Roger Farr. Photo supplied.Variety Theatre Ashburton’s spectacle Mamma Mia was seen by 4329 people over 10 shows, with 94 per cent of all tickets sold.

The show was a big project with huge expectations and a hefty $200,000 budget and was staged to celebrate 10 years of the community facility, Ashburton Trust Event Centre.

Mamma Mia director Roger Farr, who is the Event Centre manager, said he wanted to thank each and everyone for the support shown to the production.

“This journey has been amazing. Fourteen months ago I began planning for the 10th anniversary of ATEC and it had always been in the back of my mind that the consortium had a packaged production called Mamma Mia available for hire.

“I thought it would be the ideal show to celebrate an anniversary and I think the box office results would agree.”

Mr Farr said the show had been a real team effort and he had been backed “by an incredible team”.

The team included musical director Richard Marrett, choreographer Madison Thew Keyworth, the actors themselves and backstage, wardrobe and technical teams, and many others.

“This show would not have happened without the 131 people involved both onstage and behind the scenes working towards a common goal, and boy did we kick that one between the posts.

“This is the most successful show to date at the box office with ticket sales reaching 94% and I could not be any happier with the publicity the venue has received in recent weeks.”

The box office success came on the back of 10 outstanding performances that had had the community buzzing, he said.

© The Ashburton Courier - 31 May 2018