FLICKERS: Ridiculously rich Mamma Mia film producer Judy Craymer is hoping to persuade Benny Andersson and his musical sidekick Bjorn

SEYFRIED & STREEP: bella Donnas?

Ulvaeus to lend their irresistible ABBA tunes to a prequel, with a brand new young cast. Will Amanda Seyfried get to play the young Meryl Streep, who played her mother Donna in MM? Stay tuned … Deidre Kelly’s new book, Paris Times Eight, already sounds like a movie. Kelly first arrived in Paris, the city of her dreams, “as a starry-eyed ingénue.” In some of her subsequent visits she returns as a budding writer who interviews Rudolf Nureyev and crashes an

KELLY: Paris, je t'aime (photo: Bryan L. Davies)

exclusive fashion show, and as an emotional daughter who takes her mother to Paris to meet her “other mother;” until finally she returns to Paris as a mother herself. Sounds like a least three great roles for women, n’est-ce pas? … and yes, it’s true, shooting is already underway in Shanghai for the Chinese version of Disney’s megahit High School Musical. How did Disney get the green light from China? Well, for one thing, the Chinese version is set at a university, “since Chinese high school students are so focused on academics that they would not have time to devote to singing and dancing.” Okay, got it.

QUOTABLE QUOTES: “I’ve no interest in playing oldies anymore. No, no, no. Far more fitting for the next stage in my career to play a slut.”

DENCH: Nothing like a Dame.

The speaker? Dame Judi Dench, now 74 but never at a loss for words. Currently starring in the about-to-be blockbuster movie musical Nine, Dame Judi’s next gig will bring her back to the boards, as Titania, the queen of the fairies in a new Midsummer Night’s Dream in Kingston, England. She first performed the role of Titania as a schoolgirl some 56 years ago, and is thrilled to be able to take another crack at it. “Of course,” she adds, “one is lucky to be acting at all. I’m happy when I have a job – any job. One is always afraid of having no work.”

Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein said it best. There really is nothing like a Dame.

21 AGAIN: It came and went 10 days ago, November 21 2009 was not just another Saturday night for Veronica Tennant. The prima ballerina who reinvented herself as a prima television producer was in three different cities that

TENNANT: November is the Coolest month

night. She was in Toronto attending the National Ballet of Canada’s performance of The Sleeping Beauty — the ballet she premiered more than 35 (!!!) years ago with Rudolf Nureyev as her prince — in tribute to Canada’s National Ballet School’s 50th Anniversary Assemble Internationale. But she was also in Edmonton, on film, as Honourary Chair of the Shumka Ballet, welcoming guests to Shumka’s Red Boots, Ballet and Bubbly Gala. And she was also in Cuba, where her much-lauded dance film, Vida y Danza, Cuba, was being screened at the 18th Anniversary celebration of Lizt Alfonso’s Dance Cuba.

JACKSON: new role

“November 21 has always been a significant day for me,” admits Tennant with a shy smile. I’ll say! Her Gala farewell performance with the National Ballet of Canada, A Passion for Dance: Celebrating the Tennant Magic, took place on November 21, 1989. And ten years later, to the day, she won her first International Emmy award as a television producer, for Karen Kain; Dancing in the Moment, on November 21, 1999.

Safety in numbers, you say? Sounds more like magic to me.

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: Slaight Communications chief Gary Slaight will be lauded for his longstanding commitment to charitable initiatives

GABEREAU: hosting for Mercer

as the recipient of the Humanitarian Spirit Award. at the Canadian Music and Broadcast Industry Awards on March 11 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, during Canadian Music Week … rising marquee bait Joshua Jackson has won the lead in a feature adaptation of British TV series UFO … Robin Mirsky, executive director of Rogers Group of Funds, has succeeded CFTPA prez Norm Bolen as co-chair of Hot Docs board of directors with Michael McMahon. New board members include marketing maven Robert Pattillo, Cobalt Pharmaceuticals chairman Neil Tabatznik and filmmakers Lalita Krishna, Julia Ivanova and Danijel Margetic … and Vicki Gabereau will host when Rick Mercer entertains the multitudes in Vancouver at a gala fund-raising evening June 10 for the Kay Meek Centre.

