Take a chance on 'ABBA the Concert' at The Hanover Theatre Oct. 26

"ABBA the Concert: A Tribute to ABBA" isn't based on a particular concert that the fabulous four Swedish super pop troupers gave in their relatively short live performance career.

"It is not like a whole concert that they did," said Matilda Lindell about the show.  And while Lindell is singing as ABBA member Agnetha  Fältskog — "I'm the blonde one," Lindell said — "we're not playing a role in that way except in providing the ABBA experience."

But it still promises to be quite an experience when "ABBA the Concert: A Tribute to ABBA" takes the stage at The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26. The audience can expect all the joyous hits such as “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia,” “SOS,” “Fernando” and “Take a Chance on Me," as well heartfelt outcries like "SOS" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You."

"They have some of the greatest  pop songs ever done," Lindell said of ABBA. "It's a very unique sound. In the mixing process they succeeded in creating this distinct personal sound. You know it's ABBA. Very happy, upbeat songs, and also deeper  emotional events in your life so you can have it all in there. You can dance, you can cry," she said.

"We have a lot of fun on stage. We have fun with our audience, and every show is unique," Lindell said. "We see how the audience reacts and we respond to this. We are just having an ABBA party with our friends."

"ABBA the Concert" is performed by The Visitors (named after ABBA's last album), a group from Stockholm, Sweden, that has toured the show in the U.S. with great success over the past 10 years or so years. 

"We have put together songs that the audience wants to hear, and it's also dynamic and exciting. It builds as it goes along," Lindell said. "You will not be disappointed. The crowds really get into the show."   

The ABBA experience began in earnest in 1974 at the Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Brighton, England, as each country is represented by their chosen performer(s) and song. The contest in those days was usually a pretty staid affair, but ABBA lit up the event as Sweden's representative with a rousing rendition of their song "Waterloo." There were two appealing women lead vocalists singing in English, flashy costumes (as well as a Napoleon in costume), a catchy tune, a swirling sax, and choreography. Olivia Newton-John, gamely representing the United Kingdom with an unfortunately ploddingly written song called "Long Live Love," was left in the dust. But so was everyone else competing against ABBA that night. 

The Swedish group of Agnetha Fältskog (lead vocals), Björn Ulvaeus (guitar, vocals), Benny Andersson (keyboards, vocals), and Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad (lead vocals) were instant stars and would be a Top of the Pops phenomenon for all time. ("Waterloo" has been chosen as the Eurovision Song Contest's best song in the competition's history.) 

The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names. 

Benny and Björn wrote most of the songs with their irresistible hooks and melodies.

Besides the music and name there was the look. Agnetha and Frida were/are beautiful and sexy, their outfits from boots to catsuits, tunic dresses, pants, gowns and capes always eye-catching. Benny and Björn also dressed the '70s part (wide collars, etc.).

But in 1982, just eight years after Eurovision, ABBA gave what for many years seemed like its final performance. "The Visitors" album had been released in 1981.

The group had also made headlines as, respectively, Agnetha and Björn, and Frida and Benny — married couples. Until their breakups, mirrored in "Knowing Me, Knowing You."

Later, there were solo albums by Agnetha and Frida, Benny and Björn wrote a musical, "Chess," Agnetha became reclusive for a while, and Frida married a European prince and is now a partner with an English viscount

But the music and the magic, long after the discos had closed, were here to stay.

The stage shows and movies "Mamma Mia!" (2008) and "Mama Mia! Here We Go Again" (2018), co-composed and produced by Benny and Björn, not only helped keep the music alive but did phenomenally at the box office.  

On June 4, 2016, the four members of ABBA reunited on stage for an impromptu performance of "Me and I" at a private gala in Sweden.

Then earlier this year came a real shocker — ABBA was back with a new album in the works and planning to perform live again — sort of.

ABBA announced that "Voyage," an album of brand new songs, will be released on Nov. 5 and include a Christmas song. Two tracks from it, which the Guardian newspaper in England described as "the stately and epic ballad 'I Still Have Faith in You' and the shimmying 'Don’t Shut Me Down,'" are out now.

Benny, 74, Agnetha, 71, Frida, 75, and Björn, 76, have also announced a new concert experience in London, also called Voyage, beginning in May 2022. "Digital versions of themselves (not holograms, their team asserted) will appear nightly alongside a 10-piece live band at a new 3,000-capacity venue in the city’s Olympic park, called the Abba Arena," the Guardian reported.

