New theme park, museum is all things ABBA

LONDON (AP) —ABBA, the Swedish quartet that gave the world “Waterloo” and “Dancing Queen,” has sold 400 million records since its 1970s heyday and spawned the hugely successful stage and film musical “Mamma Mia!”

And now there’s ABBAWORLD — a new museum-cum-theme park in London with enough music, mementoes and memory-lane appeal to satisfy even the most-fervent ABBA fan.

ABBAWORLD’s Swedish organizers promise the exhibition — which opens to the public today — will be “a place for total interaction” with the band.

ABBA’s music is inescapable throughout ABBAWORLD, from the exuberance of “Dancing Queen” through the melancholy of “Knowing Me, Knowing You” to the heartbreak of “The Winner Takes It All.”

The exhibition tells the band’s story in 25 rooms spread over 30,000 square feet. Glass cases contain spangly costumes in silk, satin and spandex. Visitors can see re-creations of Polar Studios, where the band recorded, and the seaside cabin near Stockholm where Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson composed the band’s hits.