I’ve been a Roxette fan for 33 years. Music-wise Joyride was the first real life-changing experience for me when I first heard the song. The little girl who in 1991 was sitting persistently in front of MTV to catch the video certainly wouldn’t have thought that 33 years later she would be sitting in the front row of the audience in Malmö Opera and see the world premiere of a musical titled Joyride, including tons of her most beloved band’s amazing songs.
Besides music, theatre is my other great passion, so when I heard that a musical would be created based on Roxette songs, I couldn’t be happier and more excited. The press release about Roxette’s music becoming a musical came out in May 2022. Per already talked about musical ideas in an interview in 2015. He said he can imagine that there could be a musical built on Roxette’s hits, just like ABBA’s Mamma Mia! and the Queen musical, but only if the right way is found. Something new. As he mentioned recently, Malmö Opera came into sight in 2017. Good things take time, right?
In 2022 it was also revealed that the musical would be based on bestseller author Jane Fallon’s novel Got You Back (published in 2008). Of course, I immediately bought that book and read it to see what it’s all about. It’s an entertaining story about the triangle between a husband, his wife and his mistress and the revenge of the latter two gone wrong.
While reading, a tremendous amount of Roxette songs popped up in my head and back then I made a list for myself. 12 of the songs I put on that list ended up in the musical. That list was long (32), but I could have added at least as many tracks still. Usually, 20-25 songs fit in a musical and when it comes to a world famous band, of course, the most well-known hits should be included. But is there any place for lesser-known songs?
Fast forward to November 2023. The title was revealed: Joyride – The Musical. The world premiere was set to 6th September and the ticket sales started. 35,000 tickets were sold in a very short time and people from 30 different countries bought tickets. As Per said in an interview, 45% was bought by people who have never been to Malmö Opera before, so Roxette is a strong magnet.
This strong magnet pulled me to Malmö to see the world premiere. I arrived in Malmö a couple of days before the big show and I was happy to walk around and be greeted by a Joyride musical banner on Södra Förstadsgatan. Malmö Opera has an LED screen on their roof and that one had been promoting Joyride – The Musical since long and it gives a wonderful picture together with Tragos Fountain at the square in front of the opera house.
Before premiere day, there were 3 main rehearsals to which Malmö Opera invited closed groups of theatre people and students. In social media you could see some pictures and short videos popping up and all of them praised the show. I heard one of these main rehearsals didn’t go too smoothly, but hey, those were still rehearsals, when the show was not ready yet. It has to be ready for the premiere.
On premiere day, while having my breakfast, I saw Per – sitting in his hotel room – giving an interview to Nyhetsmorgon on TV4. He joined in via video call and you could see he was excited and so ready for that historical day.
During the day we bumped into other Roxers in town as well – fans from Germany, Poland, Hungary, Finland, the Netherlands and other strange places. Haha. We got dressed for success and arrived at Malmö Opera after 5 pm. The red carpet was already rolled out, there was a Joyride photo wall in front of which anyone could take pictures and of course, there were tons of balloons. Heart-shaped ones!
There were photographers and journalists waiting in front of the red carpet, people who wanted to see the prominent guests’ arrival were standing there too. Others were already inside the building, grabbing a bite or having a drink on the terrace. I went inside to pick up some press stuff. The package included a Joyride musical bag in which there were two printed program booklets. One of them was the one that anyone could pick up for free, a smaller size, colorful booklet in Swedish, the other was a bigger, 12” vinyl size booklet full of pictures and interviews, words by Per. Mine was in English, but it exists in Swedish too. This latter one you can buy for 150 SEK.
The building is huge and spacious! In the foyer, there is a giant bronze statue of Thalia and for this historical world premiere, she got some heart-shaped balloons in her hands too. Tragos Fountain was on fire – I thought it was also for the event, but I was informed the fire is on every day when there is a performance at the theatre.
The invited guests walked the red carpet, many of them were stopped by the photographers, then by the opera house’s cameraman who recorded short interviews with them. Then they entered Operagrillen to have a drink or two before the show. Yeah, there were Joyride – The Beer cans both at Operagrillen and the theatre buffet. Such a cool idea!
