Stage show aims to duplicate Abba's concerts

Nearly 30 years after the band's final performance in 1982, Mark Thomas is working to help Swedish supergroup ABBA do the one thing it never managed in its successful career.

Break into America.

Although the band proved wildly popular all over the world, ABBA only once topped Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart, scoring with the disco-ready Dancing Queen in disco-ready 1977. Mr. Thomas, a student of the band's music and performance style, is hoping ABBA Mania , a show he wrote and conceived 10 years ago, will help cement the band's reputation in the States. ABBA Mania will be staged Saturday at Bell Auditorium. Mr. Thomas also plays the part of ABBA founder Bjorn Ulvaeus in the show.

"We were a little nervous bringing the project out here," Mr. Thomas said. "We knew how many hits the band had in the UK (where the show originated) and how many it didn't have here."

The show is formatted as a duplication of an ABBA concert during the band's heyday. Costumes, staging, instruments and set lists were all tirelessly researched.

"I think everything they ever recorded, every piece of footage, I have," he said. "It was the first time I had done any serious study since leaving school."

Mr. Thomas said ABBA Mania is an interesting experience for a musician because it offers two very different challenges. The first involves portraying one of a quartet of Scandinavian singers, masking his Welsh accent in favor of something a little more like Stockholm in nature. The other is learning to play the songs, which despite being infectious and accessible, are technically difficult.

"You are using these two elements," he said. "And there is a synergy that comes into play. It has gotten to the point that when we played in Sweden, we decided perhaps we should drop the Swedish accents.

"We discovered that when we did, it became very difficult to play these songs."

Mr. Thomas said that the success of the musical Mamma Mia! has made ABBA's musical more recognizable in the United States.

What still strikes people as odd, he said, is the look and style of an ABBA concert. He said hitting the stage in spangles, bell-bottoms and audacious platform boots still produces a gasp at American shows.

"It's still strange to me that there are people that don't recognize this image," he said. "But it is also what makes it great. It's great to be able to bring these songs to people."

Contact Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.