Friday, Feb. 14, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.
There were a couple of fjords in the (Mandalay) Bay on Thursday night, in the form of Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
The former ABBA members visited Las Vegas for the opening of "Mamma Mia!" -- the stage show built around their pop songs.
"When it was first proposed to me -- the idea of a show based on our music -- I thought it was a bad idea," Andersson told us before the curtain rose at the Mandalay Bay Theatre. "But apparently I have been proven wrong."
The 1,700 opening-night patrons sure seemed to enjoy it. Even Siegfried & Roy were standing and waving their hands during the encore, when star Tina Walsh led the entire cast -- and audience -- in a rousing rendition of "Waterloo."
The show is perfect for Las Vegas and a perfect mirror of Las Vegas. It is not an Edward Albee drama -- it is a glitzy facade, featuring pomp, circumstance, costumes, lights, a very enthusiastic and able cast and a tight live orchestra.
"It is a fun show, meant to be enjoyed," one of the show's original producers, Judy Craymer, told us at the afterparty at the House of Blues, also at Mandalay Bay.
"There is a certain infectious energy about it. The cast feeds off the audience and vice versa. I am sure you noticed it tonight."
We couldn't have missed it.
Good Knight
Talk about a Legend in Concert.
Gladys Knight celebrated her one-year anniversary at the Flamingo Las Vegas on Wednesday night.
Even after several decades onstage, many of them with the Pips backing her, Knight has so much life and her show is so vibrant that many Strip headliners could learn a thing or three from her.
The show is an uplifting stroll down a musical memory lane. She sings her own hits ("Midnight Train to Georgia"), she and her talented backup singers run through some Motown favorites, and her brother and former Pip Bubba Knight offers up a moving Sammy Davis Jr. tribute. One thing I found interesting is that Knight obliquely notes that she is the only black headliner on the Strip.
"I hate being pigeonholed," Knight booms at one point from center stage. "Don't tell me I can't do that song because I don't live over there, or don't dress like that."
After her performance she was feted at a private party, where via videotape from the National Lieutenant Governors Conference in Washington, D.C., Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt presented Knight with the 2002 Grammy Knight won for Best Traditional R&B Album.
Knight was in Las Vegas at the time of last year's ceremony and unable to pick it up in person.
Then, Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly -- wearing some snazzy alligator-skin shoes -- presented Knight with a proclamation and a key to the city.
"(Las Vegas Mayor) Oscar Goodman would have been here but it is too late for him and he is probably all gin-d up. But if this was taking place at 5 p.m. he would have been here."
Moving right along ...
Knight finally took to the podium and spent more than an hour thanking her family (including her brother David Knight, who died in 2002), friends, stage crew, road managers, personal assistants, hotel executives, and her neighbor who was in attendance, the soap opera stunner Kimberlin Brown ("The Bold and the Beautiful").
Crazy rumor
Weirdest Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck rumor of the week: They are having a combined bachelor/bachelorette party this weekend at Crazy Horse Too.
The New York Post's Page Six reports that club owners are bragging to the paper about the pending bacchanal.
Reps for Affleck and J. Lo both used curse words when shooting down Rick Rizzolo's seemingly wacky boast to The Post.
But there will be some for-real celebrity strip-club action in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
After her birthday party wraps at Bellagio's Light, socialite and hotel heiress Paris Hilton will adjourn with friends to Sapphire.
Among those expected are Dominique Swain, Edward Furlong, Andy Dick, Slash, George Maloof, Carmen Electra, Dave Navarro and Jon Orlando (Tony Orlando's model son also does his stand-up act earlier that night at Palace Station).
John tour
Stephen Sorrentino opens a locals casino tour tonight.
The world's best Elton John impersonator (he picked up John's mannerisms when he was the singer's personal assistant in the '80s) performs at Fiesta Henderson tonight, Fiesta Rancho on Saturday night, Palace Station on Sunday and Texas Station and Santa Fe Station next week.
Meanwhile Sorrentino was such a hit opening for Dana Carvey last week that fellow "Saturday Night Live" alum Dennis Miller has asked him to also open for his show when Miller appears at Paris Las Vegas in April.
VegasBits
Tiger Woods and a friend stopped into the Smoothie Shack at Tropicana Avenue and Decatur Boulevard on Tuesday afternoon ...
The "Art Through the Ages" show at the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum at The Venetian will remain open a few months longer. Originally scheduled to close in March, it has been extended through May 4. Part of the reason is to accommodate all the school groups that continue to flock to the show, museum spokeswoman Sasha Jackowich said ...
Former President Jimmy Carter arrives in Las Vegas today. His son, Jack Carter, and daughter-in-law Elizabeth Brasfield -- and their children -- recently moved to Las Vegas. They'll all be at a party Saturday at Patty McGuire's Rancho Circle estate ...
In his new film "Bad Boys II," Will Smith is wearing a MOVE 1 wristwatch from FRED Paris at the Forum Shops at Caesars. FRED also outfitted "West Wing"-er Allison Janney and Debra Messing ("Will & Grace") at the Golden Globes with a ring and brooch, and earrings, respectively. It is also going to host an Academy Awards party at Caesars Palace to benefit the Arthritis Foundation ...
Liberace's Las Vegas mansion is for sale. According to Sun real estate reporter Jennifer Shubinski, brokers Joe Noth and Jeff Boughrum of Colliers International-Las Vegas have been granted the exclusive listing by owner Vance Turner. The garish 17,000- square-foot Shirley Street property is listed at a minimum of $3 million.
From Sun wires
A pathologist reported Thursday that Sen. John Kerry's cancer had not spread beyond the prostate gland that was surgically removed a day earlier.
Doctors have said Kerry, who was listed in good condition at the Baltimore hospital Thursday, will not require radiation. He is likely to be released from the hospital Saturday.
Tape delay: Police today recovered reel-to-reel tapes apparently recorded by The Beatles and believed stolen from the band's Abbey Road studios in London more than three decades ago.
Detectives raided a home in western Sydney early today and seized tape recordings of the "Abbey Road" album and "The Beatles," better known as "The White Album." They also confiscated album artwork, police said.
A preliminary examination of the tapes suggested they are either original studio recordings or professionally made copies, police said. They did not say how much the tapes are worth.
The raid stemmed from a British probe into a suspected piracy racket that led to the recovery of 500 tapes believed to be original Beatles recordings during a raid in Holland last month.
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