Tickets have gone on sale for ABBA’s avatar show “Voyage.” And so far, it may be the group’s Waterloo.
The show begins on May 27th, and as things stand right now, no one will have trouble getting in. The first few days are sold pretty well, and the month of June is spotty. But there are no actual sell outs.
Beginning in July, things get worrisome. Londoners head to France, Italy and Spain for the summer. The weekend shows for July and August are all open, with much of the house available.
The situation doesn’t improve for the fall of 2022. The ABBA Arena, a theater specially built for this occasion outside London, is wide open. On Ticketmaster, it’s a sea of blue dots.
The show consists of not exactly holograms but avatars of the group as they appeared in 1979. The four members of the group, Benny, Bjorn, Frida, and whoever, won’t be there. But they came in acted like themselves so modelers could create their likenesses.
But fans aren’t flocking to this idea, it seems. The big issue? Lack of tourists planning to visit London. We have the same problem here in New York with Broadway. Without the Asians, Indians, Arabs, Europeans all traveling, theaters are sorely undersold. ABBA has a huge international audience. But if they can’t cross borders, the ABBA Voyage Theater will be very windy inside.
So stay tuned. And on Friday ABBA releases its first album in 900 years, also called “Voyage.” We’ll see what the response is to that right away.