Special P.S. to Rick Mercer Report aficionados: Mercer’s final 2009 outing airs tonight at 8 pm on CBC-TV.

TOMORROW:

Roger gets ready for Toronto, and

Liz gives some advice to some dazzling Glamour girls.

LONDON. ABBA is the group that Britons would prefer to see reunited.

Touring Exhibitions have confirmed that they will  announce on Monday, November 30 the opening date and place of the ABBAWORLD exhibition premiere in London.  Stay tuned for further details including all related ticket information

Last week I travelled to New York for Kristina – A Concert Event at Carnegie Hall, the English language premiere of Benny and Björn’s 1995 masterpiece Kristina från Duvemåla.

Kristina in English has been a long time coming. When Mamma Mia! opened on Broadway in October 2001 there was talk that a draft translation was ready for presentation then. In 2006 a workshop was held with a hope for a full production within a couple of years, however it was not to be as prospective financial backers at the time declared “sad doesn’t sell”.

So finally Kristina has been presented to New York in concert form. The concert starred Swede Helen Sjöholm, who originated the role of Kristina, British tenor Russell Watson as her husband Karl Oskar, Louise Pitre, who originated Donna in Mamma Mia!in North America, as Ulrika the reformed whore, and Broadway star Kevin Odekirk (Les Miserables) as Karl Oskar’s brother Robert.

Kristina tells the story of Karl Oskar and Kristina who, after hardship and famine in Sweden, emigrate to America with family and friends, some of whom are escaping religious persecution. It is based on the Vilhelm Moberg series of novels The Emigrants (Utvandrarna).

English versions of several songs have been heard over the years, but this is the final version that may one day see a full stage production. Lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, who worked on the translation of the French musical Les Miserables, contributed his expertise to the English lyrics.

As a non-Swedish speaker I have long enjoyed the music and had an understanding of the story, but not of the actual lyrics. Unofficial translations have been around on the internet for many years. Finally I, and other English speakers, could enjoy the whole show. The English lyrics are a success, in some cases greatly different from the Swedish versions but changed for the better with the new language. Though cut down from the source novels and cut down further from the Swedish stage version, the major story elements remain intact.

The concert was well received, with Helen Sjöholm receiving a standing ovation for her act two showstopper ‘You Have To Be There’ (Du måste finnas), and another standing ovation for the curtain calls. Over the following days the show received mostly positive reviews in newspapers and theatre websites.

In the photo above I’m in the third row, in front of Kevin Odekirk.

Kristina was recorded for future CD release. Hopefully we won’t have to wait a year, as we did with the 2008 Chess in Concert.

See more first hand reviews @ icethesite.

New York Post blog posts by Elisabeth Vincentelli:
The road to ‘Kristina’ 
Chatting with “Kristina” director Lars Rudolfsson
Benny and Björn on ‘Kristina’
Benny and Björn talk influences
Louise Pitre on her Carnegie Hall debut
Kristina on “Kristina”

After the show there was an accidental encounter with ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Kristina director Lars Rudolfsson, and Benny and Björn’s long-time business manager (among other things) Görel Hanser. Also met up with Kristina herself, Helen Sjöholm, at the after-show reception.

Chart Position: 15

• This is the only palindrome to make the Top 40; you can spell both the title and artist same forwards and backwards
• S.O.S. is the universal distress signal on the high seas
• Lead vocals: Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad
• Written by Benny Andersson, Stig Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus
• Produced by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus

Kylie Minogue canta junto a Benny Andersson durante el tributo a Abba denominado ‘Gracias por la música’, en Londres

Londres (EFE).- A pesar del frío invernal que sacudió hoy Londres, decenas de miles de personas de todas las edades se congregaron en Hyde Park para rendir tributo a ABBA, un grupo que forma parte de ese reducido Olimpo musical que es capaz de entusiasmar a varias generaciones con sus himnos.