At 6 pm (for about 15 minutes) there was an introduction to the musical in the lower foyer by dramaturg Boel Adler, while opera singer Rickard Söderberg and dramaturg Tor Billgren joined her.
Who walked the red carpet? There were some early birds like Alar Suurna, Magnus Börjesson with his wife and Mats MP Persson. We were all extremely happy to see Mikael Bolyos!!! He arrived with a friend. Then came Valdemar Wahlbeck, Staffan Karlsson, Mats Olsson, Uno Svenningsson, Nisse Hellberg, Anders Roos, Jan-Owe Wikström, choreographer of the musical Miles Hoare and Fredrik Etoall. All with families and friends.
At appr. 6.15 pm, Per appeared around the corner, Marie Dimberg was showing the way towards the red carpet. PG – the pop star – was stopped by fans who asked for autographs on their records. The schedule was tight, so Mr. G had to move forward to the red carpet, in front of the Joyride photo wall and he was of course joined by the muse who on one fine day wrote that note in Swedish that became the starting idea of Roxette’s fourth US No.1 hit. „Hello, you fool, I love you!” Åsa and Per were posing for photos, then they were joined by their son, Gabriel and his girlfriend. Some more photos were taken and then they walked off the red carpet towards the same way they came from. Some fans took selfies with Per and SVT also stopped PG to do a short interview with him.
Then some more invited guests walked the red carpet: Sven Lindström, Dea Norberg, Micke Syd Andersson (he even jumped back to pose with a bunch of fans), Göran Fritzon, Christoffer Lundquist, Lars Nordin, Clarence Öfwerman, director of the musical Guy Unsworth and set designer David Woodhead. They all came with families and friends as well.
More red carpet and stage photos HERE!
Here I just mentioned the guests related anyhow to the Roxette world, but I’m sure there were even more famous Swedes on the guest list.
We all entered the opera house to find our seats and finally join the Joyride in musical form. The starting time was set to 7 pm and the show was said to be 2 hours 45 minutes long including a 30-minute break between the two acts.
I had my seat in the first row, in the middle. As I mentioned previously, I love going to the theatre and I sit in the front, because it’s important for me to see the faces of the actors while they are playing. I love to see all the little details, the facial expressions, the gestures. For those who like to see the whole stage, all at once, I suggest sitting in further rows or on the balcony. Also, the dialogues are in Swedish, the songs are in English, but everything is subtitled both in Swedish and in English, so if you want to read the texts during the show, you should definitely sit further away, because the texts are above the stage. All choreographies are anyway very enjoyable from the front row close-up too, but if you prefer the big picture, sit in the 5th row or further away.
Malmö Opera’s main stage has an auditorium that holds an audience of 1511 and the stage is one of the largest in Europe. It’s a large stage indeed. XXXL! What you see when you enter the auditorium is the word JOYRIDE set up letter by letter on stage. Before I saw pics and vids from the rehearsals, I thought the orchestra would be right under the stage in the orchestra pit in front of me, but the setting was different. The orchestra had its place behind the JOYRIDE letters, the musicians were tuning in their instruments.
Stella (Sara Stjernfeldt), the daughter of Stephanie (Jessica Marberger) and Joe (Alexander Lycke), entered the stage with a guitar while everyone in the audience tried to find their seats. She sat in the middle of the stage, in front of the JOYRIDE letters. She seemed to be writing a song.
When almost everyone was already sitting, Per and his family and friends also entered the auditorium and seated themselves on the left side of the stage in maybe rows 8-9.
The excitement was growing and… it was time for the musical to start. BUT, before a performance starts at theatres, there is always a voice asking you to switch off your mobiles. This time the voice was Per Gessle! Haha. When Per posted a picture of himself a couple of weeks ago saying „Yep. Had to work today at Malmö Opera! Joyride The Musical needed me!”, I was quite sure this would be the case, recording his voice for the mobile alert. Fab! The intro to Per’s talking was the tune of the Joyride whistle (already here the audience got very silent) and then Mr. G greeted the crowd at Malmö Opera and said that filming and taking pictures are not allowed during the show and he kindly asked you to switch off your mobiles. „And now… C’mon, join the Joyride!” The audience was cheering very loudly.
