You were all super, troupers: In Stockholm, a new musical about ABBA has just opened. By David Bartals

Four singers in dazzling shirts, flared pants and platform shoes are belting out a silly but undeniably catchy ditty called Waterloo. Remember the Eurovision Song Contest, Brighton, 1974? Well, the Swedes certainly do. And a new musical, currently playing at Berns Salonger, a 19th-century music hall in Stockholm, recreates the story of the pop legend born that night.

The latest incarnation of ABBA is a light-hearted new show that embroiders a flattering sequinned frame around songs that were themselves some of the best tailored of the 1970s. Although the fabric of the narrative holding together ABBA: The True story is thin, and many of the allusions frankly incomprehensible except to Swedes, the audience wasn’t complaining.

“In the beginning, there was only country and western music, so God decided to create a band,” a voice off-stage declares at the start of this tongue-in-cheek documentary. What follows does not go far in answering the big question – why ABBA was such an enormous success, and why this mega-group emerged from Sweden, of all places. But it touches on some of the hurdles the foursome had to clear.

For instance, by selecting the name ABBA, the group bravely risked being confused with the country’s largest herring cannery, which also has that name. More fundamentally, the ethos of the group seemed hopelessly at odds with the radical spirit of the times. Sweden in the early 1970s was rife with political demonstrations, grey turtle-necks and ragged leftist chic. Fun-loving, glittery ABBA did not fit into a country which could still describe itself without a smile as the “conscience of the world”.

In one key scene, ABBA tries vainly to sell the song, S.O.S., to a record company which has a large portrait of the Che Guevara on its wall (covering a safe stuffed with money bags). The record producer, wrapped in a Palestinian shawl, suggests that S.O.S. be played with bongos and finger cymbals as a protest song. That’s irony, Swedish style. The musical also looks at the price of celebrity, the problem of taking care of all the acquired loot, and the demands that ABBA keep up with the times by trying heavy metal.

Against a perfect backdrop – an illuminated disco dance floor turned on its side – the young and enthusiastic cast ably performed such classics as Voulez-Vous, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, Mamma Mia, Take A Chance On Me and Knowing Me, Knowing You. Although some songs sound close to their original versions, others get a new slant, which helped save the show from sinking beneath waves of self-indulgent nostalgia. One talented singer in particular, Gladys del Pilar, brought the house down with a soulful version of Dancing Queen.

Of course, the producers of ABBA: The True Story have been accused of shameless opportunism, of timing this show to coincide with the ABBA revival that is inexplicably sweeping Europe. But it is ten years since Björn, Benny, Frida and Agnetha split up, and it can also be argued that it was time someone finally celebrated the extraordinary success of ABBA on their home turf. If the show succeeds in Stockholm, the West End may be next. Transcribed for ABBA World

Photo of the cast - Take a chance on me; the all-singing cast of the new musical, ABBA: The True Story, in full Seventies rig.

The Times (London) · Monday, 18 January 1993 (Page 29) 

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