Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Think Abba and you think big camp party music, sure to get the aunties on the dancefloor at any wedding. 

But Jenny Ryan has deprived her show of much of that glitzy celebratory mood for a drier, often convoluted, show about Sweden’s finest musical exports (sorry, Roxette), predicated on them being quasi-religious icons.

She – like popular culture in general – was slow to recognise the power of Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid beyond their 1970s heyday, which predated her. She was put off the band at school because it was naff, loved by the likes of Alan Partridge and Adrian Mole.

It will come as no surprise that the future ITV Chaser was quite the swot at her Catholic school, and because learning was tied to religion, Ryan had a Christian faith back then. Until she became disillusioned at how the Church’s unbending ‘morals’ were so damaging to LGBTQ people denied the chance to be their true selves.

The through line here is that she could replace that faith with a belief in Abba even though she has no direct proof that they are humans who actually exist. This odd conspiracy theory doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny, which is the point, but that doesn’t stop Ryan hanging quite a lot on what seems to be an excuse to use the Bjorn Again pun

Ryan has an impressive singing voice that will come as a surprise to those who know her only as The Vixen, suggesting this could have been a jukebox cabaret extravaganza. But instead she shuts herself down after a couple of lines of any track she embarks upon to make a quick  joke. 

Instead this is a rather dry stroll through the subject – starting from an  introduction so thorough we get the dates of birth of every one of the band – before establishing her needlessly complicated search for a grand unified theory of Abba, using Venn diagrams and tracking-a-serial-killer-style whiteboard.  

She doesn’t make quite enough of the depth of this mad obsession, and it’s conflicting with the other strand of using  Abba as a through line for autobiographical stories. 

However the concept of Abba being beyond human understanding is perhaps the only way she can explain the plot holes in the Mamma Mia, how the ages of the actors don’t fit the story’s timeline and the vast continuity errors between that and  its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. It must be something to do with the multi-universe theory.

Ryan argues that we  forgive the shonkiness of the films – and the spin-off dining experience - as they end on a singalong that sends us out happy. No guessing how Bjorn Yesterday ends – and,  true enough, it is a moment of good cheer after quite a slog.

There are other moments of joy, too, such as her recreating the holograms of Abba Voyage with Funko figurines, but there’s too little celebration, too much focus on nonsensical theories that don’t bear fruit. Do I think this was a wasted opportunity? I Do I Do I Do  I Do, I Do.

Review date: 19 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard