{"id":576090,"date":"2025-11-17T12:03:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/576090\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T12:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:03:24","slug":"abba-legends-benny-andersson-and-bjorn-ulvaeus-reunite-at-the-opening-night-of-chess-revival-on-broadway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/576090\/","title":{"rendered":"ABBA legends Benny Andersson and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus reunite at the opening night of Chess revival on Broadway"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABBA<\/a> icons\u00a0Benny Andersson and\u00a0Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus reunited on Sunday night at the opening night of the Broadway revival of Chess at Imperial Theatre in New York.<\/p>\n

The two Swedish songwriters created the\u00a0Cold War-era musical four decades ago alongside Sir Tim Rice, who joined them on the red carpet.<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rn, 80, cut a dapper figure as he posed alongside his bandmate in a fitted black suit with a coordinating turtleneck underneath.<\/p>\n

While Benny, 78, also put on a smart display in a long black coat and leather boots, but added a nod to Abba’s 70s heydey by teaming a floral shirt underneath.<\/p>\n

Tim, 81, known writing the likes of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and The Lion King, looked sharp in a steel grey corduroy suit and button-up shirt.<\/p>\n

Chess originally opened in London’s West End in 1986, where it starred Elaine Paige and ran for three years, only returning in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"ABBA <\/p>\n

ABBA icons Benny Andersson (L) and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus (R) reunited on Sunday night at the opening night of the Broadway revival of Chess at Imperial Theatre in New York<\/p>\n

\"The \"Sir <\/p>\n

The two Swedish songwriters created the Cold War-era musical four decades ago alongside Sir Tim Rice (Benny, Tim and Bjorn pictured at Chess opening night in 1986 left)<\/p>\n

\"Bj\u00f6rn <\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rn and Benny worked with Tim on the musical following the disbanding of ABBA in 1982 (pictured with\u00a0Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad in 1980)<\/p>\n

While a much-altered version of the show also premiered on Broadway in 1988, but only survived for two months before closing, not being revived until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new production stars\u00a0Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher and is based on a book written by\u00a0The Hunger Games and Empire screenwriter, Danny Strong.<\/p>\n

Chess tells a story of love and political intrigue, set against the background of the Cold War, in which superpowers attempt to manipulate an international chess championship for political ends.<\/p>\n

It follows two grandmasters, one American and the other Soviet, and their fight over a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rn and Benny worked with Tim on the musical following the disbanding of ABBA in 1982.<\/p>\n

The iconic band, whose international fame was solidified by\u00a0their victory at the 1974 Eurovision<\/a>\u00a0Song Contest with the song Waterloo, was comprised of two married couples:\u00a0Bj\u00f6rn and Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog, and Benny and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.<\/p>\n

The group released eight albums between 1973 and 1981 and are considered one of the best-selling groups in history, with estimate album sales between 150 million and 385 million records worldwide.<\/p>\n

The compilation album ABBA Gold was a worldwide best seller, and their music was adapted into the hit musical Mamma Mia in 1999, which was then adapted into two feature films – 2008’s Mamma Mia and 2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.<\/p>\n

\"Bj\u00f6rn, <\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rn, 80, cut a dapper figure as he posed alongside his bandmate in a fitted black suit with a coordinating turtleneck underneath<\/p>\n

\"While <\/p>\n

While Benny, 78, also put on a smart display in a long black coat and leather boots, but added a nod to Abba’s 70s heydey by teaming a floral shirt underneath<\/p>\n

\"Tim, <\/p>\n

Tim, 81, known writing the likes of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita and The Lion King, looked sharp in a steel grey corduroy suit and button-up shirt (seen with Danny Strong on left)<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The iconic band, whose international fame was solidified by their victory at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo, was comprised of two married couples: Bj\u00f6rn and Agnetha F\u00e4ltskog, and Benny and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (pictured in 1974)<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The group eventually reunited in 2016, were they started working on a virtual concert experience in London, where their digital avatars perform their greatest hits alongside a live 10-piece band (seen at Abba Voyage in 2022)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group eventually reunited in 2016, were they started working on a virtual concert experience in London,\u00a0where their digital avatars perform their greatest hits alongside a live 10-piece band.<\/p>\n

The show used motion-capture technology from George Lucas’ visual effects house Industrial Light and Magic to create ‘ABBA-tars’ of the group, as they would have looked in 1979.<\/p>\n

ABBA Voyage opened in May 2022 at a custom venue in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, earning rave reviews from fans, critics and even ABBA members themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 90-minute concert includes such hits as Mamma Mia, The Winner Takes It All and Voulez-Vous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Abba experience has backed more than 5,000 jobs in London, including people employed at the venue as well as those in other sectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ABBA also started recording new music in 2018, which resulted in their first new studio album in 40 years – Voyage – also said to be the band’s final album, which has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABBA icons\u00a0Benny Andersson and\u00a0Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus reunited on Sunday night at the opening night of the Broadway revival of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[53431,4080,92,77,257,813,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-576090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-abba","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-tvshowbiz","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115564945654485691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}