Culture For The Non-Cultured

Feather your hair & warm up your voice if you need a new discount bed because the upcoming movie version of the Broadway play Mamma Mia is teaming up with Ikea, and Ikea is opening in Red Hook in Brooklyn on Wednesday.

Mamma Mia is based on the long-running Broadway show that uses songs from the Swedish band Abba to tell the story of a girl trying to identify her father before she marries. Ikea, of course, is the Swedish discount furniture store which requires you to assemble your own furniture.

Besides bonding over their shared Swedish-ness, Ikea is partnering with the movie to provide entertainment for people who come from far and wide to shop within its walls.

And entertainment there will be:

– In-store trailers hyping the Universal Pictures release

– Abba sing-alongs at every location on four different weekends in June and July

– And, if you happen to be in Burbank, California on July 17th, there will be a mass wedding of 20 couples at the Ikea there in what the store calls its “Ikea ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’ Want to Get Married at the Mamma Mia! Wedding Event” Couples Search.” (Say that one 10 times fast, willya?)

Yay! Sing-alongs! Marriages! And, the Gothamist reports that Ikea will be providing FREE water taxis from Red Hook to Manhattan to ease traffic congestion!

Oh, yeah, more traffic: well, as my Mamma Mia always says, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything.

Here’s the preview for the new movie, Mamma Mia (hit play in the center of the screen to view)