For more than 50 years, the music of ABBA has spurred audiences to dance, jive and have the time of their lives.
Expect a similar reaction when “Mamma Mia!,” the jukebox musical featuring the hits of the Swedish pop group, makes its way to Chrysler Hall March 4-9.
But what is it about the musical – and, indeed, the music of ABBA – that makes it endure so many years after its original release?
Certainly part of ABBA’s ongoing fame has to do with its back catalog. The group had 14 Top-40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1974 and 1982, including the No.1 “Dancing Queen.”
But the Swedish foursome found a career renaissance when the “Mamma Mia!” musical debuted on London’s West End in 1999, eventually becoming the third longest-running musical in West End history. After jumping the pond and taking up residence on Broadway in 2001, the show became the ninth longest-running show in the history of the Great White Way, according to a 2024 Backstage.com article.
Catherine Johnson, who wrote the book for the musical, also penned the screenplay for the 2008 film adaptation – entitled, appropriately enough, “Mamma Mia! The Movie” – and contributed to the story of its 2018 sequel, which bore the only title it possibly could: “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”
“I was anti-ABBA,” Johnson admitted to the Montreal Gazette in 2012. “They represented everything I disliked. I was into new wave and punk. I liked The Clash in particular. Abba was Europop cheese. But I got over it.”
Then ABBA Gold, a greatest hits album, was released in 1992 and Johnson’s friends were playing it at parties. She and everyone she knew were ready to admit, they did like ABBA.
“I really started to feel respect for them.”
Laura Agudelo, the theater arts teacher at Grassfield High School in Chesapeake, directed the school’s 2022 production of “Mamma Mia!” and experienced how quickly even today’s teens took to the tunes.
“Some of them already knew the songs just because of the musical, but their parents were more than likely of the age where they were already familiar with ABBA ... and I'm sure it's all over the place on TikTok!” said Agudelo, laughing.
She appreciates how Johnson took 1970s songs and created a story in which a young woman is about to marry and wants her father to walk her down the aisle. But her mother isn’t sure who the father is.
“But the stories within the songs, people connect to them, to the love and the heartbreak.”
ABBA’s continued success in the wake of “Mamma Mia!” proved so significant that the foursome of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad reunited a few years ago to release their first studio album in 40 years (2021’s “Voyage”) and kick off a virtual concert residency featuring digital “ABBAtars” of the members.
But those classic ’70s and early ‘80s songs in the musical serve to keep ABBA’s legacy alive.
“The kids still love ‘Mamma Mia!,’ ” said Agudelo. They see the poster for the 2022 production on her wall and “even freshman say, 'Aw, I wish we could do it now!’"
"Mamma Mia!" will be at Norfolk's Chrysler Hall March 4-9. Visit sevenvenues.com for more information.