El momento más esperado del homenaje “Gracias por la música” fue la aparición en el escenario de la estrella australiana Kylie Minogue, que interpretó junto al ex pianista y vocalista de ABBA, Benny Anderson, el tema “When all is said and done” (1981) y se lució también en solitario con el clásico ochentero “Super Trouper” (1980), con el apoyo en los coros, eso sí, de un público que salió de casa con los deberes bien hechos.

Y es que, 27 años después de su separación, el sonido ABBA no ha perdido ni un ápice de actualidad y suena más vivo que nunca. Para mantenerlo intacto, miles de devotos de la banda sueca se atrincheraron desde primeras horas de la tarde en las puertas del recinto, ataviados con mantas, comida y la tradicional cerveza inglesa. Así, por una tarde los monos acampanados, la brillantina y las maxihombreras inundaron el centro de la ciudad, sin distinciones de razas, edades o sexos, convirtiendo la cita en un regreso al pasado para los más mayores, y en una iniciación sobre los cimientos del pop actual para los más jóvenes.

Durante más de tres horas de concierto, el australiano Jason Donovan se atrevió con la espectacular balada “I have a dream” (1979), un canto al futuro y a la esperanza que, al son de la guitarra acústica y el piano, y con un coro infantil de fondo, en su día hizo las delicias de los seguidores de ABBA y alcanzó el éxito en las listas musicales de uno y otro lado del Atlántico. Por su parte, la veterana cantante y actriz británica Lulu se encargó de actualizar uno de los temas más discotequeros, “Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)” (1979), con el que grandes y pequeños no pudieron evitar lanzar sus mejores golpes de cadera.

Por su parte, la estadounidense Chaka Khan, ganadora de diez premios Grammy, puso la voz a una de las baladas más desgarradoras y emotivas del cuarteto sueco, “The Winner Takes it All” (1980), si bien su pobre interpretación se ganó las críticas de algunos de los presentes. Asimismo, el grupo británico The Feeling se hizo cargo de “Knowing Me, Knowing You” (1976), la joven intérprete Nerina Pallot puso las vocales a “S.O.S” (1975), y la cantante de musicales Elaine Paige interpretó “I know him so well”, una canción creada por Ulvaeus y Anderson para el musical “Chess”, estrenado en el West End londinense en 1986 y que contó con la ayuda del reconocido compositor Tim Rice.

Benny Andersson (izq.) y Bjorn Ulvaeus, dos de los integrantes del ABBA que estuvieron presentes durante el concierto de homenaje en Londres

Precisamente Rice quiso hoy acompañar a sus dos grandes amigos Benny Anderson y Björn Ulvaeus, presentes en el recital acompañando a la BBC Concert Orchestra, dirigida por el que en su día fuera el director de la banda que acompañaba a los suecos en sus actuaciones, su compatriota Anders Eljas.

Si algo quedó hoy claro es que durante los ocho años que permanecieron en lo más alto del estrellato la actividad del cuarteto fue muy prolífica y es necesario reconocer que inventaron un tipo de música basado en letras sencillas, melodías alegres, y ritmos pegadizos que siguen resonando en el imaginario colectivo de los cinco continentes. Prueba de ello es que la discografía de ABBA ha servido como base para un musical que celebra este año su décimo aniversario en el West End londinense, y que fue trasladado a la gran pantalla en 2008 con el éxito de taquilla homónimo, “Mamma Mia!”. De hecho, los propios actores del musical se subieron a las tablas para interpretar la canción que da título al mismo, además de “Waterloo” (1974), con la que consiguieron el éxito en el festival de Eurovisión, o “Dancing Queen” (1976), un tema ante el que sucumbieron todos los presentes, incluidos los miembros de seguridad y organizadores.

