"Who's your daddy?"
That's the key plot question driving the global hit Mamma Mia! The global smash jukebox musical famously features the song hits of Swedish pop group ABBA, and it returns for a three-week run at Chicago's James M. Nederlander Theatre starting April 30.
The tour not only commemorates the 25th anniversary of the premiere of Mamma Mia! in London's West End in April of 1999, but also the 50th anniversary of ABBA's 1974 Eurovision Song Competition win with the hit "Waterloo."
In Mamma Mia!, a bride-to-be named Sophie invites three men who could be her biological father to her Greek island wedding. For this new tour, the Mamma Mia! producers have cheekily cast Broadway veteran and former Village People performer Jim Newman as Bill Austin, the travel writer who is one of Sophie's potential daddies.
But for many gay audiences, Newman will bring a very different association to the word "Daddy." Starting in 2016, Newman famously starred as the sexy silver-haired hunk Graydon in what would become three seasons of Daddyhunt: The Serial.
"This was this very sweet, romantic series about two gay men falling in love," Newman said. "And it was for an ad—it was for a dating app—which in gay terms usually means a hookup app."
Newman remembers the first few Daddyhunt episodes cost not much more than $1,000, since they were shot guerrila style without permits. Episodes were deliberately very short ("snackable content" that Newman said "you could watch on your phone") and were inspired by Taster's Choice coffee commercials from the 1970s and '80s.
Newman said he's most recognized thanks to Daddyhunt and it global reach on YouTube and social media shares.
Newman is also pleased that Daddyhunt has reached gay audiences in countries where homosexuality is illegal or severely restricted. Newman is always fielding fan emails or direct messages from places as far away as Indonesia, India and Singapore.
"(Daddyhunt) just touched a nerve in the gay community," Newman said. "We just want to fall in love like everybody else."
Daddyhunt is just one of the many entertainment jobs that Newman jokes that he has just "fallen into." Similarly, he says many of these showbiz jobs compete for his self-proclaimed moments of "the gayest my life will ever get."
For example, Newman remembers the night in 1999 when he was summoned post-show to Liza Minnelli's limousine. At the time, Newman was starring in the ensemble of the John Forster off-Broadway musical A Good Swift Kick (regionally known as Both Barrels), and Minnelli had zeroed in on him during that performance.
"She took me to Sardi's and said she was doing a show about the music of her father (Hollywood film director Vincente Minnelli) and that she wanted to sing a duet with me," Newman said.
Months later, Newman was part of the six-man singing and dancing backing ensemble for Liza Minnelli's 1999 Broadway show Minnelli on Minnelli. It significantly played the Palace Theatre, a legendary house for so many 1950s and '60s concert runs of Liza's mother, entertainment legend Judy Garland.
Newman was similarly headhunted for the disco super group the Village People, whose songs are full of lyrics explicitly targeting the gay community (as much as some of the group's original straight members will try to deny it). Newman was again appearing in another off-Broadway show, this time the acclaimed 2013 musical Murder Ballad.
Newman was startled to be called by a manager with the Village People to be the next Cowboy in the group. Randy Jones was planning to retire after 37 years as the group's original Cowboy.
"I'm from Alabama." Newman said. "So, I've played a lot of Southern characters and done a lot of photo shoots. There was a lot of cowboy imagery of me out there."
Newman wasn't interested in the job, since Murder Ballad had recently opened to rave critical reviews.
"But then three days later, my play got its closing notice," Newman said. "So I was like, (beeping phone pad noises), 'Hey, is that Cowboy thing still open?'"
Newman's agents crafted a contract that would let him out of the Village People if he got another theater show in New York. But then Newman found that he enjoyed touring with the Village People, and took on playing The Cowboy full time.
"It was a lot easier than eight shows a week (in a Broadway show)," Newman said. "The guys were great and I was treated great."
Surprisingly, Newman said his decade-long run as the Cowboy wasn't as "gay" as he thought it would be. Sure, there were some LGBTQ+ events (like a 2015 Pride Month concert at Chicago's Portage Theatre), but Newman said the mainstream appeal of the Village People meant playing a lot of casinos and other flashback festivals.
"So many women at after parties would flirt with me," Newman said. "And when I would tell them that I was gay ,and they would be shocked and say, 'I never would have guessed!' And I would say, 'I'm in the Village People! That should have been your first guess!'"
In 2017, Victor Willis (the original Village People cop) prevailed in a lawsuit to reclaim the band's original name and he soon formed his own ensemble. So, Newman and the remaining band mates had to perform under the new name of "The Kings of Disco—Former members of Village People." Bookings became more scarce, so Newman turned to producing scantily clad images and singing content on Instagram and OnlyFans to help augment his income.
Though Newman has many Broadway credits (like the original casts of Kander and Ebb's musicals Steel Pier in 1997 and Curtains in 2007), he was initially reluctant to audition for the tour of Mamma Mia!
"I love ABBA's music, but I wasn't a big fan of the movie," said Newman, adding that he initially dreaded returning to the rigors of touring eight shows a week.
"But the creative team was really lovely," Newman said. "They let us find these characters and start from scratch, which is something they don't always let you do when they recreate a production."
Though the Mamma Mia! character of Bill Austin was originally Australian (perhaps as a nod to 1990s films like Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert that helped to re-popularize ABBA), he hasn't been that way for some time in North American productions. Newman isn't sure exactly when that switch happened, but he's heard that the decision had to do with making Bill Austin more believable instead of just being caricature where audiences laughed at his Aussie accent.
Newman is keen to play the Windy City alongside Jeff Award-winning Chicago actress Christine Sherrill, who stars as Mamma Mia! leading lady Donna Sheridan. Newman's Brazilian fiance also plans to visit during their three weeks in Chicago, when Newman will celebrate his 60th birthday.
"I've had an amazing time," Newman said. "If you're going to go on tour, go on tour with the happiest show on the planet."
The 25th anniversary tour of Mamma Mia! plays April 30 to May 19 at the James M. Nederlander Theatre, 24 W. Randolph St. Performances are 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday with 2 p.m. matinees Saturday, 1 p.m. matinees Sunday (also Wednesday, May 8 and 15) and one 6:30 p.m. show Sunday, May 5. Tickets are $79-$244. For more information, visit BroadwayInChicago.com .