Here I switch off my usual me who always describes / transcripts things in details how they were, because I don’t want to spoil the fun for you watching the musical whenever you have the chance to see it. I will only share some general feelings, observations which are of course subjective and I’m of course biased when it comes to anything related to my most beloved band. So be prepared for all the positivity and love. Haha. Those who don’t want ANY spoilers should stop reading here. Oh well, actually, they shouldn’t have started reading this article at all. Nevermind!
The show is played in two acts. The first act is appr. 1 hour 15 minutes long, the second lasts for appr. 1 hour and 10 minutes.
The key roles of Stephanie (the wife), Katie (the mistress) and Joe (the husband) are played by Eurovision Song Contest participant Jessica Marberger, West End musical artist Marsha Songcome and Alexander Lycke, international musical actor and frequent leading man at Stockholm City Theatre.
The direction and adaptation for the stage of Klas Abrahamsson’s original script are made by Guy Unsworth, international award-winning director and writer, whose intention was to create a perfect evening for those who love musicals, but also for those who love Roxette.
In the creative team we could see two familiar names: Clarence Öfwerman (producer and musician; Roxette producer from the very beginning; keyboards in Roxette) and Christoffer Lundquist (producer, multi-instrumentalist musician and songwriter; producing Per’s music since Mazarin and playing in the Roxette band mainly on lead guitar, but on other instruments as well). We could be sure that Roxette’s music was in right hands and all the songs would be handled with care. So besides the fact that Per has been involved in the project from the start, it could also give us a guarantee that the end result would be magical.
The music has been reworked by Clarence and Christoffer in collaboration with Joakim Hallin, who is the conductor of the orchestra. This team did one hell of a job!
Earlier Per said:
I haven’t had any direct wishes or opinions about how it should be other than that I think it should be very much Roxette. I think the worst that can happen is that it sounds like a Roxette cover band playing this. You want it to sound like the soul of Roxette is present in some way.
Since everyone in the promo videos and in interviews, as well as the press conference was very enthusiastic about the musical, I was sure they would put all their efforts into making it a magical night. Everyone in the cast and creative team was excited to be part of creating something new, a newly written musical. Malmö Opera also promoted the show at their summer events, where the actors were singing songs of Roxette and so we could hear they are all very talented singers. Now on stage it came out even better. The three main characters, Stephanie (Jessica Marberger), Katie (Marsha Songcome) and Joe (Alexander Lycke) have amazing voices and oh. my. God. what a voice Stella (Sara Stjernfeldt) has! This girl is pure awesomeness how she sings. Then there is Meredith (Sanna Martin) with fantastic vocal abilities. The ensemble, when they are singing together, it sounds fabulous!
The amount of Roxette songs that got into the musical will amaze you. There are so many songs it feels the dialogues are only there to fill in the gap. Haha. Nah. The whole performance is put together in a great way. All songs included come at the right point of the story adding to it with their lyrics. Even if the story was already there and the lyrics were already there, not written especially for the musical, they all fit together, completing each other. I don’t know which direction is more difficult. To write a story based on existing songs or find the most fitting songs for an already existing story. What happened here feels like a match made in heaven.
The choreographies by Miles Hoare are very modern and you feel like you would love to jump on stage to dance together with all the dancers. Of course, singing along (at least miming) during the whole show is evident for a fan, I think. It was impossible at least for me to shut my mouth when all Roxette songs came one after the other. It felt like being at a concert. Especially the fact that the main characters sometimes hold the mics in their hands or stand next to a mic stand while singing strengthens this feeling. My theatre-lover side would love them to use only their head microphones, because that doesn’t grab me out of the scene and lets me live together with the emotions of the character, but my Roxette fan side says hey, it’s all about Roxette’s amazing song catalogue, so I like it like that and I want to sing along with Katie or Stephanie or Joe or Stella and feel the emotions through the songs.
The costumes are amazingly colorful – mainly during the fashion-related scenes as Stephanie is a stylist. They perfectly fit the vivid colors of Roxette’s music. Torbjörn Bergström and his team did a fab job! There are also hints related to Roxette clips and I love that. They probably won’t be noticed by standard audiences, but fans appreciate all the little details.