De esta manera, el Reino Unido volvió a rendirse al fenómeno creado por Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, y Agnetha Fältskog, un grupo que saltó al estrellato en este mismo país hace exactamente 35 años y que vendió 100 millones de copias durante los ocho años que se mantuvo en activo.

The worlds best ABBA fanzine “Intermezzo” has just released isssue #56. If you are not a member then join now to get this amazing mag!

Bjorn: MyCity My Life on CNN

In September on ‘My City_My Life’ ABBA pop legend Björn Ulvaeus (pictured) takes viewers on a journey around Sweden’s capital, Stockholm, including the city’s picturesque Gamla Stan (the Old Town) and the Ostermalmshallen Food Hall to the Vasa, Scandinavia’s most visited museum. As cameras explore the city, Bjorn talks about its vibrant atmosphere and shows viewers the studio where the first ABBA songs were recorded. Along the way, ‘My City_My Life’ discovers the city’s quaint neighbourhoods, its cultural splendour and joins Bjorn on a helicopter ride to the island of Söderarm. As the ABBA star puts it, ‘there’s no Stockholm without its archipelago’.
www.cnn.com/mycitymylife

Show times:
Thursday September 3: 1030
Friday September 4: 0500
Saturday September 5: 1030, 1900
Sunday September 6: 0030, 1630

All times GMT.

Check local guides for local times. The programme can be viewed on line from September 3 @ www.cnn.com/mycitymylife. Click here to view a teaser clip.

Source: CNN

One month from today the Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaues masterpiece musical Kristina från Duvamåla makes its English-language debut in New York.

Kristina – A Concert Event will be held on the evenings of September 23 and 24 at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. The English version has been a long time coming. There has been talk that the translation was completed and presented to potential backers as long ago as the Broadway premiere of Mamma Mia! in 2001.

A workshop was held in New York a few years ago, and the musical was then presented to potential financial backers, whose declined to finance the show citing that “sad doesn’t sell’. Hopefully this concert version will introduce Kristina to the world and see an eventual full English production.

The concert stars Helen Sjöholm reprising her role as Kristina, British singer Russell Watson as Karl Oskar, Canadian Louise Pitre (who originated Donna in Mamma Mia! in North America) as Ulrika, Broadway star Kevin Oderkirk as Robert, and a supporting cast of musical theatre veterans.

Presumably composers Andersson and Ulvaeus will be attending.

ABBA fans, and no doubt fans of the musical and the stars, will be making their way to New York in the hundreds. I’m excited that I too will be there for this auspicous event, along with many friends from around the world, including at least eight making the trek all the way from Australia.

For more information, full cast list and links to buy tickets go to Kristina – A Concert Event at Carnegie Hall.

For all the news on Benny and Björn’s projects see icethesite.

One popular criticism of Chess seems to be the lack of focus in terms of characterisation. Who is the protagonist? Is there more than one? Is it Florence all the way through? Freddie in Act I and Florence in Act II? Why does Freddie shift modes from a possible protagonist to one that provides commentary, like the Arbiter? How does Anatoly fit into this grand scheme? And this doesn’t even begin to broach the severely underwritten Svetlana. It’s all very convoluted.

Chess isn’t a conventional narrative musical; there’s a huge concept being played out at the centre of it all, based on the idea that everything – love, war and so on – is like a game of chess. So I don’t think that, ideally, there should be one primary protagonist or antagonist. The idea isn’t conventional, so why should the expression simply fall in line with established conventions. After all, content dictates form….

Ultimately, I feel that the whole play should revolve equally around Freddie, Florence, Anatoly and Svetlana – at the start they are like two king and queen pairs. One problem here is that Svetlana is no where near as developed as she should be and enters into the action far too late – in some ways, I feel like the character hasn’t earned her verse and counterpoint in “I Know Him So Well” in the middle of the second act.

