In a musical courtroom victory, former Abba stars Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson have won the battle for the royalties for their hit musical Kristina from Duvemala.
The Abba duo were entangled in a courtroom brawl with Carl-Johan Seth over who is entitled to royalties from the hit musical.
Carl-Johan Seth maintained that he wrote the first draft of the musical and hence he should be considered to be the main writer. But Ulvaeus and Andersson said they had to use a script by director Lars Rudolfsson and dramatist Jan Mark instead.
Staffan Michelson, Seth’s lawyer, was very disappointed by the court ruling and said that his client would appeal against the decision.
Kristina from Duvemala is a swedish musical based on a series of four novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg detailing a family’s poverty-driven migration from Sweden to America in the mid-19th century.
The musical has been translated into English by Bjorn Ulvaeus and translator Herbert Kretzmer of Les Miserables fame and is slated for a Broadway release this year.
Happy with the outcome of the courtroom drama, Ulvaeus and Andersson have started with their plans for a US transfer to take the musical to Broadway.
