Abba star Björn Ulvaeus has musically brought a wild circus adventure by Pippi Longstocking to the stage. The musician is already an eye-catcher on the red carpet before the premiere – with a new woman at his side.
Clear the ring for Pippi Longstocking: Abba icon Björn Ulvaeus (77), together with creative comrades-in-arms, made a brightly colored circus musical from a Pippi Longstocking story by his great compatriot Astrid Lindgren.
The show “Pippi på Cirkus” (Pippi in the circus) produced by Ulvaeus premiered in front of almost 1,200 spectators on Tuesday evening in the Stockholm event house Cirkus. In the leading role of the girl with the protruding red pigtails, the actress and musical performer Ida Breimo delighted the audience, who gave the ensemble standing applause for several minutes at the end.
“People clearly loved it. From my point of view, it went very, very well,” said Ulvaeus after the almost 75-minute performance, which can be seen in the Swedish capital until August 14. He feels relieved, but at the same time he is very proud of the participants.
“I can see a bright future for “Pippi im Zirkus”. She will return to this place every summer,” Ulvaeus told the German Press Agency. Next summer there should be German and English surtitles so that foreign tourists can also follow the story – after all, Pippi is “a world-famous brand”. He hopes that the show will be shown every summer from now on – maybe one day in other countries.
Even before the start of the show, Ulvaeus himself was a real eye-catcher: the 77-year-old walked the red carpet smiling and holding hands with a new woman at his side. Her name is Christina Sas and, according to information from Ulvaeus’ environment, she is Danish. The musician himself told the Swedish entertainment medium “Hänt”: “I’m here with Christina, my partner Christina.”
Sas works as a product manager at Universal Music in Germany, as the company confirmed on Wednesday when asked by dpa. The most recent Abba album “Voyage” was also released by Universal in autumn 2021.
In February, Ulvaeus and his second wife Lena announced their divorce after more than 40 years of marriage. Before that, he was in a relationship with his band colleague Agnetha Fältskog during the great Abba period in the 70s.
For the busy Ulvaeus it was the second major premiere within seven weeks: at the end of May the spectacular concert show “Abba Voyage” celebrated its world premiere in London. “Pippi på Cirkus” is loosely based on the story by children’s book author Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002), in which Pippi Longstocking and her friends Tommy and Annika go to the circus together. They meet the circus princess Miss Carmencita, tightrope walker Elvira and the world’s strongest man, the strong Adolf.
Ulvaeus wrote the lyrics to the show himself, and Abba colleague Benny Andersson contributed to the music. Some songs are vaguely reminiscent of the legendary Abba-Pop, while others are not at all. All in all, a colourful, entertaining show was created in which (human) poodles fly through the air, artists show impressive acrobatics and the tender voices of Tommy and Annika sound a little sweeter in Swedish.
For the premiere, several Swedish celebrities came to the circus, which is appropriately located in the immediate vicinity of Stockholm’s Abba Museum. Among them were Astrid Lindgren’s daughter Karin Nyman, Lindgren’s granddaughter Malin Billing, pop singer Siw Malmkvist and actress Inger Nilsson, who played Pippi Longstocking as a child in the film adaptations of the same name about the world’s strongest girl.
The production was originally scheduled to start in the summer of 2020 in the 75th anniversary year of the publication of Lindgren’s first Pippi Longstocking work. However, the pandemic threw a spanner in the works. Most recently, the premiere was postponed again by a few days due to corona-related delays in rehearsals. (dpa)