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| Derek Eyamie, left and Sweeney MacAruthur will be in the ensemble as well as understudy lead roles in the musical, Mamma Mia |
Derek Eyamie is having a hard time sitting still as he and Sweeney MacArthur, who is smiling broadly, describe their reactions to the news that they are to be part of the hit musical Mamma Mia.
Built around the hit songs of the '70s Swedish pop group, ABBA, the British production of Mamma Mia is still pulling in the crowds in London's West End. The current Toronto production, now playing to full houses at Ed and David Mirvish's Royal Alexandra Theatre, begins its tour of the U.S. in November.
A new cast, which includes the two Ottawa performers, has just been selected to play for the next year in Toronto. Eyamie, 21, and MacArthur, 30, will serve double duty as members of the ensemble and as understudies to lead characters in the 28-strong cast.
The rigorous audition process had shades of deja vu written all over it.
"The day of the callbacks was exactly like Chorus Line," says MacArthur, referring to the recent Orpheus Musical Theatre Society production of the Broadway musical about the ruthless selection process. Both Ottawa actors were featured performers in that show, in which neither of their characters made the final cut.
"Seeing people cut all around you and performing in front of so many people, so many of the decision-makers, including Bjorn Ulvaeus, I was all tension and nerves," MacArthur said of the Mamma Mia selection process.
Ulvaeus, one of the 'Bs' in ABBA, co-wrote the 22 songs featured in the show with Benny Anderson, the other 'B.'
Eyamie, a former Gloucester High School student, performed in his first show four years ago. He "knew that this was what I wanted more than anything else in the world," with his debut in the Company of Musical Theatre production of Crazy For You.
"I still can't believe it's happening," he says of his big break in Mamma.
"It will sink in when you're staring at three balconies full of people," smiles MacArthur, a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Britain's National Youth Theatre, whose career began in his native Scotland when he was nine.
Since moving to Canada five years ago, MacArthur has been active on the community theatre scene and has had several parts in theatrical and television movies and commercials. It is his voice that put out the call to "Roll up the rim to win" in the Tim Horton commercial.
Most recently, he played in the St. Lawrence Stage Company production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in Brockville. He is now in Morrisburg in rehearsal for the Upper Canada Playhouse production of The Woman in Black, which opens Sept. 14 and runs until Sept. 30 - just two days before Mamma Mia rehearsals begin.
The cast, featuring MacArthur and Eyamie, will be on stage a the Royal Alex beginning Nov. 7.