dreams at Peterson Field. The musical follows a young bride-to-be whose search for her father brings three men from her mother’s past to a sun-drenched Greek island, all set to ABBA hits including “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia” and “The Winner Takes It All.”

Leading the cast as Donna Sheridan is Allison Pearce, whose theater credits include Curtains, Good Vibrations, Cry-Baby, Enter Laughing, Come From Away, Into the Woods and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. She appears alongside a cast of Broadway, West End and national touring performers under the direction of Tony Gonzalez, with choreography by Monica Kapoor and music direction by Susan Draus.

Ahead of opening night, I spoke with Pearce about finding herself in Donna, the multigenerational appeal of ABBA’s music and the magic of performing Mamma Mia! under the Sonoma stars.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What do you love most about Donna?

Oh, my gosh. I think Donna is a bit of a badass.

In the story, she became pregnant in the 1970s. She was raised Catholic, she was unmarried and she came from a very poor background, so she couldn’t go home. She decided to stay in Greece.

She took the things she received from these pivotal men in her life—one of whom is Sophie’s father—and created something of her own. She built the taverna, established the hotel and ran it for 15 years as a single mother.

She is fiercely independent and strong. She was also an artist and singer who traveled the world. She’s someone I look up to. From the 1970s to the point when our story takes place in the ’90s, she built this life by herself. It’s inspiring to look at what she created from almost nothing.

Mamma Mia! is one of the most beloved jukebox musicals of all time. Why do you think it continues to resonate with audiences?

It’s a combination of everything. The music is truly hit after hit. You sit in the audience and think, “Oh, my gosh, I love this song. I forgot about this one—I love it, too.”

It’s a celebration of life through ABBA’s music, and it gives every audience member someone to relate to.

I grew up with this music. As a high schooler and a musical theater person, I loved ABBA and loved that someone had taken those songs and woven them into a story. At one point in my life, I related to Sophie. Now I’m in my 40s, and I’m Donna.

I’m also seeing the show through my 12-year-old daughter, who is now a Sophie—or a Sophie-to-be. She loves the music, and my 9-year-old niece is obsessed with it, too. The music is celebratory. You turn it on and it makes you feel good.

No matter where we are in the world or what decade we’re in, the story feels timeless. Everyone can relate to somebody on that stage. You can see different stages of life represented, from youth to old age, accompanied by music that evokes memory, nostalgia, celebration, hurt, loss and growth.

I’ve even spoken to people who said they didn’t like ABBA, only for them to see the show and admit, “Okay, maybe I do.”

What does storytelling add to music that is already so familiar?

There are so many moments when you want to stand up and dance. “Dancing Queen” is the obvious example, but throughout the show, you want to share in the joy coming from these characters.

You can put on ABBA at home or in your car and immediately feel that celebration. But when you watch the songs come to life through a story, it adds another dimension to that joy. Storytelling always elevates music for me.

This is also a very meaningful show because it was my parents’ favorite musical. They always told me, “Allison, you have to do Mamma Mia!” And I would say, “I’m not really interested.”

It wasn’t that I disliked the show. I simply felt it didn’t belong to me yet.

Then, while planning a family trip to Santorini, Athens and Crete, I suddenly thought, “I think I’m Ready to Play Donna.”

She spoke to me as the mother of a daughter who is growing up so quickly, and as a business owner and independent woman trying to make her way through life. About a week later, Susan Draus—the music director on my first Broadway show, Good Vibrations—called and asked if I would be interested in playing Donna in Mamma Mia!.

I thought, “This feels a little bit like fate.”

Is there a musical number you especially enjoy performing?

There are so many songs I love, including numbers I’m not even in. I’ll be backstage jamming out to “Lay All Your Love on Me,” “Voulez-Vous” or “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” I can probably enjoy those a little differently because I don’t have to be quite so focused.

But in the second act, there’s a sequence we call the “Donna-thon.” I perform “One of Us,” “SOS,” “Our Last Summer,” “Slipping Through My Fingers” and “The Winner Takes It All.” It’s five songs nearly back-to-back.

That sequence is an incredible adventure because I get to travel through Donna’s entire emotional journey. It has everything an actor wants: transformation, exploration and resolution, all expressed through song. Donna doesn’t truly reach that resolution until the wedding.

It’s an extraordinary experience as an actor, and one I relish. I’m so grateful for it.

“One of Us” may be less familiar to casual ABBA listeners. What makes that song meaningful to you?

I had never really heard or understood “One of Us” until I began learning this production—even though I had probably seen Mamma Mia! six times.

That’s one of the remarkable things about this show: Each time you see it, you notice, hear and feel something different.

When I started learning “One of Us,” I realized what a gorgeous song it is. It resonates so deeply, but it passes by very quickly. It’s the shortest song in the show. You almost blink and it’s over, yet it’s incredibly poignant and beautiful.

I love singing it.

Transcendence is known for creating outdoor theater experiences in wine country. What is it like performing Mamma Mia! in that setting?

Transcendence is a unique experience because of what the company cultivates from the first day.

We begin with something called an alignment. Everyone gathers in a circle, takes a few breaths and gets centered together. One person then volunteers to lead an activity. It might involve sharing an experience, playing a game, practicing yoga or meditating.

That ritual brings us together as a group. I can’t speak for every Transcendence cast, but it has created a sense of unity, understanding, respect and curiosity within ours. We begin together simply as human beings, and then we bring that connection onto the stage.

This show is fun—you can’t avoid having fun. You might arrive in a bad mood, but you’ll leave in a good one.

There is also something magical about performing a show set in Greece while standing outdoors beneath the stars. The deer come by, the stars are above us and it feels as though the angels and gods are watching. We are all sharing this beautiful setting.

That environment encourages you to surrender to the particular logic of musical theater. Sometimes something happens within a song or in the space of a second, and you wonder how the story traveled from one point to another. But when you’re outside beneath the stars, the surroundings invite you to lean into the magic.

Transcendence cultivates curious, respectful people who love the craft and feel grateful to create something with an audience. It reminds us that the experience is not only about the people performing onstage. It’s about what all of us are creating together in that outdoor environment.

That relationship is pretty magical.

What distinguishes this production from previous versions of Mamma Mia!?

We have a team filled with what I call “career Mamma Mia! people.” Some were part of the original London company, while many have performed the show on Broadway or in other productions. Our director, choreographer, my two best friends in the show and several of the actors playing Donna’s former partners know this material incredibly well.

For some of them, the show is practically muscle memory—and they weren’t allowed to repeat any of it.

We had to rediscover what works and recreate it for this production. In doing so, I think we’ve made something special. We examined places in the script that can be challenging and asked how we could make them clearer.

For example, how do we prevent the audience from deciding too soon that one particular man must be Sophie’s father? How do we communicate that Donna genuinely loved all three of them and that any one could be the answer—not only the man she ultimately ends up with?

We’ve been able to remold the show and address moments that may previously have been lost in translation. We also have a phenomenally strong and talented cast. Across the board, there are no loose ends.

The choreography couldn’t duplicate the original production, so Monica Kapoor—who also has an extensive history with Mamma Mia!—created something extraordinary. Audiences may think they know these songs, but then they’ll see this choreography and discover something entirely new. The company is dancing for its life, and it’s amazing.

We’ve made the production our own because we had to. Through curiosity and collaboration, we’ve sewn together some of the spaces in the story and, hopefully, made an already magical show even more so.

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