The play about Matti Nykäne will be performed in Jyväskylä on Monday.
Matti Nykänen is a four-time Olympic champion in ski jumping. Stock photo. Minna Jalovaara
Hill legend Matti from Nykäne The narrative musical play Elämä on laiffii will be performed in a condensed version in Jyväskylä on Monday evening.
The show is the only one in Finland this year. The play’s venue is the new Hippos baseball stadium.
The performance is for Nykänen’s birthday on July 17. Nykänen, who died in February 2019, would have turned 60 on Monday.
The performance stage of the play was set up at the Hippos baseball stadium on Sunday. Kiri of Jyväskylä
Baseball club Jyväskylän Kiri wants to remember Nykä by bringing the play that was previously performed at Ränssi’s Kievari summer theater to the center of Jyväskylä. The stadium has about 1,500 seats.
– This is a tribute to Mati, whose popularity is permanent. Almost 900 tickets have been sold. We expect that the limit of one thousand tickets will be broken, says Kiri’s chairman Juha Kalajanniska.
Nykänen used to often watch Kiri’s games at the Hippos baseball stadium.
Good and bad phases
Guitarist Jussi Niemi collaborated with Matti Nykänen for a long time. Stock photo. Mika Rinne
He wrote and directed the musical play Elämä on laiffii Juse Venäläinen and Nykänen’s court musician is responsible for its music Jussi Niemi.
– I am looking forward to the unique performance with a good mood and excitement. That great moment when you get on stage. This has been behind a great and long preparation project by a large group, Niemi describes.
He and Mati’s collaboration lasted for about 30 years. The timing of the performance falling on Nykänen’s birthday sensitizes Niemen.
– That is an important point. We worked together for a long time, which started from Ilkka Vainio’s idea. Mati’s popularity grew and gigs came. Matti said that if Jussi doesn’t come to the gig, neither will he, Niemi recalls.
The show goes through the good and difficult phases of Mati’s life and, of course, his ski jumping achievements.
– The audience also gets to hear, for example, the popular songs Perhaps I took, perhaps I and Elämä on laiffii, Niemi says.