Another major flaw is Freddie’s change of mode from the first act to the second; “One Night in Bangkok” as an opening for Act II provides a perfect parallel for “Merano” in Act I, but isn’t what’s being sung more suited to the Arbiter, who has been the observer all along? More confusion follows when all of a sudden Freddie is doing interviews and singing a song about his childhood that doesn’t make dramatic sense for the direction his character has moved in the second act. And should the final match involve another player? Where was he on the metaphoric chess board of the show when the game was set up?

Over the years, there have been attempts to work out these problems, but the changes are cosmetic and don’t engage with the unanswered questions that are at the core of the piece.

Take for example, the addition of the song “He is a Man, He is a Child”. A new song for Svetlana, placed in Act 2 with no precedent in an English language version by Tim Rice. What intrinsic value does this add to the play? It’s too little, too late.

I think an important element in creating the right balance between the characters theatrically would be to establish each character with a musical theme (as is pretty much the case already), and then (because chess is all about variations of strategy) allow access to the other characters, thereby establishing a theme musically and variations through text. This I think would help to define the similarities as well as the differences between the characters.

So, while I can’t envision how giving Florence, for example, a verse of “Anthem” would work in practice, the idea that one could or should exist is appropriate. A link between Florence and Svetlana using “Someone Else’s Story” could also be a good idea, though I firmly believe Svetlana should get the song proper and Florence the reprise. The short snippet of Florence gets of “Pity the Child” in certain versions of the show works beautifully. It’s at moments like these when things begin to snap into focus and the game they are all playing with/against one another becomes so clear and entrenched in the characters themselves, rather than in the outline of the narrative in the programme.

Of course, it goes without saying that this would have be handled very carefully indeed and perhaps part of the point of using this concept might be about the possibility of characters sharing fragments of music that don’t necessarily “belong” to them to point out the schisms between them even while finding similarities. It shifts from a traditional idea of the role of the reprise in musical theatre to a mode of musical language that has the characters responding to the same impulses through what is either in their nature or life experience, challenging the audience to negotiate that subversion of musical language to create meaning from our position as the witnesses to this drama. I think so much of this game they’re playing is interesting because all four characters have many of the the same elements lurking in the respective psyches that have been created for them. Part of the reason they’re playing the games the way they do is because of which of these is dominant.

I guess this is one of the many dramaturgical challenge facing anyone who has the task of shaping Chess into something that works theatrically. My point, I suppose, is that if it’s done cosmetically – which is how I perceive many of the changes affected to the text over the years – the adaptation will never be definitive. But, in the long run, perhaps the game of working out what is going on in Chess is just as enjoyable as the material itself.

With the recent release of the Chess in Concert DVD, I find that I am once again thinking about this most problematic of musicals. The main problem with the show (in any of its variations) is that it has a great concept, but this never adequately distills itself into narrative and character, leaving a fair deal of the show as a play of ideas that really isn’t that easy to access. And while cognitive accessibility might be the problem in the first half, at least there’s a fairly good push at narrative there; the second half doesn’t hang together nearly as well, despite having some excellent material.

When the show succeeds in getting past the threshold of ideas into narrative and character, it’s fantastic; I think that’s why sequences like “Nobody’s Side”, “Where I Want To Be”, “Someone Else’s Story”, “One Night in Bangkok”, “I Know Him So Well” and “Pity the Child” have the potential to work so effectively in production, as they did when the musical played in a South African production directed by Paul Warwick Griffin in 2008. This production, which was adapted by the director himself, is far and away the best packaging of the material I’ve come across.

Getting back to the idea of Chess as a concept musical, what the show attempts to do is compare chess with love and the Cold War. Mathematically put, the relationship between the three elements could be described as follows:

• love = chess = cold war; or maybe
• chess! = love x cold war; or possibly
• love ~ chess ~ cold war; or (at a push)
• chess:love → cold war; or even
• chess:love ⇔ cold war.

