Musical theatre stars Lara Mulcahy and Rhonda Burchmore struck up a friendship when they cast in the original Australian production of Mamma Mia! Their new show ABBA-solutely Fabulous allows them to reunite in a shameless celebration of all things ABBA.

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Alongside being two of the biggest names in musical theatre, the pair are also appearing on Channel Seven’s All Together Now, making movie appearances, putting out madcap YouTube videos and developing their own TV show. Graeme Watson chatted to Lara ahead for her trip home to Western Australia to perform at The Regal Theatre.

Lara says her love of ABBA began when she just a young child. Her mother ran a dancing school in Perth and ABBA songs were a constant soundtrack to her life, but the very first album she bought was the band’s classic 1976 record Arrival. 

“You know the one with the helicopter on the front,” she declares are we chat on the phone, I admit that I too have the record on vinyl but it was originally my sisters, I was the victor in a decade long campaign to make it mine.

“I was obsessed!” Lara said. “My sister and I used to jump around in the front of the mirror with hair brushes, and argue over who was going to be the blonde one, my hair was blonde back then, I mean it’s blonde now – but it was real back then.”

I share that my brother and I also used to fight over who would portray blonde Agnetha Fältskog and who would be relegated to portraying brunette Anni-frid Lyngstad.

“Why were we all obsessed with being Agnetha?” Lara asks, “Now I love Frida too, I think Agnetha was relatable to kids as where Frida was a bit more sexy.”

“We went on our first big overseas trip as a family and my Mum made my sister and I these matching pant suits with jackets and flairs, and we had ABBA socks which were these long socks that went up to your calves and they had all their faces on them.” Lara recalled, “We had ABBA t-shirts that were made from a kiosk at the shopping centre where they were put on from a transfer, there are photos of me wearing this to fly to L.A. for the first time.”

Lara’s childhood ABBA obsession didn’t end there, she also had the ABBA cushions on her bed, and large amount of fan paraphernalia .

Lara’s long friendship with Rhonda Burchmore began when they both auditioned for the original Australian production of Mama Mia.

“We met at the auditions, at the final call backs in Melbourne. I was living in Sydney and she was in Melbourne. Of course I knew who she was, and I was surprised that she’d heard of me, she said to me ‘I’ve heard your hilarious’ and she borrowed my lipstick.

The friends spent almost two years playing best friends on stage, and become real life friends behind the scenes. “We got on like a house on fire!”

Creating a show that could appear together in has allowed the friends to spend time together and share their experiences of growing up as ABBA obsessed teens on opposite side of the country. Alongside their show, the duo have also been posting videos of their mad-cap adventures giving them a while new audience.

The pair are also both appearing as a part of The 100 judges on Channel Seven’s new singing show All Together Now. “We look like the opening credits to The Muppets in all those boxes,” Lara jokes, saying she’s glad the producers sat her and Rhonda together. “We have a good banter, we’re like Statler and Waldorf.”

The pair have also begun writing a sitcom for them to be appear together in.

“People come and see the show and say you two should be on television, so we thought we’d give it a go, because while the show is full of ABBA songs what it is really about is our friendship and sharing similar growing up experiences on opposite sides of the country.

“We’re both dancing school kids, Rhonda’s dance for all of her life, I grew up in a dancing school and I’ve dance all of my life. Until we met each other we didn’t know how much we had in common.

The show is about our friendship and our lives, we take the piss out of each other because we have very different lives, not only physically – we look like Bert and Don – but lifestyles as well, she’s such a glamour-puss, she shops at Versace and shop at Target!” Lara said.

Lara Mulcahy and Rhonda Burchmore’s ABBA-solutely Fabulous is at The Regal Theatre on Saturday 3rd November. Get tickets now.