The 90-minute documentary film Super Troupers: Thirty Years of ABBA, which takes up three-quarters of this DVD, is built around the celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the London opening of the musical Mamma Mia!, based on ABBA songs, on April 6, 2004, a date that also marked the 30th anniversary of the day "Waterloo" won the Eurovision Song Contest, launching ABBA's international career. For the performance at the Prince Edward Theatre, former ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad travel from Sweden to appear on-stage; although the film teases that the group's fourth member, Agnetha Fältskog, may appear, bringing the quartet together in public for the first time since 1982; she does not. Nevertheless, interview footage and audiotape of her is included, along with comments by the other three. The film borrows heavily from ABBA music videos and from portions of the film ABBA: The Movie, cutting back and forth between performances and backstage footage of the group in its heyday and the former members in London in 2004. Songwriter/producer Pete Waterman, his booming voice and middle-class British accent often recalling interviewer David Frost, serves as an occasional narrator as ABBA's history is recounted, going back to the early careers of the individual members. ABBA fans will probably find this history the most interesting part of the film, as it shows such pre-ABBA bands as $the ep Stars (featuring Andersson) and the Hootenanny Singers (with Ulvaeus) in action, along with excerpts from early solo performances by Lyngstad and Fältskog. There is some disappointment that the reclusive Fältskog does not join the festivities, but this is ameliorated somewhat by the news that she is working on a new album and by footage of her in the studio doing so. The DVD's extras include the complete finale of Mamma Mia! on the anniversary night and interviews with Ulvaeus and Lyngstad. The result is the best documentary on ABBA yet assembled.
