Steven Smith gets his dancing shoes on and reviews ABBA Voyage
Yes, we certainly need a tonic right now for all. Prices are going through the roof and with a summer of elections it is going to be season of discontent.
What we need to take our minds off things is something that, long after you watched it, leaves you with a smile and lifts you. That is why entertainment was so important during the war and let’s face it, we are all battling every day.
“If you can make people laugh you give them a little vacation.” Winston Churchill.
What needs to be prescribed is ABBA Voyage at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. For weeks before I went to see this immersive experience, terribly gifted writers and those in the arts seemed to struggle to vocalise what they had seen.
But whatever it was, rave reviews and statements like “The best night of my life” were being posted all over social media.
As I walked the fifteen minutes from Stratford station through the Olympic Park certainly no one ruined the surprise.
On your journey you are confronted by a sea of people steeped in ABBA Hysteria, many dressed as their heroes: Agnetha Falskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-FridLyngstad.
Approaching the actual arena (specially made for the show), even if you’re not an ABBA fan, you’re not human if you’re not starting to smile a little. It is as if everyone has taken a happy pill. Even the security and arena staff are very friendly.
Safely inside, the excitement and energy was accelerating to the level of an explosion, as if your eyes were not able to take any more of this visual feast of the actual arena and those that paid to come see the show.
Your brain goes straight into explode mode when the lights dim and the Swedish forest screen lifts and four virtual ABBAtars take to the stage. So convincing is the entire thing I was left breathless for a moment as I was not sure what was real and what was not. A little like the “The Houses of Parliament”.
ABBA last played in London for seven nights in 1979. I promise you truly it could not have been better than this. Stunning light affects dazzle the 3000 capacity room. A very much real 10-piece band dazzle the filled room.
This is so real they even have short interlude videos for the band to change. Andersson, Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad danced across the giant stage, embraced each other.
They laughed about their 1974 Eurovision outfits and the UK giving them zero points. When they appeared in huge proportions on the big screens they had the mildest plasticine quality, but otherwise they were astonishingly real.
They did most of the hits, of course, and the best two from last year’s surprise comeback album. As you would expect, the arena erupted when “Dancing Queen” was performed.
Just as you thought there were no more surprises left, ABBA walks on as they are now, as they did on opening night. I think it might have been holograms a few weeks in.
For days afterwards this extraordinary experience had me smiling. God knows we all need that right now. There is only one problem with prescribing ABBA Voyage to everyone. The price this venture needs to rake in is £140 million to break even, with some tickets at £195.
“Money, Money, Money” it is rich man’s show. Dance floor tickets at £50 are more affordable but sell like hot seats. To be honest I never sat down for long enough that night, being a real “Dancing Queen”.
It is fast becoming a world of advanced technology. Just think, with the ABBA voyage, we can not only tell our grand kids how good some bands were, we can actually show them, and dear old dame Elton can take a rest.
2Shades Magazine 