Ultimately, I suppose any of these is reductive and that’s partly what the problem with the show is in terms of the score and especially it’s book are. The show is full of ideas that never reveal themselves through narrative strategies or storytelling as – it seems – the creators intend; the problem is that the creators (Tim Rice and the boys from ABBA) have committed to the idea but haven’t committed fully to the story they are telling or to the characters whose story they are telling in a manner that would illuminate the ideas that are at the heart of the show.

What ultimately needs to happen to make the piece work is that chess needs to become a central image of the piece without the idea of it’s relationship to love and/or politics being as obvious, much the same way as Fiddler on the Roof uses the Fiddler as a recurrent and extended image throughout the play. It should be a statement that is revelatory rather than one that is given. Fiddler on the Roof balances this brilliantly by establishing the image and then developing it throughout the book and score using a variety of situations, images and motifs.

The production mentioned above managed to achieve this quite effectively in its staging, but the text itself needed adaptation to achieve this. Until the definitive rewriting process required happens, this means that the material has to be very carefully (re)structured; it cannot merely be shuffled around in the way that generally seems to characterize new productions or concerts of the show. But rewriting seems unlikely, so I suppose we’ll always experience Chess as a flawed masterpiece, rather than a true one – which is a pity.

Chess at Reading Public Museum, Genesius Theatre

 Give me your ventricles and lend me your ears, theatregoers!  Can you picture the musical Chess unfolding inside the atrium of the Reading Public Museum? Add music and dance to the static cling and see what it stirs in the hearts of  men and women.

   A preview was held Friday night and if you missed it, not to worry. Genesius Theatre of Reading, Pennsylvania has the full show coming up August 14, 15  and 16.  A dash of red dress, a pinch of yellow and a bit of blue go with the requisite black and white attire. Set your timers; three weeks to prepare. 

     Christopher Sperat directs the musical from the book by Richard Nelson, with Lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.

   After the show, a knight in patient armor was kind enough to give us a moment of his time. We think the show is made for him. He says Chess is full of his favorite pieces.

   “I’ve worked and waited 15 years to be in this show!” said actor Mike Kurowski, who delivered  Anthem and a duet with cast-mate Kira Apple. Mr. Kurowski is a Grand Master. We look to him to provide suspense, love interest and breathtaking moments. His time has come.

    What the show is about remains to be seen; the plot and cast are confidential. Center of the board. Center of the board. In the interim, we plan to stock up on Pepperidge Farm Chessmen® cookies, make chess tarts and other rookery.

for more information: www.genesiustheatre.org and www.readingpublicmuseum.org

Special thanks to the Berks County Public Library and Spring Township Library AND  Foundation for the Reading Public Musem for the free museum admission pass which allowed us this sneak peek and to see the Berks Art Alliance exhibit, among others.

   Cautionary tail:  Miss  Apple is apt to make vocal moves for which the best response is to rise up or flood with tears, so be strong. Smart travellers carry tissues. Heaven Help My Heart is worth a king’s ransom.

During the Ken Bruce show on BBC Radio 2,  featuring Benny Andersson” Tracks of my years”, Benny has expressed his desire to have Annie Lennox appear at the Proms concert “Thank you for the Music” . He says he’d love for Annie to join them and he knows the perfect song he’d like her to sing -”The Day Before You Came”. As yet Annie has not been confirmed to appear, but the invitation is now open to her from the man himself, how could she refuse! 

Also confirmed so far are Elaine Paige, Russell Watson, Benny Andersson Band, Orsa Spellman,the cast of MAMMA MIA! Jason Donovan & John Barrowman.

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC A Celebration Of The Music Of Abba for the 2009 Proms will be recorded by the BBC. The concert will be played on BBC radio 2 and a possible TV showing on BBC4. There are no plans at this early stage for a CD or DVD release.

