Benny & Björn’s Kristina Gets UK Premiere, 14 Apr

Abba’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, songwriters of hit musicals Chess and Mamma Mia!, will present, for one night only, the UK premiere of the concert version of their 1995 musical Kristina at the Royal Albert Hall on 14 April 2010.

The concert will feature a cast of over 30 performers led by the original Kristina, Helen Sjöholm, alongside Russell Watson, Louise Pitre and Kevin Odekirk in the first ever English speaking rendition of the show.

Initially premiering in Malmö, Sweden in October 1995, Kristina is based on a collection of four novels published over ten years between 1949 and 1959 by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg entitled The Emigrants. It tells the story of a poverty-stricken Swedish woman with aspirations to give her family a better life through emigration to the United States.

Kristina, (formerly titled Kristina från Duvemåla) , enjoyed a four-year run in its native country from 1995 to 1999, earning multiple Guldmasken Theatre Awards, and is billed as “the most popular musical theatre piece in Swedish history”. For the concert version, English lyrics have been written by Björn Ulvaeus and Herbert Kretzmer, who also wrote the English lyrics for Les Misérables.