Left as a student, back as the lead | Arts & Entertainment

The actress Nevada Riley plays the lead role of Sophie in Theatre Aspen’s “Mamna Mia!” which runs through Aug. 2 at the Hurst Theatre in Rio Grande Park. 

It’s a triumphant return to Aspen for Riley, who spent the summer of 2019 participating in Theatre Aspen’s Apprentice Program. This is her first professional role as the lead actress in a musical. 

“It’s been very, very sweet,” Riley said in a recent interview. “Especially because I was here as an apprentice. I’ve been in ensembles, I’ve been on Broadway, I’ve done a lot of national tours, but when I’ve played the lead, I’ve always been covering other actors.

“It’s really really meaningful to come back to a theater that feels like home and feel really prepared and really supported. I will always treasure this as the first moment where I got to really take on the leading role. It’s been very, very special.”

Riley was raised in Weehawken, New Jersey. She performed in her first musical at Hoboken Children’s Theater.

“We had just moved there,” Riley recalled. “I was a new kid. My mom was like, ‘We need to do something with this child so she can make friends.’ So I did their program the summer before fifth grade and we did ‘The Music Man.’ I was in the chorus. I always loved singing as a kid. I liked to make up songs in different languages that I definitely didn’t speak. I was being a little weird but I always loved to sing.”

Riley wasn’t in the ensemble long. She quickly stepped into lead roles with the Hoboken Children’s Theater where she acted until she went to High Tech High School in Secaucus, New Jersey. There, she continued to sing her way through the American songbook.

Riley studied musical theater at The University of Michigan, considered one of the best programs in the country. During her senior year, Jed Bernstein, producing director of Theatre Aspen, went to Michigan to conduct auditions for Theatre Aspen’s Summer Apprentice Program. Riley was offered a spot.

“It was truly the best summer,” Riley said of her experience in Aspen. “To be able to work for a theater and get paid to be in this place which is literally the best place ever was so great. Growing up on the East Coast, I wasn’t exposed to this kind of nature, getting to go on hikes, getting to just ride my bike around town and just feel so safe and getting to experience all of that. It was just a really great launching pad to joining the business, because you get to work with professionals. But you’re still a kid.

“It was perfect, because it sort of gave me a beautiful transition between college and being a grown up and moving to New York. So it really set me up for success. It made me feel super confident, super prepared. I was ready to go to New York and see what my career would be.”

Riley’s first professional acting gig came through a Theatre Aspen connection. Frequent director Hunter Foster, who worked with Riley on “Guys and Dolls” during her apprenticeship, hired her to work with him at Bucks County Playhouse for “Rocky Horror Picture Show” where Riley was able to get her actor’s equity card. 

Riley’s next role was in a national touring company production of “Cats” and then COVID hit. She came out of the pandemic with a bullet when she was cast in “Beetlejuice” on Broadway in April 2022. She was in the ensemble and also served as an understudy for one of the lead actors.

“I got to perform as Lydia, one of the leads, so I got to make my Broadway principal debut, which was very, very exciting and my parents got tickets for all my friends. It was just so great,” she said.

Riley did a national tour of “Beetlejuice” and played Lydia several times, again as the understudy, or as a fill-in. “‘Beetlejuice’ just just gave me so many things,” she said. “I had my Broadway debut, I learned to take over for a lead, I got to play a bunch of different roles. I got to go to Mexico City with them for a month, so I really loved my time with the tour.” 

This past spring, Riley appeared in a tour of  “A Beautiful Noise” before landing the lead role in Theatre Aspen’s “Mamma Mia!”

“When I got the audition for ‘Mamma Mia!’ I was like, ‘This is the one I want because I’ve been wanting to come back to Theater Aspen ever since I was an apprentice because I love it here so much and I think Jed is amazing and I just love the company. So when I got the audition for Sophie, I worked really hard and tried to really give the best audition I could. When I got it, I was so excited. 

“Sophie is such a fun character. She’s just having a good time. I feel like she’s not very different from me. We’re just young women having fun. It’s not a stretch by any means.”

In “Mamma Mia!” Riley’s character Sophie invites three men to a Greek Island to try and figure out which one of them might be her father. The heartbeat of the story is Sophie’s relationship with her mom Donna, played by Erin Davie in this production. The story is set against songs by the 1970s-80s hitmaking Swedish pop group, ABBA. 

“Mamma Mia!” is one of the most successful musicals in Broadway history. Over 70 million people have seen the show, which has grossed $4.5 billion worldwide since its 1999 debut.

“Working with Erin has been fantastic,” Riley said. “I thought she was so amazing in ‘Sideshow.’ I studied it in school. So getting to have her as my mom is so cool. We get to share a lot of heartfelt scenes together which is really sweet. And Michael Bellow, the director, and Michael Callahan, the choreographer, have led with such ease, they knew what they wanted. When you have such a short process like we do here, where you have like two weeks to put up a show, it’s nice to have someone in charge who is clear about what they want.”

Riley said that “Mamma Mia!” is first and foremost about having fun and feeling good and that’s what she hopes audiences take away after seeing the play. 

“I think the show is about family,” Riley said. “It’s about finding yourself, and it’s also about just having fun. And I think we all could use a little fun.”