MAMMA MEAL!
Abba dining experience comes to UK – but the cheapest ticket is £151
MONEY, Money, Money was one of their many chart-topping hits.
And you’ll need plenty of it to enjoy Abba’s new dining experience after it arrived in Britain last night – with the cheapest tickets costing a cool £151.
Mamma Mia! The Party was introduced to London by former members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.
It sees songs from the musical, which also featured in a blockbusting film franchise, performed around tables as fans enjoy a dinner set in a taverna in Skopelos, the Greek island where the first movie was filmed.
The opening night was also attended by Sweden’s ambassador to the UK, Torbjorn Sohlstrom, and Great British Bake Off presenter Sandi Toksvig, who adapted the musical’s script for the dinner show.
The dining experience has been running for four years in Stockholm, but has only now come to Britain.
Until February 16 next year, guests at London’s O2 will be treated to an all-singing and alldancing four-hour experience, including a four-course gourmet Mediterranean meal with starters such as charred octopus with ouzo – and an Abba disco.
They will be eating in a traditional Greek setting, including a courtyard with a fountain and olive trees. Prices rise to £218 for the best seats, but even then you’ll have to pay extra for drinks – and bottles of wine range from £26 to £220 for a claret from ‘Nikos’ Cellar’.
On the show’s website, a gushing Ulvaeus promises: ‘When you enter the wonderfully exotic Nikos Taverna we really want you to feel as if you’re right in the heart of an island paradise...’ Guests at the Stockholm version report an ‘immersive’ experience, where even the lighting is designed to make you look like a tanned holidaymaker. The Mamma Mia! musical has been seen by more than 65million fans worldwide in 50 productions in 16 different languages. It has grossed more than £3.2billion in ticket sales and premiered in around 450 cities. In 2008, it was turned into a hit Hollywood film starring Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth. This was followed by a sequel in 2018. The global success of the Abba franchises have helped the band rake in a huge multi-million pound fortune. Ulvaeus is understood to be worth more than £240million, while Andersson is worth around £173million. The Swedish pop group were formed in 1972 using the first letter of the performers’ names – Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Their songs topped the charts all around the world from 1974 to the early 1980s – and Abba are believed to have sold between 140million and 500million records.