The Limited edition (2,000 copies) of CHESS IN CONCERT has now been released after a slight delay.   The package comes with a sheet music book the digi pack of 2 CD/1 DVD + the Mp3 download of the full concert! 

The UK relase of the nornal CD and DVD is not out until September 14th!

Mamma mia is well know for being one of the most fun Broadway shows now available in New York City. I was fortunate enough to go see it last week, on a two-day Wednesday performance at the Winter Garden Theatre and I have to admit it was hugely fun to watch and overall very artful in creating an amazing atmosphere for the audience.

I’m, of course, not a critic and perhaps many details are therefore overlooked or even not mentioned, however I would love to try a clear view for upcoming viewers of the show and perhaps help you in deciding what to watch when going to Broadway.

So, a couple of things I want to highlight. First, the seatings were really good at an affordable price right on the orchestra section, middle-center 109 and 110 seats row K. I highly recommend this seatings. Perfect view of the whole stage and company at all times. However, as being the first Wednesday of the month, it was “Kids Night on Broadway” so you could imagine how kids may have behaved on a two-hour show with a 15 minutes intermission play. Bumpy show for a lay-back audience as myself.

Anyway, secondly, performances. I was lucky enough to see almost the whole official cast – with the exception of Rosie’s role, usually played by Gina Farrel, on that occasion performed by stand-by Lory Haley Fox. I like to think critics are more about taste than reality. Therefore, they are all extremelly subjective on every line, and of course I’m no exception. Having said this, lets start reviewing performances. First, ”Donna” played by Carolee Carmelo. Briliant performance for this women. Great comic timing and outstanding vocals for this experienced actress. Still I sometimes though her vocal timbre was to low pitched and lyrical for such role. However, it’s one of the most powerfull voices I got to see.  Then, Sophie played by Brandi Burkhardt. I was really surprised by her (obviously, as I have never heard of her before). But take aback not because of being one of the most gorgeous performers I’ve ever met, but because her voice was just there, perfect, in the zone for this role. Sweet, tender and with a velvety voice, Brandi accomplished to bring me into her character and got me feel everything her character felt on stage. Her voice was just sweet melody for my ears.  I would definitely, withouth a doubt, would love to see more of her in Broadway in the future. As regarding the “Dynamos”: “Tanya” (Judi McLane) and “Rosie” (Lory Haley Fox) , they both were very suitable for the role. Judi seemed much more outgoing and playing along with her role than Lory. However, both were -without a doubt- hillaious at some moments of the play sealing great memories within the audience.  Vocals, were really powerfull but  the show still somehow creates the illusion that you could jump onstage and start singing and fit right in.

Dads: portrayed by Bryan Scott Johnson as Harry Bright, Sean Allan Krill as Sam Carmichael, and Pearce Bunting as Bill Austin. The three of them were perfect for each role, I was amazed by the stamina they all presented, specially by Bryan, but Sean Allan Krill was a bit ahead of the rest singing amazingly outstanding tunes with a perfection I had barely seen before. His voice was just right for every piece and his executions and how he approached the songs were perfect on every level.

In overall, Mamma mia presents an amazing ABBA-song-based story that will lead you back in time through the paths of love, to encouter cumulative emotional feelings a long a whole two-hours fun show. It’s just suitable for everybody and I can guarantee, you’ll go out hafly amazed and hafly embarrassed at having enjoyed it.

MAMMA MIA!

Music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus; some songs with Stig Anderson. Based on the songs of Abba. Book by Catherine Johnson. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. Production designed by Mark Thompson; lighting by Howard Harrison; sound by Andrew Bruce and Bobby Aitken. Musical supervisor, additional material and arrangements by Martin Koch; choreography by Anthony Van Laast. Presented by Judy Craymer, Richard East and Mr. Ulvaeus, for Littlestar in association with Universal. At the Winter Garden, 1634 Broadway, at 50th Street.

