MacArthur set to debut 'Mamma Mia'

Residents of Wantagh, Seaford and Levittown have a packed weekend of student theater to look forward to, beginning with Wantagh High School’s production of “Radium Girls,” which will premiere on Nov. 18 and run until Nov. 20.

Students at Levittown’s MacArthur High School will also be taking the stage on Nov. 18, performing Abba’s classic musical “Mam-ma Mia.”

MacArthur’s theater program re-bounded strongly from the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2021 with a masked performance of “Frozen,” and in the 2021-22 school year, students performed “Murder in the Air” and “Chicago.”

“Murder in the Air” is an interactive murder mystery, Lisa Levenberg, music teacher and director of “Mamma Mia,” said.

“The audience chose who the killer was,” Levenberg explained. “We had to rehearse six different endings based on who they voted for.”

According to both Levenberg and Jennifer Malin, the show’s choreographer and a 2012 graduate of MacArthur, the students all wanted to put on “Mamma Mia.” Since the show does not require a large pit orchestra, MacArthur will be performing a second musical in the spring that will include band students, as opposed to a drama, and “Mam-ma Mia” will use recorded tracks.

To promote the show, “Mamma Mia” was featured at Homecoming, with the three female leads in costume riding in a truck.

“We made a huge banner for them,” Levenberg said. “We had music blaring the whole time they were riding. It was a whole big thing.”

With such a large, well-known show, MacArthur will continue its tradition of persuading a wide range of students — and staff — to appear on stage.

“We have someone from the football team,” Levenberg said. “We have students in special education. We will even have a teacher be on stage in this show. And we always do this. When we did ‘You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown,’ we had the whole baseball team join us.”

Each one of the three female leads, known as the Dynamos, hails from the greater Wantagh-Seaford-Levittown community that MacArthur cultivates. Cassidy Bedell, who plays Tanya, is from Seaford; Grace Keating, who plays Rosie, is from Wantagh; and Olivia DeMarco, who plays Donna Sheridan, is from Levittown.

Bedell and Keating are both seniors, and so “Mamma Mia” is somewhat of a swan song for them.

“I’m extremely excited for this show,” Bedell said. “It’s a type of character that I’m usually not used to. And dancing is something I’m not used to. So it’s just really good to have this experience.”

Bedell added that she does not intend to pursue theater in college and will likely strive for a degree in psychology instead.

“I’ve never exactly had a role where I just feel like I can be myself on stage,” Keating said. “It feels like I was cast as myself basically. And it always feels nice to be a part of something special.”

DeMarco, a junior, said she plans on pursuing musical theater in college.

“Something I think all three of us can agree on is these roles are very iconic,” DeMarco said. “It’s exciting, yet very challenging, to touch upon characters in a way that are still our own but also keeping their roots intact.”

The three MacArthur students have been on stage together numerous times since their middle school days.

Levenberg and Malin agreed that, with the 2022-23 school year being the first year with no COVID-related restrictions in place, “Mamma Mia” would be performed with an unusually high amount of energy. For the production of “Chicago” this spring, the mask mandate was lifted mere days before opening night. However, cast members of “Mamma Mia” have been able to rehearse without any masking or social distancing requirements since September.

“This is all like high energy, super fun,” Malin said. “And the kids are always saying that they love it, are happy that we’re doing it and always want to come to rehearsal. That’s the most important thing.”