Mamma Mia! Brings ABBA's Sunshine to The National Theatre This Fall
Washington audiences will get a dose of Greek island sunshine just as the weather turns, when the 25th Anniversary North American tour of Mamma Mia! plays The National Theatre from October 27 through November 15, 2026. The Broadway at The National engagement lands downtown at 1321 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, a short walk from the White House and the Mall.
For anyone who has somehow avoided it over the past quarter century, Mamma Mia! is the jukebox musical that turned ABBA's catalog into a stage phenomenon. Twenty-year-old Sophie is about to be married on the small Greek island where her mother, Donna, runs a taverna. Having grown up without knowing her father, Sophie reads her mother's old diary, discovers three men who might fit the description, and secretly invites all of them to the wedding. When Sam, Bill and Harry turn up at the same time, Donna finds her past crashing into her present, her old bandmates Tanya and Rosie arrive to stir things up, and the whole affair unfolds to the tune of "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me," "The Winner Takes It All," "Super Trouper" and, of course, the title song.
The show first opened in London in 1999 and went on to run for fourteen years on Broadway, where it returned last year for an anniversary engagement before heading back out on the road. The touring production keeps the original creative team intact, with direction by Phyllida Lloyd, choreography by Anthony Van Laast, a book by Catherine Johnson and the music and lyrics of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Judy Craymer, who dreamed up the idea of building a musical around ABBA's songs, remains its producer.
Leading the company at The National is Jessica Crouch as Donna, a veteran of the original Broadway cast of Pretty Woman, opposite Juliette M. Ojeda as Sophie. Jalynn Steele and Kayla Ryan Walsh play Tanya and Rosie, rounding out the Dynamos, while Victor Wallace, Leland Burnett and Rob Hancock take on the three possible dads. Grant Reynolds, fresh from his Broadway debut in the same role, plays Sophie's fiancé Sky. Several members of the ensemble come directly from the recent Broadway run.
The production runs two hours and thirty-five minutes with one intermission and is recommended for ages six and up, making it an easy pick for a family outing or a girls' night with the encore singalong built right in.