ABBA Voyage Reviews | What The Critics Think
“There are strangely intimate moments when each ABBAtar appears alone to talk to the crowd. In their younger bodies, they speak in their older voices – Anni-Frid paying tribute to her grandmother, Agnetha thanking fans for the years of support. It’s a reminder that this isn’t just a great technological leap, but something deeply personal for these four individuals. ABBA Voyage preserves their achievement as the world’s greatest pop band forever, and fans will be able to take leave of their senses to the chorus of “Gimme Gimme Gimme” for as long as they still want to.”
★★★★
— Jessie Thompson, Independent
“The ecstatic crowd reaction showed that people were fully immersed. It’s doubtful that many here saw ABBA when they last played in London – seven nights at Wembley Arena in 1979 – and it’s hard to believe that can have been any more joyful than this, with its light effects whizzing to the back of the 3,000-capacity room, space backdrop and a live 10-piece band that was having even more fun than the VR stars.”
★★★★★
— David Smyth, Evening Standard
“It would feel corny if it weren’t so triumphantly fun, and the Friday night crowd was certainly along for the ride. Largely a mix of couples in their mid 60s and younger, disco-leaning gay men, the attendees sang through every number with the intensity of a therapeutic ritual. Abba Voyage is an exercise in symbol worship that separates itself from an ordinary Abba night at the club through state-of-the-art production values.”
★★★★
— Juan A. Ramírez, The New York Times
“A big chunk of Abba Voyage is, of course, devoted to the Chiquititas, Fernandos, Mamma Mias and Waterloos of playlist overkill. It’s a theatre performance, with a 7.45 start and matinees, rather than a gig. Quite a lot of big numbers accompany this production, which really does recapture much of the essence of one of the biggest bands in the world in their prime, give or take a slightly glassy expression here and there.”
★★★★
— Kitty Empire, The Guardian
“But mostly you just feel great. This is a very good show. There’s no denying that it is absolutely brilliant to be in a room full of people with Abba songs on very loud. The live band brings an energy that the show would have lacked if the whole thing had been pre-recorded, and Abba’s vocals (a blend of their young and aged voices) are rich and warm. And flawless, obviously – the benefit of months of behind the scenes work and no need to worry about drinking honey and lemon tea on the night.”
★★★★
— Kate Solomon, iNews
“George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, the production company behind the genius and technologically advanced spectacle, created "ABBAtars" of the group as how they looked in the 1970s.
The very life-like performance is not to be misconstrued as a hologram show, as the members, who are now all in their seventies, performed in front of motion capture cameras.”
★★★★★
— Ivan Korrs, Music Times
“And with ABBA not even in the building during the performance – apart from the debut press performance of course – it’s quite possible that this show could run for years. Decades… centuries even… long after the real artists have left us, setting a precedent for countless ‘virtual’ shows to come from artists both currently living and long since departed.”
★★★★★
— Daniel Griffiths, Musicradar
“When Abba rise through the stage of the new arena built in their name in Stratford, east London, beamed up with spotlights like gods, the stadium erupts. Despite an announcement asking the audience not to photograph or film the show to maintain the “mystery” of the Abba experience, iPhones are raised instantly to record the moment. Here are Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid as younger, virtual versions of themselves, more than 40 years after their last live show in London. Three thousand people are dying to see them.”
★★★★★
— Emily Bootle, The New Statesman
“The technology is mind-boggling. Wherever you are in the arena, you’re totally immersed by lights, whisked into a dazzling futuristic disco. There are multiple screens of video and stunning transitions between songs: a huge sun silhouette for ‘Chiquitita’, the Northern Lights for ‘Fernando’ and the deep cosmos for ‘Summer Night City’. It truly feels like entering another dimension.”
★★★★
— Chiara Wilkinson, TimeOut
There are some things in your life that you’ll probably never get over and words can’t really do justice to and being at the premiere of ABBA’s Voyage show in London is, without any shadow of a doubt, one of those.
★★★★★
— Simon Duke, Chronicle Live
