ABBA fans, consider this a friendly warning: Don’t expect disco balls and satin flares at Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ show tomorrow night.
“Dancing Queen” and “SOS” aren’t in the offing at the Carnegie Hall event. Instead, we’ll be treated to a concert version of the two men’s 1995 musical-theater epic, “Kristina” — complete with a large orchestra and choir, and songs about lice, miscarriages and the existence of God.
Andersson and Ulvaeus are not new to musicals, of course: Even before the ABBA songbook provided the bedrock for the juggernaut known as “Mamma Mia!,” they had penned the 1980s cult show “Chess.”
But “Kristina” — originally “Kristina från Duvemåla” — was a departure for the pair, which mixed an expansive neoclassical vein with Nordic folk touches, and didn’t refrain from stark imagery.
No need to fret, though: The subject matter may look like a Scandi bummer, but Andersson’s melodic skills are evident throughout, and “Kristina” (to be performed in English) is an ambitious, often majestic achievement that goes straight for the heart — and the tear ducts.
The musical, which follows the adventures of a poor Swedish family as it moves to Minnesota in 1850, is based on a series of novels by Vilhelm Moberg. They were turned into a pair of popular movies in the early 1970s, with Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow as married couple Kristina and Karl Oskar Nilsson.
Ulvaeus recalls that “choosing those books, we learned the lesson from ‘Chess,’ where the story is weaker than the rest. This time we wanted a story we could rely on in any kind of weather.” Andersson chimes in: “So if it didn’t work, it wasn’t because of the story, it was us.”
Whereas the books are collectively known as the Emigrant novels, Andersson and Ulvaeus decided to focus on the character of Kristina, wife and mother, deeply religious but also commonsensical, and heroic in her own unassuming way.
“Both in ‘Mamma Mia!’ and in ‘Kristina,’ there’s an element of gender equality, which is important stuff and has nothing to do with entertainment,” Andersson says forcefully. “The films went in another direction, where Karl Oskar was the man. Our Kristina is a more complex person — like she is in the books.”
Because “Kristina” was going to premiere at the Malmö Opera and Music Theatre — headed by the show’s book writer and director, Lars Rudolfsson — Andersson and Ulvaeus had that institution’s resources at their disposal. “They told us we could have as many people as we wanted,” Ulvaeus recalls mistily. “So of course we just indulged! That’s why a lot of the numbers became very, very big.”
Such a demanding score requires leads ready to do some heavy lifting. To that end, the Carnegie Hall cast includes “Mamma Mia!” vet Louise Pitre as narrator Ulrika, English tenor Russell Watson as Karl Oskar, and Helen Sjöholm, who created Kristina in 1995 but had never done it in English. “Every muscle wants to do the Swedish words!” she exclaims. “But it’s also exciting for me to hear this in English. I thought it would make me feel awkward but it doesn’t — it’s very organic. I feel at home in it.”
Perfect for a story straddling the Old and New Worlds.
“Kristina” is at Carnegie Hall tomorrow and Wednesday. For tickets, call 212-247-7800 or go to carnegiehall.org.