So it's a also a timely time for the "ABBA the Concert" experience. 

"It's very exciting for us and the audience. We have two new songs to perform," Lindell said. 

She called the London shows next year "not really them" live in-person, but, "I think it's just adding to the excitement of ABBA, so for us it's great … If ABBA would go out and want to tour themselves, I would want to see them.

"It's very nice that ABBA is a universal phenomenon. It's a great way to connect around  the world. You love ABBA here (in the U.S.). It's great to perform here."

By the same token, Lindell thinks The Visitors and "ABBA the Concert" show has a distinct following now in its own right.

"Our audience, we have our own fan base now. It's vey nice to see our own fans back for the show," Lindell said. 

On its website the band calls "ABBA the Concert" itself "The Best ABBA Since ABBA."

When she was growing up in Sweden, ABBA was something akin to royalty, Lindell observed.

"As a Swede, ABBA is very much of our culture. Even though we didn't become super fans, it just played on the radio. We know the four ABBAs very well. It's like ABBA running in our blood."  

Personally, Lindell said she "didn't fall in love with their music until I started singing it and then I got the lyrics in more close-up, and got to love the music in a more intimate way."

The Visitors is a 10-piece band —  "everyone from Sweden," Lindell said —  with its origins in the late 1990s when a couple of the original members were in an ABBA tribute  called Waterloo. There have been name changes and changes of personnel, but the band has toured the world. 

Lindell joined in 2008, after being encouraged to audition by a music teacher.  

The front four are now Agnetha — Lindell; Frida — Elisabet Karlsson; Benny — Martin Håkansson; and Björn — Mathias Andersson.

"We started building a new show. It's something else than it was 13 years ago," Lindell said. 

"We have definitely studied the way they looked, how they moved, the sound, the voices,  the choice of outfits, the choreography. We put a lot of work into that," she said.   

The show has sometimes alluded to the interpersonal relationships within ABBA. "We are of course interacting in the show, (but) no it's not a big part of it," Lindell said.  "Some fans know. We always change up what we're talking about in the dialogue in the shows, and there were a lot of people who didn't know."

Currently, the show doesn't get into that territory. "We actually don't say that now," Lindell said.   

"I think we have a very, very high musical quality. We communicate well on stage. It's very much a musical experience," she said. 

And it is a Matilda, Elisabet, Martin and Mathias ABBA experience.  

"We also put a lot of personality in this. It's performers on stage. I'm Matilda on stage. We have studied them for sure, but this is Matilda you will see up there."

As for whether ABBA members have ever been to "ABBA the Concert: A Tribute to ABBA," Lindell  said, "They have not seen our show but they are aware of our existence since we are one of the big ABBA tributes coming out of Sweden."   

She has "not really met any of them, but Björn was in the audience once, during a performance unrelated to ABBA, where I did backing vocals," Lindell said.

"I also met Benny working out in a hotel gym with a personal trainer. It was only them and me in the room, and even though I wanted to walk up and thank him for all the wonderful music that has had such a huge impact on my life — I also wanted to be respectful about his privacy. That's the closest I've gotten to meet them."   

Lindell now lives in New York City part time and Stockholm part time, she said.

Prior to auditioning as Angetha with The Visitors, she had hopes of  a musical career and they are being realized.

Now in addition to performing in "ABBA the Concert," she said, she is "both a solo artist and a freelance singer, a lead singer in different projects." 

She writes her own original music and has recently been arranging and singing a few ABBA songs in "a totally new version" for an EP that will likely be released early next year.

You could call it Lindell's own personal experience with ABBA, and her renditions of   "Dancing Queen" and "One of Us," which are already out, are superb in a revealing but understated way. The adaptations add new dimensions to the songs, with singing that is sensitive and engaging.

"I've got a great response," Lindell said. "I didn't take it lightly. I was a little bit nervous about what ABBA songs worked. But so far so good." 

If You Go

What: ABBA the Concert: A Tribute to ABBA

When: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26

Where: The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester

How much: $29, $39, and $59 depending on seat location. (877) 571-7469; www.thehanovertheatre.org. Safety protocols require proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative result for a COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of your visit to the theater. Children under 12 are exempt, provided they are accompanied by an adult who is fully vaccinated. Information will be checked against a valid photo ID prior to entry and the wearing of CDC-approved masks is required while inside the theater.