Dawn Williams In Mamma Mia!
Birmingham is a theatre that is full of so many special memories at this point that it makes me super happy any chance I get to go back there and see one of My Jellicles again - seeing someone as lovely as Dawn Williams in a show as fun as Mamma Mia! was a chance I absolutely couldn't miss. I'm probably jinxing it here, but the sun always seems to shine when I make a trip to the Hippodrome; the whole set-up with the train station, the hotel, the Bullring and the Hippodrome right next to each other, the really lovely, well-run and well-designed theatre, the easy-to-get-to stage door, it's a venue where everything always feels like it's just magically falling into place and so I think maybe even on the times I've been there and the sun hasn't shone, in my head everything always has that milky-gold hue to it, and the Mamma Mia! trip was no different. I think it definitely helped just how fun and sunny the show itself was; the atmosphere in the audience was really great and full of enthusiasm and obviously there is a very fun, lively element to the music itself with it being so popular and well-known. I remember there was an understudy Donna on that night and she was really great and I was so glad how well the audience responded to her because she completely deserved it - we noticed her at stage door too and she had people waiting for her which was lovely and I'm glad she clearly had such a great night. Dawn was absolutely perfectly suited to this show and I loved watching her bring her sunshine to it and as always it was great to be able to cheer her on and get to see yet another side to her talent as a performer. At stage door after the show she came running out to give me a big hug and tell me how good it was to see me again and she was just like this bubbly ray of summer; it was so wonderful just to be around that smiley, effervescent energy of hers again, especially in a place I connected so much in my mind with my best memories of the 2014 Cats tour as she was the first person from that cast who I had met at stage door. I definitely think I will most remember this trip for that hazy golden feeling of it: seeing a sun-drenched show after a sun-drenched day and getting to see one of the sunniest people I've ever met perform and then be sweet enough to give me such a warm welcome at the stage door afterwards.
