{"id":14647,"date":"2025-08-27T05:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/jim-newman-on-mamma-mia-mentors-and-the-joys-of-owning-the-stage\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T05:14:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T05:14:09","slug":"jim-newman-on-mamma-mia-mentors-and-the-joys-of-owning-the-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/jim-newman-on-mamma-mia-mentors-and-the-joys-of-owning-the-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Newman On \u2018Mamma Mia!,\u2019 Mentors and the Joys of Owning the Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Looking back, Newman reflects on how authenticity and openness have been central to his career success. Company photo by Joan Marcus \/ Courtesy Jim Newman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mamma Mia<\/i>, set to music by ABBA\u2019s Benny Andersson<\/a> and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus, is a decidedly different kind of whodunit, drenched in a bombastic pop score that demands you dance in the aisles (\u201cHoney, Honey,\u201d \u201cMoney, Money, Money,\u201d \u201cDancing Queen,\u201d \u201cKnowing Me, Knowing You,\u201d et al.). More than 70 million people have seen the show, which has grossed $4.5 billion worldwide since its 1999 debut, and its revival, freshly installed in the Winter Garden<\/a>, didn\u2019t exactly tiptoe back into town. Its seven previews raked in more than $1.5 million, and, in its first week on Broadway, it placed fourth among the top five earners (just behind Wicked<\/i>, The Lion King<\/i> and Hamilton<\/i>).<\/p>\n

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British writer Catherine Johnson<\/a> concocted the plot that pops up periodically between songs. It\u2019s about a 20-year-old bride-to-be, born out of wedlock, who wants a father to walk down the aisle with her for her nuptials. She wants it so much that she investigates her mother\u2019s diary from two decades back and invites the candidates most likely. They stretch over three continents: an American architect named Sam Carmichael, an Australian writer-adventurer named Bill Austin and a British banker named Harry Bright. Which one will the fountain bless? We never find out. Upstaged by more pressing nuptials, the paternity mystery is shoved aside and never solved.<\/p>\n

The current revival holds it to just two continents, dropping the Australian accent altogether\u2014which is a blessing for a Birmingham boy like actor Jim Newman<\/a>. \u201cWhen I got the script, Bill Austin was born and raised in America,\u201d he tells Observer. \u201cThey stopped making him Australian on tours, I think, because there were so many bad Australian accents and they got laughs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is just fine with Newman. \u201cWhen we give up acting school and come to New York, we think we\u2019re going to play this great range of characters\u2014but why?\u201d he wonders. \u201cOver the years, we learn that it\u2019s better not to think you\u2019re a completely different person. It\u2019s better to look at this character and find parts of him that are like you. Then, you can decide how to react as Jim Newman if you\u2019re living the life of this character. I think that makes it a lot easier, and also, I think it makes the character seem more honest to the audience. It\u2019s all an adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Three\"Three<\/a>
Jim Newman (Bill Austin), Victor Wallace (Sam Carmichael) and Rob Marnell (Harry Bright). Photo: Joan Marcus<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Newman, this adventure began in 1997. \u201cThat\u2019s when I started working professionally in New York, doing terrible plays and a lot of bad Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway. A few years ago, I took up national touring (Big<\/i>, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat<\/i>, Kiss Me, Kate<\/i>), and my body feels every year of that, believe me. I knew at some point I would have to pay the piper. Doing eight shows a week\u2014especially as a singer-dancer\u2014I knew that my body was going to take a toll.\u201d<\/p>\n

One night, after an Off-Broadway show he was doing, the stage manager came up to Newman and said, \u201cLiza is waiting for you in her limo.\u201d Of course, he thought he was kidding, but when he put on his backpack and started to leave, the stage manager said, \u201cI was serious. Liza Minnelli<\/a> was at the show tonight, and she wants to see you. She\u2019s in her limousine.\u201d When he went out the stage door, the limousine door opened, and she said, \u201cJimmy! Jimmy! Take me to dinner.\u201d She took him to Sardi\u2019s and said, \u201cNext year I\u2019m doing a show on Broadway at the Palace, where my mother made her big comeback. It\u2019s all about my dad\u2019s movies.\u201d And a year later, he was at the Palace, standing on stage with his arms around this person who had become his friend, setting the lights for their duet. \u201cIt was a great experience for me. People have said to me, \u2018This show is only about Liza and her boys in the chorus. You\u2019re sort of back in the ensemble,\u2019 and I say to them, \u2018Some jobs you take to further your career. Some jobs you take for the experience. Liza is\u2014Liza. There is no one like her and never will be. She\u2019s such a huge part of our entertainment fabric.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the run, whenever there\u2019d be stars in the green room after the show, Liza would come into my dressing room and say, \u2018Jimmy! Jimmy! There\u2019s somebody I want you to meet,\u2019 and she\u2019d take me into her dressing room. The door would open, and it would be Gregory Peck<\/a>, sitting there with a cane, or Debbie Reynolds<\/a>\u2014incredible icons. It was really, really a major experience, and I\u2019m so glad that I didn\u2019t let my ego make that decision for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thing that Newman says he\u2019s proudest of is his relationship with John Kander<\/a> and Fred Ebb<\/a>. \u201cI grew up singing their songs, and they became friends of mine. They were just the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

His first Kander and Ebb was 1997\u2019s Steel Pier<\/i>, about the 1930s dance marathons, with Karen Ziemba<\/a>, Daniel McDonald<\/a> and Gregory Harrison<\/a>. \u201cIt was my first contract, and my first original Broadway cast. Debra Monk<\/a> was my love interest, and Kristin Chenoweth<\/a>\u2014it was her first Broadway show, too\u2014was my wife. It changed my career\u2014but it didn\u2019t last four months.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also caught them at the tail end of their collaborations\u2014in Over and Over<\/i>, a 1999 musical that never made it in, despite a cast that included Dorothy Loudon<\/a> and Mario Cantone<\/a>. It was a beautiful score, but musicalizing Thornton Wilder<\/a>\u2019s The Skin of Our Teeth<\/i> proved heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

Ebb had died by the time his last musical with Kander\u20142007\u2019s equally star-stuffed Curtains<\/i>\u2014came to Broadway. \u201cNot having Fred there was a little sad because there is so much of him in that show,\u201d Newman said. \u201cHe would have been so happy that it didn\u2019t lie there, and it got produced. The reason they were such a successful team is because John is this hopeless romantic and Fred was this acerbic, hilarious, go-for-the-jugular sort of guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newman\u2019s a great believer in affixing one\u2019s own personality to the role at hand. \u201cI\u2019m that happy-go-lucky guy\u2014the one at the party who\u2019s first to take over the dance floor. I think that was always in my nature, even as a kid. I used those qualities to connect with my character, Bill Austin. This show is really about the women, let\u2019s not kid anybody, and the men are brought in for the conflict, but if you\u2019re any kind of actor, you\u2019ll be able to find your story in that world.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill has come to this wedding just thinking it\u2019s going to be a party, and he\u2019ll see some old friends. Then, he discovers he may have an adult daughter! At first, he doesn\u2019t know what to make of that. But by the end of the play, he\u2019s thinking, \u2018You know what? I haven\u2019t left any roots on this earth. It might be nice to have this beautiful, cool kid as the roots I leave behind.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

More in performing arts<\/h3>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Jim<\/p><\/div>\n