We get a special sneak peek of the latest project by Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia! The Party, a rollicking dinner theatre in Stockholm.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN-Sipping a glass of wine with
ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus under an olive tree bedecked with fairy lights, I
momentarily forgot that outside, the city is shrouded in a freezing fog.
That’s because the venue for my dinner date
with the Swedish star is a Greek taverna, complete with tinkling
fountain, Grecian sunset and sun-kissed waiters.
I’m here for a sneak preview of Mamma Mia! The Party.
It’s the latest project from Ulvaeus, and although I am promptly sworn
to secrecy, I can reveal that the interactive musical extravaganza is
based around a story involving characters from the film Mamma Mia!, which Björn composed.
Guests will enjoy a multi-course meal (washed
down with plenty of red wine), served by wait staff who burst into song
at various points throughout the evening. A core group of cast members
act out a simple storyline, the main purpose of which is to shoehorn in
the ABBA hits.
“The storyline isn’t the most important bit —
the songs are,” Ulvaeus tells me. “The inspiration was that whole Mamma
Mia world. I wanted to create the same feeling people get when watching
the film — that uplifting, joyous feeling of getting away from it all
for a while. And I wanted people to have a kind of party, but in a
restaurant, with fantastic Greek food — the whole Mamma Mia
environment.”
The venue for this extravaganza is the Tyrol, a
former beer house in the Grona Lund theme park on Stockholm’s
Djurgårdsvägen island. I come to this beautiful part of Stockholm
because Ulvaeus, who I’ve interviewed before, invites me to a rehearsal.
I also happened to be the only journalist at
the sneak preview, because press night will take place on opening night —
Jan. 20. The show will be hi-tech, with gravity-defying acrobatics, an
astonishingly detailed set that includes the frontage of a Greek
souvenir shop and a backdrop of screens showing a technicolour Grecian
sunset, which changes throughout the evening. It’s an animation, but
Ulvaeus revealed that paying guests will see the real thing.
“The sunset’s being filmed in Greece as we speak,” Ulvaeus whispers.
Ulvaeus watches the rehearsal intently,
constantly scribbling notes and discussing proceedings with a small army
of sound engineers, lighting technicians and choreographers. I wonder
if he’d be watching me, too, and if I’d end up manically clapping.
I needn’t have worried. I wouldn’t describe
myself as a diehard ABBA fan, but I love it and by the end of the night
I’m tapping my feet, singing along and even strutting my stuff on the
dance floor.
“It’s been a huge job,” Ulvaeus tells me over a
shot of ouzo supplied by the waiter, who’d dragged me onto the dance
floor earlier. It appears there’s nothing Ulvaeus can’t do.
The Eurovision song contest returns to Sweden
next year and Ulvaeus admits that although the band will be turning down
the requests for a reunion — as they always do, every year — he might
have one more musical in him.
“Benny (Andersson) and I were talking about Mamma Mia!
the other day. And we both said that we felt as though we had one more
musical in us. It’s just about finding the right moment.”
You heard it here first.
Tamara Hinson is a UK-based writer. Her trip was sponsored by EasyJet and Mamma Mia’s partner hotel, PopHouse Hotel.
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