The web site for the 10th Anniversary tour of Australia is now up and running. For information on tickets etc visit the site. Click on the picture to be taken to the site.

According to “The Sun” newspaper (ie, not on this planet!) ABBA are being primed to see if they will take on the record-breaking run of shows planned for Michael Jackson.  AEG Live, the team behind the King of Pop’s planned 50-night residency are trying to tempt the Mamma Mia band out of retirement with mega-bucks deals.   And we all know there is no way that will ever happen. Gorel has once again denied the story has any truth. Not that she needs to really.  Typical of The Sun newspaper is all I can say.

According to Expressen ABBA’s spokeswoman Görel Hanser. It is not true. Abba will not be reunited, “she says, and insists that the claim comes as a total novelty.
The information does not come from any of the group members and not from me. It is absolutely not an issue.   Aftonbladet have picked up the story also with Benny saying “you can forget that” and confirming that the group have not been approached.

Just a reminder that Benny will be appearing on the Jonathan Ross show this Friday (as reported on Tuesday) and possibly “The One Show” on BBC.  However not confirmed.

Weak krona and ABBA key to Swedish theme parks turnaround!
…………In the longer term, PRS is pinning its hopes to the iconic Swedish pop music group ABBA. The company is involved with plans to create a touring exhibition of ABBA artifacts and eventually an ABBA museum in Stockholm.   The Local

“Tolv kända intellektuella i ett gemensamt manifest: Också i Sverige kränks mänskliga rättigheter med hänvisning till religion. Nyligen antog FN en resolution som fördömer kritik av religioner. Slår det synsättet igenom kan all diskussion om religiöst motiverat förtryck av kvinnor, homosexuella, hedersvåld, religiös omskärelse och andra religiösa påbud utmålas som ”hädelse”. Mot dessa krafter står humanismens mål att återupprätta människan som myndig varelse med förmåga att ta ansvar för sitt eget liv. Det är dags att jämna ut oddsen, skriver Hans Bergström, Eva Dahlgren, Sven Hagströmer med flera.”

“Lagar och normer som ska omfatta alla måste bygga på allmänmänskliga grunder, inte på religiösa. Lagarna ska formuleras av demokratiska institutioner och normbildningen styras av kritiskt tänkande och fri argumentation i öppna samtal. Ett sådant samhälle kallas ett sekulärt samhälle.”

“I Sverige finns omkring 70 skattefinansierade religiösa friskolor. Alla barn borde ha rätt till en undervisning utan religiös indoktrinering, för att själva kunna välja livsåskådning när de blir äldre. Även om de religiösa friskolorna på papperet inte får ägna sig åt indoktrinering och måste följa läroplanen, saknas en effektiv kontroll av att så är fallet.”

Läs mer om inlägget av följande personer:
på DN:

Lena Andersson författare och skribent

Hans Bergström f d chefredaktör DN

Eva Dahlgren kompositör och textförfattare

Christer Fuglesang astronaut

Sven Hagströmer finansman och entreprenör

PC Jersild författare och läkare

Morgan Johansson f d socialtjänstminister, riksdagsledamot

Sara Larsson redaktör tidskriften Humanisten

Nina Lekander journalist

Stellan Skarsgård skådespelare

Christer Sturmark ordförande Humanisterna

Björn Ulvaeus textförfattare

Tack för tipset, Lazze!

Humanisternas hemsida

/Fröken Sverige

SARAH DAWN FINER sings Björn & Benny @ Volvo Ocean Race for Ericsson. 
SDF sings a tribute to Björn & Benny @ Volvo Ocean Race together with Tommy Körberg (Chess/BAO)and Gunilla Backman(Mamma Mia!) Stockholm,  Skeppsbron June 17. 
The event is in a public place so everyone can listen anyway! There will be two concerts