Jess will be our Sophie as Mamma Mia! hits Southsea

Covid and all the lockdowns proved a way to test Jess Michelmore’s resolve about entering so competitive and so demanding an industry. But Jess’s resolve withstood everything that Covid could throw at it and now she’s on the road with the show until next January.

The next stop along the way is The Kings Theatre in Southsea (Friday, May 19-Saturday, May 27) – and the crowds, as ever, will lap it up. Set on a Greek island paradise, Mamma Mia offers a story of love, friendship and identity all told through the timeless songs of Abba.Sophie’s quest to discover the father she’s never known brings her mother face to face with three men from her distant romantic past on the eve of a wedding they’ll never forget. And Jess, our Sophie in the show, is loving it. It has been fantastic. I've got to see so many amazing places that I have not been to before, places like Manchester and also Blackpool, and we've been to Leeds and at the moment we're in Tallinn which is our first international stop. We've got Portsmouth and then later on at the beginning of July we're going to Scandinavia. It is going to be fantastic. And the response is amazing. There is so much joy every single night and every single day. The company has got so much energy and it just feels like a new story every night in the theatre. I'm definitely biased but I think this is just the best show that you could be on the road with.

“I think people love it because there are so many different ways that you can connect with it. You've got the story of the younger generation, and the younger people understand how it feels to find out who you are and where you come from. And I think that's what makes Sophie so interesting but you've also got Donna’s story, the story of a very strong and independent woman raising a kid and running a business. And then on top of that you've got the whole mother-daughter connection. There is just so much in it that you can respond to and then on top of that of course you've got the music which is just fantastic. You've got the songs and it's hit after hit, banger after banger after banger after banger.”

The part of Sophie is a tricky balance though, Jess admits. Sophie is a character who could easily get a little bit lost in amongst all that is happening around her: “She is a young woman just about to get married and she is going on this incredible journey of self-discovery but she can start to feel a little bit secondary to all the other crazy things are going on around her. But I basically see this as a coming of age story and that's definitely the bit that I connect with myself, the story of this woman becoming an adult and finding out who she is, who she can trust. She realises that she is grown up and that she is now a woman and she needs to know her own mind. I just try to play her as truthfully as I possibly can but I really do connect with her in my own life.”

And for Jess, it’s all the best possible start to her career: “I graduated into Covid which wasn't the greatest timing. But this is pretty much my first professional job and it's wonderful to do.”