2/1/2022
Performances and Artists
Las Vegas resident Alison Ward has no shortage of performance opportunities.
She’s headlined her own show in Las Vegas and performs worldwide with major cruise lines — but above all this, one show remains her favorite.
Since 2010, Ward has repeatedly returned to perform internationally with smash tribute production “ABBA MANIA.”
“I love the show itself, and I absolutely love ABBA, even after singing the songs for 12 years now,” says Ward, a British native who has lived in Las Vegas for nearly a decade. “I’ve had the privilege of traveling the world with the show.”
“Literally all the people who have known me in Vegas will be the in the front row,” she says.
Southern Nevadans can expect a thrilling evening at the show’s two-hour recreation of one of ABBA’s most memorable concerts.
With the four cast members acting as the Swedish supergroup’s members, they will perform the band’s long list of megahits, including “Dancing Queen,” “Mammia Mia,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Super Trouper,” “Waterloo” and many more.
As the show creates an energizing concert atmosphere, Ward never fails to see audiences on their feet.
“That’s what keeps me going every time,” she says. “No matter where we are, when ‘Dancing Queen’ starts, people jump up and they are singing and they are loving it.”
Finding a Musical Home in Las Vegas
Ward didn’t always envision herself in Las Vegas.
Raised in a musical family, she took dance classes and performed throughout her youth, which launched her to eventually performing at the prestigious London Palladium and Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.
This followed with landing the lead role in a musical show set in London – and then she received a last-minute update that she would perform the show in Las Vegas.
“It was one of the most surreal weeks of my life,” Ward says.
But it all seemed meant to be.
She took the job and headlined at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino, and soon decided to make Vegas her home, after meeting the love of her life and becoming enamored with the city itself.
“Las Vegas is all the shows and more. You can’t go into a place and not hear live music,” she says. “What’s better than to be surrounded by music?”
The Power of ABBA
Ward feels no surprise that ABBA’s music remains wildly popular.
“The songs are just so catchy,” she says. “You can’t not dance along to ‘Dancing Queen.’ You can’t not sing along to ‘Mamma Mia’ or ‘Chiquitita.’”
ABBA songs also enjoyed a surge of popularity from the Broadway musical and film “Mamma Mia” that showcased ABBA hits, she adds, followed by the sequel “Mammia Mia: Here We Go Again.”
“Between the oldies who grew up with ABBA and the kids who have fallen in love with it since then, it’s just good, decent, dance-along, feel-good music,” Ward says.