And those little details are not only in the costumes. They appear in the texts too. In the dialogues there are references to lyrics and small things all fans know about. One of my favourites is when Stella says Gibson (her guitar) is to be pronounced with a hard G. So it’s these kinds of small things. You must love it.
The JOYRIDE letters on stage have different functions, not only to be beautiful. The back side of the letters is set like a shelf at the fashion company (where Stephanie works) or shelf in a shop, shelf of the vet clinic (where Joe works), things like that. The stage set is effective and playful. How the stage construction is used is also playful. The orchestra appears here and there, pulled to the front, pushed to the back. The front of the stage goes very deep at one point and there are scenes when the actors climb stairs to get to the next floor of the apartment.
Oh yes! There is a car! After all, it’s JOYRIDE – The Musical, so there just has to be a car at some point. A red one, of course.
The audience’s reaction to the songs is everything! Their clapping along, singing along, the cheering, the whistling.
During the break I bumped into Christoffer and we talked a little. I told him I absolutely loved it so far and he was very happy to hear it. He said that at the Tuesday rehearsal it didn’t look like it would work out, they even had to change this and that. For the premiere it seems every piece fell into its place.
Before I mention my top favourite songs, I have to mention my absolute favourite character. It’s Gary (Oscar Pierrou Lindén). He is so entertaining! His look, style, facial expressions, singing, most fun!
My Top3 songs together with the related scenes are:
No. 3: I’m sorry, I have to cheat, because I can’t decide, but The First Girl On The Moon performed by Stella (Sara Stjernfeldt) on guitar is magical and it has to be one of my No. 3 songs. This girl is amazing! The song is interrupted, then Stephanie (Jessica Marberger) and Joe (Alexander Lycke) sing the rest of it. Wonderful! The other No. 3 song is The Centre Of The Heart (Is A Suburb To The Brain) – how it heightens the thrill together with the dialogues in between. It’s sung by Katie (Marsha Songcome) and the ensemble joins in. The orchestration is wonderful.
No. 2: Haha. I need to put 2 songs + scenes at this spot too. First of all, Crash! Boom! Bang! – sung by Stephanie and Katie. Exceptional the way it’s sung by two women. The scene before they start singing is very entertaining and their singing is very dramatic. The ensemble’s choir is magical here. The other No. 2 is Queen Of Rain sung by Joe (Alexander Lycke). It’s not the only Marie ballad Alex sings in the musical, but for me this was the strongest. Wow! A.m.a.z.i.n.g. vocal performance! Goosebumps! The orchestration here is wonderful too.
No. 1: What’s She Like? – I love how the song is used, how the lyrics support the flow of the story. Stephanie (Jessica Marberger) sings like a rock star here and when the ensemble joins in, I love it too. The choreography is surreal with all the costumes as well. Top! (I only missed a little pause here to be able to give a round of applause to this scene, but a next ballad comes right after.)
These are my Top3 (after seeing the musical only once), but it would be hard to set further top songs and scenes, because it feels very complete to me and also very emotional as a fan. I’ve been wondering how it can affect the songwriter himself to hear all these songs one after the other that mean his life, when even me as a fan of 33 years feels like it’s all my life. These songs have been standing by my side in good and bad times.
Besides my top songs mentioned above, of course the big hits like Listen To Your Heart, Dangerous, The Look, Dressed For Success, It Must Have Been Love, How Do You Do! (haha, have to laugh when I remember the scene it was used in: love triangle surprises at their best), She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio), Sleeping In My Car, Spending My Time, Neverending Love, The Big L., Fading Like A Flower, Wish I Could Fly are also included. It’s a jukebox musical after all! At the same time, there are lesser-known songs (to the wider audience): Milk And Toast And Honey, Stars (the choir singing in this one is outstanding and absolutely magical), Opportunity Nox, Dance Away, Half A Woman, Half A Shadow, Goodbye To You. The fact that Marie’s song, Little Girl got in the musical and the spot it got, sung by Stephanie (Jessica Marberger) is in itself wonderful. Jessica said in an interview that this is the song she likes to sing the most in the musical.
Did I miss something? Oh, yeah! JOYRIDE! Haha. Wow! So many songs, so little time! Haha.
