The Theme Park That Makes You Say Mamma Mia!

Although the members of ABBA have said “On and On and On” that they are never going to hit the stage for a reunion tour, fans now have a chance to get up close and personal with the Swedish quartet with the opening of London’s ABBAWORLD theme park.

Band members Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog have supported ABBAWORLD by donating memorabilia and recorded interviews that are featured throughout the park.

Lyngstad and Ulvaeus are both attending a party Tuesday night celebrating the opening of the park, which opens its doors to the public on Wednesday.

Photo: AP Photo

ABBA’s Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad and Bjorn Ulvaeus hang out at London’s ABBAWORLD next to caricature puppets once used in a music video.

ABBAWORLD – which the Associated Press describes as a “museum-cum-theme park” – takes up 25 rooms spread over 30,000 square feet and includes ABBA-mentos like the band’s silk, satin and spandex costumes and the helicopter pictured on the cover of the 1976 album Arrival. Fans can check out recreations of Polar Studios, where the band recorded, and the seaside cabin near Stockholm where Ulvaeus and Andersson penned the quartet’s hits.

“It started with, ‘How do we give the visitor a big hug in each room?'” said Magnus Danielsson, president of Touring Exhibitions, the company behind ABBAWORLD. “This is going to be more like going to ‘Mamma Mia!’ than going to an exhibition. We want people to sing and dance.”

The park allows fans to sing along with ABBA, or at least an animated version of the band, with “holographic video” technology. Visitors can also take quizzes and mess around with some tunes through a mixing desk.

ABBA’s hits can be heard throughout the theme park, including “Dancing Queen,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “The Winner Takes It All.”

Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, who starred in the film version of “Mamma Mia!” narrates the audioguide that tells ABBA tale from its early days to its big break winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with “Waterloo” to eventually selling 400 million records.

Although the band started off as two married couples both couples later divorced. The band’s last public performance together as ABBA took place Dec. 11, 1982 on the British TV program “The Late, Late Breakfast Show.”

ABBAWORLD is scheduled to stay in its current London home through March and then the exhibit will hit the road. Organizers plan to create new versions of ABBAWORLD in Australia and New York by the end of the year.

Click here for the AP article.

Daily Pulse