View from the Green Room: Mamma Mia – what a night!
ABBA Forever performed at the Theatre Royal.
Tonight’s ABBA tribute performance is one of the best tribute shows I’ve seen on the Mall. As productions go, this has everything. Two brilliant singers, two excellent players, a show that never takes a breath, constant set and costume changes, dance routines that match the original choreography and a booming score to die for.
And that sense of joy that you always want to see in a performance.
Everything is here that I want to see in a tribute act. There are rear screen projections that flood across the screen detailing the names of songs and sometimes the lyrics, album covers, footage of performances that chart the band’s incredible journey, ABBA pictures that begin in Brighton for the Eurovision Song Contest and end in Mamma Mia land where the sun never fails to shine, and James Bond pretending to be Pierce Brosnan leads out the chorus.
It’s a glam night out for the mostly female audience. Bling is everywhere and there’s also plenty of glam-rock ABBA gear on show. That Theatre Royal “buzz” is humming around the audience and when the two singers belt out “Waterloo!” in front of the video of the Eurovision TV audience in 1974, the theatre begins to rock.
Before I know it, we’re five big-beat numbers into the ABBA catalogue with Honey Honey, Bang Bang Boomerang and Kisses of Fire.
And not a word of dialogue spoken. There’s no need. This audience has come for music and any interlinking narrative would be superfluous. ABBA’s story finds its way through the sequence of record sleeves, photographs, and video footage that map out their decade at the top.
The Swedish supergroup was formed in Stockholm in 1972 by two married couples: Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus, along with Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's name is formed from the first letters of their first names and the group went on to become one of the most popular and successful musical groups in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982.
Fame took its toll on their personal lives, however, and both couples separated leading to the break-up of the band in 1982. The songs that come from this period are probably the best songs that the band wrote… S.O.S… The Winner Takes it All… Money, Money, Money… Knowing Me, Knowing You.
It’s the attack and the energy in the show that is key. All four performers give it their all and the show pounds along.
Voulez Vous… Gmme, Gimme… Hole in your Soul… Dancing Queen… and on and on.
A rear-screen Tokyo landscape for Summer Night speaks of young urban life and love and the theatre is rockin’, throbbin’, poundin’, on its feet for that meaty beat and the amazing solo guitar that follows.
Ten years after the group broke up, a compilation, ABBA Gold, was released, and became a worldwide best-seller. In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into Mamma Mia! – a stage musical that toured worldwide and is still in the top-10 longest running productions on both Broadway and the West End.
“Mamma Mia - the movie” was released in 2008 and became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year and a sequel “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” was released in 2018.
The band’s record sales are estimated to be between 150 million to 385 million sold worldwide and enjoyed huge success in Britain, Australia, United States, Republic of Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
In fact, ABBA was Sweden’s second largest export company after Volvo.
So… what was the secret of their success? Well they were the first of the glam-rock bands and their music is hypnotically tuneful. Even now, I still only know a handful of the lyrics of most of the numbers but the disco beat and the constant repetition has the house rocking along for a feel-good night of non-stop entertainment.
Mamma Mia – what a night!
