Former ABBA members in court over musical script dispute

Feb 6, 2007, 14:31 GMT

Stockholm - Former ABBA members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus appeared in court Tuesday over a dispute about a script used in one of their musicals.

The trial was slated to last three days and aims to establish who penned the script for their musical Kristina from Duvemala that premiered 12 years ago.

The musical was about Swedes who emigrated to the United States in the 1800s, and was based on a series of books by writer Vilhelm Moberg.

Andersson and Ulvaeus contracted Carl-Johan Seth in 1991 but have said that his script was not good enough and in early 1995 decided it had to reworked. That was done by director Lars Rudfolfsson and dramaturgist Jan Mark. The musical premiered later in 1995.

'Benny and I know that we never used the script he (Seth) wrote. I can honestly say that,' Ulvaeus told Swedish radio before he entered the court room.

Seth said that the music and texts were based on his notes and that he has right to credits and future royalty payments. With a planned launch on Broadway a good run there could generate sizeable earnings.

Seth has received some 5 million kronor (700,000 dollars) from productions in Sweden.

Previous attempts to resolve the dispute have failed. In 2005, Ulvaeus told a hearing that the payments to Seth were made to get peace and quiet around the musical.

On the eve of the trial, Seth's lawyer Staffan Michelson told Swedish media outlets that the former ABBA duo have the burden of proof that his client was not the author of the script.

The musical has been translated into English and has the title Kristina.

After ABBA stopped recording and touring, Andersson and Ulvaeus continued to collaborate. They composed the popular musical Chess and have recently scored success with the musical Mamma Mia.