Meet the Memorable ABBA through a Musical

“There is an international boom to create a musical with songs that have been already published. But nothing can be comparable to ‘Mama Mia.’ ”

Bjorn Ulvaeus, age 59 and former member of ABBA, the legendary group of international fame from the early 1970s until the early 1980s, came to Korea on January 23. He is visiting Seoul to help the musical “Mama Mia” appear on stage starting January 25. His confidence in the musical’s success was evident in a press conference on January 24.

“I felt interested when a producer suggested to make a story out of ABBA songs and create a musical because it was totally opposite to the typical way that songs were created, according to a storyline for the musical.”

ABBA, a four-member group from Sweden, produced its first hit “Waterloo” in 1974 and many other hits including “Dancing Queen,” “Mama Mia,” and “Chiquita.” When the group broke up in 1982, it also broke many of their fans’ hearts. Ulvaeus, who had composed and written most of the ABBA songs with Benny Andersson, has worked on the music portion of the musical since its first performance in London in April 1999.

The musical Mama Mia picks its theme from 22 of the 95 ABBA songs and portrays a woman who invites her three possible fathers to her wedding. The musical has appeared on stage internationally in England, the U.S., Germany, Japan, and Australia and received with great popularity.

“I first saw Mama Mia in another language other than English in Germany, and it was really good.” He added with expectation for the Korean version, “I’m confident that the ABBA songs can be popular even when it is in a foreign language.”

Sung-Won Joo swon@donga.com