Mamma Mia! The Party

A taverna built by an ABBA songwriter

The idea was announced in April 2015 on the press pages of ABBA The Museum in Stockholm, with tickets going on sale that August. Björn Ulvaeus, named as initiator and executive producer, wanted to take what he described as the happy, warm and expectant mood he had watched settle over theatre audiences when the first notes of Mamma Mia! sound, and turn it into an actual party. The producer was the Swedish events company Eventum, working with Ulvaeus.

The setting was to be a Greek taverna modelled on Skopelos, the island where the Mamma Mia! film was shot, with guests, waiting staff, musicians and performers all sharing the same room and building the evening between them. Song, dance, food and wine were the four ingredients listed in that first announcement, and they have not changed since.

The show opened on 20 January 2016 at Restaurant Tyrol inside Gröna Lund, the amusement park on Djurgården that sits across the road from the ABBA museum. It was a Swedish-language production and, at that point, an experiment: nobody had tried to run a full jukebox musical around a four-course dinner with the audience sitting inside the set.

Sweden first, then the move to London

The experiment ran for years. In October 2021 the production moved from Stockholm to Rondo in Gothenburg, and in September 2023 Gröna Lund announced it would return to Tyrol from 22 February 2024 for what was billed as the final Swedish season before the venue closed for good. By then, according to that press release, more than half a million people had seen the show in Sweden alone, which Ulvaeus summed up as the experiment having gone rather well.

The Swedish creative team stayed close to the original: Roine Söderlundh directed and choreographed, Bengt Fröderberg designed the set, Annsofi Nyberg the costumes, Robin Svensson arranged the music, and Palle Palmé and Oskar Johansson handled lighting and sound. Several performers, among them Sussie Eriksson, Michalis Koutsogiannakis and Anki Albertsson, had been with it since the 2016 opening.

London came in August 2019, when the production opened in a bespoke taverna at The O2. The story, credited to Calle Norlén, Roine Söderlundh and Ulvaeus, was given a new English book by Sandi Toksvig. Stacey Haynes and Söderlundh share direction and choreography in London, Fröderberg's set design carried over, and Patrick Woodroffe and Gareth Owen are credited on lighting and sound. Ulvaeus and Pophouse Entertainment are executive producers.

The story, and the thirty-odd songs it exists to carry

The plot is deliberately slight. Nikos runs a family taverna on Skopelos with his Welsh wife Kate. Their daughter Konstantina falls for Adam, a visiting British man Nikos does not approve of, and the evening follows that romance through to its resolution while the food arrives course by course. Reviewers have been candid that the narrative is there to find excuses for songs, and the production does not pretend otherwise.

The songs are the point. All That Dazzles, reviewing at The O2 in March 2022, counted 34 ABBA numbers, mixing the obvious hits with deeper catalogue, and singled out the ballads, Dancing Queen and Waterloo, and a closing medley. Afridiziak, in December 2022, noted acrobatic staging during I Let the Music Speak alongside Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) and the expected anthems.

This is not the stage musical or the film. It is a separate piece that borrows the island and the catalogue, and the two things it adds that the West End show cannot are a plate of stifado in front of every guest and a fountain in the middle of the room.

2026: new names at Nikos' table

The London company has turned over substantially this year. On 21 January 2026 the production confirmed that Jon Osbaldeston, whose credits include Les Misérables and Fiddler on the Roof, would take over as Nikos from 28 January, replacing Fed Zanni. The company at that point included Marianne Benedict and Kimberly Powell alternating as Kate, Oscar Balmaseda as the Host and Fernando, Paola Fareri as Konstantina and Natalie Winsor as Debbie.

On 10 March 2026 came the headline signing. Peter Andre was announced as Nikos for a limited run of selected performances from 14 May to 23 July 2026, and Sam Bailey, the X Factor winner, as Debbie from 14 May 2026 through to 4 April 2027. Andre said he had been absolutely blown away when he first saw the show and was ecstatic to be joining as Nikos; Bailey said she had seen firsthand how much joy it brings to people. The same announcement put the London run's audience at more than 700,000 guests over 1,500-plus performances since August 2019, drawn from 110 countries.

The full 2026/27 company followed on 28 April 2026: Inês Fernandez as Konstantina, Tom Fothergill as Carlos and swing, Elena Gibson as Bella at select performances, Sophie Holdsworth as Loretta and swing, Gabriella-Rose Merchant covering Nina, James Mark McLoughlin as Ruben and swing, and Andy Rose as Host and Fernando from 24 July 2026. Kelly Aaron, Oscar Balmaseda, Constantine Andronikou, Marianne Benedict, Kimberly Powell, AJ Bentley, Deschenes Graham, Allie Ho Chee, Dawn Spence, Rebecca Stenhouse and Claudia Bradley continued from the existing company.

Andre's stint ended on 23 July, so the current season is Bailey's. Booking runs to 4 April 2027, with the production describing itself as an enduring hit rather than a limited engagement, and there has been no announcement of a closing date.

What the evening actually involves

Guests arrive at the taverna at The O2 for a welcome drink and are seated at tables across four sections of the room, which Afridiziak noted gives varied sightlines depending on where the booking lands. The show itself runs just under three hours according to All That Dazzles, and the whole experience, with dinner service and the disco that follows, is closer to four.

The current menu on the official site is sharing Greek mezze with Greek salad and spanakopita, then braised lamb stifado and slow-cooked beef with garlic-roasted potatoes and vegetable briam, followed by a dessert trio built around orange ravani cake, Greek yoghurt with cherry compote, lemon ouzo curd, kokakia and baklava, with tea and coffee to finish. A potato and aubergine moussaka anchors the vegetarian and vegan version.

Both 2022 reviews gave five stars, but for different reasons. All That Dazzles praised the size and detail of the set, the fountain as centrepiece, the lighting shifts that turn the room from afternoon to night, and a cast that could sing, dance and improvise with tables of strangers. Afridiziak called the company outstanding at pulling in reluctant guests without bullying them, while being blunter about the food: inconsistent, an underperforming lamb, a cold dessert and not enough gravy. When the last act finishes, the audience is invited onto the stage floor for an ABBA disco, and that, by most accounts, is where the evening earns its name.