You would think they used all the hits in the first act, but then you realize you still haven’t heard this song and that one, so you can be sure there are goodies left for you in the second act as well.
At the end of the show I loved seeing short video scenes from clips where Marie also appears. Her presence was felt. Much love!
And much love to the whole team on and off stage! No surprise the world premiere ended with a standing ovation, loud cheering and neverending applause. Hats off to all involved in the making of Joyride – The Musical! You all did a wonderful job!
Thank you, Per, for all the amazing songs that have always made this world a better place and provided a soundtrack to thousands of people’s lives! Also thanks for your neverending drive and striving for keeping Roxette’s legacy alive!
Per thinks Marie would have liked that Roxette’s music now becomes a musical:
I think she would have thought it was amazing. She was much more interested in musicals than I really was from the beginning. So I think she would have thought this was really cool. I’ve never been a huge musical fan myself. It’s a new chapter in the book of my life and it’s exciting to step into it.
To the question how important it is for him that their music becomes a musical, Per replied:
It’s a big thing and it’s exciting. It feels great and I have a good feeling about it in every way. I hope this musical will be a success, so that it can go on around the planet, just like Roxette did once upon a time.
Why I am confident it will work very well not only in Sweden, but all around the world is because all the fans who are definitely not fans of musicals liked the show and as I could see, all the musical fans enjoyed it a lot as well. Win-win!
Ticket sales are going crazy! All shows in autumn are sold out. Malmö Opera decided to add two more shows in December and they sold out in an hour. So, if you still see tickets available, make sure you buy one, because they are selling like hot cakes and you definitely don’t want to miss this show! You can see it at Malmö Opera until 27th April 2025. Get your tickets HERE!
I have to see it again (and again and again) not only to notice even more little details, but to enjoy this amazing piece of art the team put together. The plan was to make a feel-good musical and they oh so succeeded!
West End, Broadway, musical theatres all around the world! C’mon, join the JOYRIDE!
Creatives
Based on the songs of Roxette and the novel Got You Back by Jane Fallon
MUSIC AND LYRICS by Per Gessle
ORIGINAL BOOK by Klas Abrahamsson
NEW BOOK by Guy Unsworth
DIRECTED by Guy Unsworth
MUSICAL SUPERVISOR Joakim Hallin
—
CONDUCTOR Joakim Hallin / Bjarni Frímann Bjarnason
SET DESIGN David Woodhead
COSTUME & MASK DESIGN Torbjörn Bergström
CHOREOGRAPHY Miles Hoare
LIGHTING DESIGN Ulrik Gad
SOUND DESIGN Avgoustos Psillas
ARRANGEMENTS Joakim Hallin
ORCHESTRATIONS Joakim Hallin, Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist
VIDEO DESIGN Daniel Denton /Nathan Fernée (animator)
Cast
STEPHANIE Jessica Marberger / us Caroline Gustafsson
KATIE Marsha Songcome / us Kerstin Hilldén
JOE Alexander Lycke / Patrik Martinsson
NATASHA Sara Lehmann / us Sienna Sebek
GARY Oscar Pierrou Lindén / us Rasmus Mononen
MEREDITH Sanna Martin / us Emilie Evbäck
MICHAEL Patrik Martinsson / David Lindell / us Fredrik Sjöstedt
JOHN Jan Modin / us Erik Gullbransson
STELLA Sara Stjernfeldt / Elsa Zetterqvist Thunström / Tilda Hallström
Ensemble
Marcus Elander
Kerstin Hilldén
Michael Jansson
Caroline Gustafsson
Patrik Martinsson
Fredrik Sjöstedt
Erik Gullbransson
Sienna Sebek
Rasmus Mononen
Emilie Evbäck
David Lindell
Emmie Asplund
Joel Zerpe
Steffen Hulehøj Frederiksen
Robin Lake
David Auxoilte
Oliver Gramenius
Hanna Carlbrand
Emma Kumlien
Leila Jung
Christel Nilsen
Malmö Opera Orchestra
Publisher
PUBLISHER / AGENCY Nordiska ApS / Jimmy Fun Music
All photos in the article have been taken by Patrícia Peres