Actress moves from controversial role to ‘Mamma Mia!’

Thursday, Sept. 13, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

What: "Mamma Mia!"

When: 7:30 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, 6 and 10 p.m. Saturdays; dark Fridays

Where: Mandalay Bay Theatre

Tickets: $49.50 to $110; (702) 632-7580

Going from a controversial, politically driven musical about white supremacy to a charming and decidedly noncontroversial musical such as "Mamma Mia!" is quite a leap.

But for Libby Winters, it's strictly business - show business.

Winters starred in "White Noise: A Cautionary Musical," which premiered at the New York Musical Theatre Festival last September . It was inspired by twin sisters Lamb and Lynx Gaede, who formed the white nationalist band Prussian Blue.

" 'White Noise' got a lot of press because of its subject matter," Winters says. "It was interesting to be in a show like that. People ask about Prussian Blue. People say, 'So, do you listen to Prussian Blue? What do you think of it?' They would kind of assign these political views to me, but I go 'OK, guys. This is the character. I'm not a bigot.' "

"White Noise" is a spoof that is critical of the white power movement.

"When you're doing satire like that , you have to be so careful to make sure the audience knows it's satire," Winters says, "because if they don't know it , then they think you are a white supremacist, and that's about as bad as it gets. It's difficult. You have to be careful with the tone of everything.

"There's not really that danger with 'Mamma Mia!' "

While "White Noise" is about hate, "Mamma Mia!" is about love.

"Mamma Mia!" opened at the Mandalay Bay in February 2003, and is inspired by the music of the Swedish rock group ABBA.

Winters is the latest in a long line of ingenues to portray Sophie Sheridan, whose mother is busy planning the marriage of her only child while Sophie secretly invites the three men who might be her father to her wedding.

"When I started the role , I was worried I would be too sarcastic for the character," Winters says. "But the producers said just be yourself. I thought that I'm too, like, dry and old and sarcastic for this. Sophie is 20 and naive and optimistic. I said, 'I don't know if that's me.' But they allowed me to be myself, to be very playful and find my own take on the character."

Although the mother, Donna Sheridan, is the lead character in the musical, Winters sees Sophie's role as pivotal.

"Sophie is so much a driving force throughout the show," she says.

"Mamma Mia!" ends its run at Mandalay Bay next summer , and Winters may be the last Sophie - or maybe not. She joined the cast a month ago and has a six-month contract. If it's not renewed, there will be one more Sophie.

"I've never done a really big show like this that runs for years and years and years," Winters says. "Doing this for six months, the initial contract is like, wow, a long time to do a show."

Born in Minneapolis, Winters landed the role of Phoebe McManus in "Champs," a sitcom that lasted one season on ABC in 1996. She studied English at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., before heading for the stages of New York.

She hopes to land more film and TV roles. , " but I think I will always do theater. It's definitely my first love," she says. "I would love to play Sophie on Broadway. I would love to play anything on Broadway."