SHOW OF SUPPORT

Mamma Mia! star Mazz Murray on balancing a showbiz career with motherhood – with help from her family and some famous friends

- LAURA BENJAMIN

When the West End star Mazz Murray was growing up, her parents had one piece of advice.

“They told me to be different and not to be the same as everyone else,” she tells us in this exclusive interview.

“I don’t copy what people wear or things like that; I do what I want to do, however ridiculous or whatever it is. I've always been comfortable just being different.”

It’s this attitude that has endeared her to audiences who have seen her take on lead roles in shows such as Sunset Boulevard and We Will Rock You, plus Mamma Mia!, in which she has been playing Donna for the past six years.

Clearly, her parents knew what they were doing when they offered advice. And it’s no surprise: her father is the 1960s songwriter Mitch Murray, who has worked with the likes of Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Beatles, while her mother is the actress Grazina Frame, who has sung with Cliff Richard and starred on the London stage.