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Jenny Ryan – Björn Yesterday

 
Dougal Reid Review by Dougal Reid 4 Published: 18 Aug 2025 Pleasance Courtyard Show Dates: 30 Jul 2025-17 Aug 2025

Jenny Ryan is becoming quite the multi-talented entertainer. From first coming to public prominence as The Vixen, the imperious quizzing titan on ITV’s The Chase, she went on to wow with her spectacular singing performances on Celebrity X Factor and is now onto her second Edinburgh Fringe show. With Björn Yesterday, she really comes into her own as a stage performer – warm, likeable and confident, she puts the audience at ease with effortless charm and wit.

Her analysis of both ABBA’s body of work and the Mamma Mia! movie franchise is genuinely fascinating

The show begins with Ryan dazzling her way onto the stage in a fabulous sequinned cape before positing the (by her own admission) absurd theory that ABBA never existed, which she presents in the form of a lecture, Venn diagrams and all. Part comedy cabaret, part memoir, Ryan reveals how she fell in love with the band as a teenager and cleverly draws parallels between that and her simultaneous loss of faith in the Catholic church. Her analysis of both ABBA’s body of work and the Mamma Mia! movie franchise is genuinely fascinating – and hilarious. Who would have thought it contains more multiverses than the MCU?

One shortcoming is that, for a show about ABBA by a performer with such a wonderful voice, there is a curious lack of singing. She teases a few bars of The Winner Takes It All, breaking into tears for comic effect, and offers a few snippets of songs throughout, but only commits to a full rendition in the much-wanted singalong finale.

Overall, for any ABBA, quiz or comedy fan, the show is a real treat and a delightfully joyful way to spend an hour. I won’t spoil the ending, but suffice to say the question of ABBA’s existence is resolved happily. A word of warning, though: you will never listen to Chiquitita in the same way again.

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The Blurb:

Imagine a world where Swedish pop sensations ABBA never really existed... What if we're living in it? Jenny Ryan (ITV's The Chase) is finally ready to go public with her theory of the Mamma Mia multiverse. She's given this a lot of thought. Arguably too much thought. Who really did write Waterloo? Was Andy Garcia a child soldier? Is ABBA Voyage a collective hallucination? How did that horse get into Meryl Streep's basement? And, crucially, what's Gillian McKeith's role in all of this? A singalong comedy investigation/cry for help.