MUSIC/ ABBA OBJECTS TO SONG USE BY FAR RIGHT PARTY: As one of the best-selling pop groups in music history, the members of Abba are accustomed to hearing their songs played almost everywhere. However, the founders of the Swedish group took exception when their hit "Mamma Mia" was used as a rally song for the leader of a Danish far-right party. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus were so incensed that they have initiated legal action. Worse, the youth wing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party also changed the lyrics, without permission, to Mamma Pia when giving Pia Kjaersgaard, their female leader, an adoring send-off at a party congress last weekend. The young Dansk Folkeparti (DF) activists sang to the tune of "Mamma Mia" new lyrics celebrating their leader's success in making their hardline anti-immigrant politics mainstream. ''Mamma Pia, you're on TV, DF will be promoted. Mamma Pia, you check it out, DF vision you have handled. All the hard arguments, as a miracle-maker,'' they sang as the rally closed. Andersson said: ''Firstly, you cannot just rewrite songs as you like and secondly we want them to understand that we have absolutely no interest in supporting their party. Abba never allows its music to be used in a political context. This is something that we have pointed out to the Danish People's Party.'' Abba's founders discovered the unauthorised use of their song when a left-wing Danish activist wrote to them asking if they supported the far-right party. They have instructed their record company, Universal, to pursue legal action against the party.
Tony Award winner Betty Buckley ("Cats") has revealed that she will be playing marijuana-friendly landlady Anna Madrigal in the workshop of the new musical "Tales of the City". Yesterday, she tweeted: "Doing 3 wk workshop n SF for ACT of 'Tales of the City,' new musical. Playing Anna Madrigal. Jason Moore directing! So excited!" The American Conservatory Theatre will give the San Francisco-set show its world premiere in May 2011, however this developmental workshop cast does not necessarily reflect who will make up the 2011 cast. Inspired by the novels "Tales of the City" and "More Tales of the City" by Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City the musical looks at the eclectic residents of 28 Barbary Lane, in 1970s San Francisco. The books became a beloved TV miniseries that starred Olympia Dukakis as Anna. The musical will have a score by Scissor Sisters band members Jason Sellards (lyrics) and John Garden (music), and a book by Tony winner Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q). Moore (Avenue Q, Shrek), who staged the developmental run of the musical at the O'Neill Center's Musical Theater Conference in 2009, again directs. The full ACT production of Tales of the City is scheduled for May 17-June 19, 2011.
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