Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus Are Making a Broadway Comeback
Later in 2025 both Chess and Mamma Mia! will be revived on Broadway.
By: Nicole Rosky Jun. 14, 2025
Though their names might not be household-status, most people know Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus... or at least they know their work. The musicians gained global recognition not as a pair, but as a quartet, when they (with Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog) won the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. The group was called ABBA, and it would go on to sell hundreds of millions of records worldwide and become the best-selling Swedish band of all time.
The pair has already made a major mark on Broadway, and 2025 is bound to be a milestone year as the biggest musicals that feature their work, Mamma Mia! and Chess, will be running at the same time. Let's learn more about both...
In the 1970s, lyricist Tim Rice, who was already known for his work on Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, became inspired to write a musical centered on the Cold War. While his frequent collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber was busy working on his next project (Cats), Rice turned to Andersson and Ulvaeus, who were looking for creative projects outside of ABBA. Before the musical was produced, a concept album was released in 1984, followed by a concert production in London, then Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, and Stockholm. The album gained critical praise, earned several European awards, and was #1 for weeks on the charts in Sweden- home of Andersson and Ulvaeus.
Chess premiered in the West End at the Prince Edward Theatre in 1986 and a revised version made it to Broadway in 1988. Since then, it has received several significant concert stagings, including Royal Albert Hall in 2008 (starring Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, and Kerry Ellis) and a 2022 Entertainment Community Fund benefit (starring Lena Hall, Ramin Karimloo, Darren Criss, and Solea Pfeiffer).
Chess is the iconic musical where power and passion collide, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s America versus Russia at the World Chess Championship, where the espionage and romance are as complicated and exhilarating as the game itself. For the two players and the woman torn between them, everything—personal, professional, and political—is at risk…and nobody’s rules are the same.
This fall, Chess finally returns to Broadway, led by Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher. Dates, on sale and theater information, additional casting and creative team will be announced shortly.
Learn more about the history of Chess.
Around the same time that they were developing Chess, Andersson and Ulvaeus met theatre producer Judy Craymer who was inspired by their 1980 song "The Winner Takes It All" to suggest a musical that featured ABBA's repertory. A decade later, she commissioned playwright Catherine Johnson to write the book for what would become Mamma Mia!.
On the eve of her wedding, a daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother's past back to the island they had last visited decades ago. Songs including “Dancing Queen,” “The Winner Takes It All,” “Money, Money, Money,” and “Take a Chance on Me” are all featured in this feel-good celebration of love, family and friendship.
Since premiering in London in 1999 and on Broadway in 2001, Mamma Mia! has captured the hearts of millions, seen by over 70 million people across the world, and turned into two record-breaking movies. It is currently Broadway’s ninth-longest running show of all time, playing a record-breaking 14 years and 5,773 performances. To date, it has been seen in 50 productions in 16 different languages grossing more than $7 billion at the box office.
MAMMA MIA! resumes performances at the Winter Garden Theatre on Saturday, August 2, 2025. The limited engagement will play in New York for six months only, through Sunday, February 1, 2026.
More about Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus:
Benny Andersson was born 16 December 1946 in Stockholm. 1952 Received accordion lessons from his father and grandfather. 1964-68 Member of the Hep Stars, Sweden's most popular rock band in the 1960's. During this time, he began composing music. "Sunny Girl" and "Wedding" were huge hits for the Hep Stars. 1972 - 82 ABBA. 1982 - 84 Composed the music (together with Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice) for the musical, Chess. 1987 Began collaborating with Orsa Spelmän. Recorded three albums deeply rooted in Swedish folk music: Klinga Mina Klockor, November 1989 and Fiolen Min. In 2001, this collaboration led to the formation of Benny Andersson's Orchestra, a 16-man constellation with vocalists, Helen Sjöholm and Tommy Körberg.
Thus far, this has resulted in eleven CD albums and several summer tours. 1990 - 95 Composed the music to Kristina from Duvemåla. Premiered in October 1995. Also founder of ABBA Voyage in London. Received the title of professor from the Swedish government. Inducted to in the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2007. Appointed Honorary Doctor of the College of Humanities at Stockholm University in 2008, and at Luleå University of Technology in 2012. Benny Andersson is married to former TV producer, Mona Nörklit. They have one child, Ludvig Andersson. Benny Andersson also has two children from a previous marriage, Peter Grönvall and Helene Odedahl. He has seven grandchildren: Charlie, Felix, Fabian, Malin, Viola, Leonard and Eleanor.
In the mid-Fifties Björn Ulvaeus fell in love with rock'n'roll and skiffle. By the early Sixties he was a member of a folk group called the West Bay Singers. In 1963 they entered a talent contest and were discovered by publisher Stig Anderson and his partner, Bengt Bernhag. The band acquired a new name, the Hootenanny Singers, and quickly became one of Sweden's most popular groups. In 1966, Björn had a chance meeting with Benny Andersson, himself a member of Sweden's number one pop group, The Hep Stars. They hit it off and wrote their first song together, 'Isn't It Easy To Say'. In 1970 the pair started releasing records as a duo and also staged a cabaret show with their fiancees, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. From 1972 and a decade onwards Björn was occupied by his work with ABBA. In 1983, Björn and Benny started writing the musical Chess with lyricist Tim Rice. A concept album was released in 1984, in 1986 the musical opened in London's West End and in 1988 on Broadway. Björn and Benny's next musical opened in Stockholm in October 1995. It was called Kristina from Duvemåla and was based on the novel series The Emigrants by author Vilhelm Moberg. Björn co-writes songs with Benny Andersson for his band BAO.
In 1999 Judy Craymer and Björn Ulvaeus produced Mamma Mia!, the first jukebox musical and he was involved in many of the productions around the world from then on as well as the 2008 and 2018 movie versions. Mamma Mia the Party is an immersive dinner experience in the Mamma Mia world. Björn co-wrote the story and produced it first in Stockholm 2018 and it is still playing in Gothenburg and London. In 2021, ABBA announced the release of the first album in 40 years, Voyage, as well as a virtual stage show "Voyage” which opened in a new custom-built arena in London in 2022. Björn is president of CISAC, an umbrella organization for all royalty collecting societies for songwriters in the world. He is also involved in a songwriting tool called Session, which captures songwriting metadata during the creative process. In 2014, together with EQT founder Conni Jonsson, Björn founded Pophouse. Pophouse acquires and develops entertainment brands within music, podcast and gaming, and the company began a serious venture into music catalogue investments in 2022.
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