Happy 30th Anniversary to the West End Premiere of CHESS

Posted: 5/16/16 at 2:23pm

I am late by two days, but Happiest Anniversary!!!    Did anyone see it besides me?.... God, I'm old...  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_(musical)

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 3:06pm

I've always loved the show, especially the original West End version. Would have killed to see the original cast with Elaine Paige, no one beats her on recording for Florence (Judy Kuhn comes close on some songs though).

[devonian.t]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 3:15pm

The concept album has all 4 original leads.  The only difference to the principals is no Barbara Dixon (who was divine in Blood Brothers) I seem to recall Siobhan McCarthy instead.  

I loved Chess at the Prince Edward but there has always been that "what might have been" hanging over it because of the switch to Trevor Nunn, (not suited to this kind of musical).

Endgame- what a showstopper scene!

Sir Tim Rice is the true genius behind most of the best of the big UK musicals (JCS, Joseph, Evita, Chess)- shame he never had the drive/ determination of his less theatrically talented partner.

[AnnieBlack]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 3:18pm

Was just listening the concept album this am! Would love to see the UK version on broadway (has Richard Nelson dropped all objections to that happening?)

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 4:34pm

I saw this three time in London and always enjoyed it.  I never loved it because it was too cold a show.  There was so much focus on the spectacle that the story got lost a little.  Ironically, the spectacle was fascinating, especially when they tipped the stage to resemble the side of a mountain.  Always visually appealing, but at the expense of the show.

It was still a thousand times better than the Broadway version, just detached.  But that score was magnificent, and I seeto remember the orchestra being quite large...that memory may be more influenced by my repeated playing of the score...one of my three of four favorites ever.

[#1Elphie]

Posted: 5/16/16 at 6:31pm

I love this show. I saw a regional production of it in New Zealand and have gathered as many recordings of the show as I can; the London concept album is my favorite. What a gorgeous score.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 5/17/16 at 12:32am

I would love to see John Doyle have a crack at stripping it back ( minus the cast playing instruments) and see what he could do with it 

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 5/17/16 at 9:28am

^ I can already see in my mind's eye how that would work: a starkly abstract design, with the floor painted in a checkerboard pattern, and the sets and props as spare as possible. Almost more concert-like, to emphasize the fact it's not a play with songs, but a musical, and should inhabit a musical world. And no choreography, or at least very little. Sheesh -- in either the British or the American versions, that would be harrowing.

Updated On: 5/17/16 at 09:28 AM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 5/17/16 at 9:44am

I'm still pretty happy with the Albert Hall concert version. I'd love to see a fully staged production of that libretto.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 5/17/16 at 10:33am

Honestly, I feel like the love for the London version is more of an overreaction to how wrongly the Broadway version was presented in its initial production. Yes, Freddie, Florence, and Molokov in particular became wholly unlikable, and the Nelson script kicks the audience's puppy so to speak, but the London version was no less deeply flawed, and everyone went into the Broadway version knowing they'd have to fix it (though in the end they differed on how to do so).

The American version is much easier to fix (as proven by Robert Coe with the 1990 U.S. tour and David H. Bell in the 1990 Lincolnshire Marriott production), because more of it is spoken material, and judicious editing makes a big difference, especially in the last quarter of the show where most of the major problems lie. All you have to do is keep the characters' flaws, but make them more human and relatable. From there, it's a matter of trimming for time and utility (for example, combining scenes to remove unnecessary transitions, as no one is going back to the revolve Trevor Nunn used in the original Broadway production).

Further, I feel in many ways the American version improved on several problems with the London version. For example, the split-match (Anatoly and Freddie in Act I, and Anatoly and Viigand in Act II) format is a key weakness of the London version. For their flaws (all of them have second-act problems), the later variations have a much greater coherency, which stems from the fact that the single chess match (between Anatoly and Freddie) acts as a framing event for the dramatic action. The benefit of a single-match format is that the action is much more cohesive, with the match providing the outline for the drama.

The only thing I'd really change about the Broadway version, aside from what I discussed above, is scaling the timeline of the show back to the Cold War. The material in the Broadway and Sydney productions inevitably ran into the glasnost and perestroika issues. The most immediate problem of glasnost and perestroika is that they made Anatoly's defection from the Soviet Union almost paradoxical. Without the onerous travel restrictions of a Soviet citizen, the defection is more of a personal than a political statement, and almost certainly loses the intended punch (which was to parallel Anatoly to Viktor Korchnoi, a Soviet grandmaster who left Russia because he was blocked from rising to the top of the Russian chess circuit). One of the crucial things to understand when dealing with Chess is that it was conceived of as a very timely musical, dealing with east/west tensions and the odd phenomenon of chess celebrity in the West. It is almost impossible to justify a time setting other than 1986, or a few years before it.

Updated On: 5/17/16 at 10:33 AM

[devonian.t]

Posted: 5/17/16 at 11:04am

An interesting analysis.  It's a long time since I've seen the show on stage but I actually felt the Viigand match helped to widen the palate so that the whole of the chess world didn't appear to be just 2 players.

Fundamentally, as you point out, the extended metaphor of chess and East/ West relations no longer works as it did- even though tensions are rising, Anatoly's personal liberation no longer works on the political level.  It has to be a period piece- pushing it even further back might help.

The last 15- 20 minutes are great so really it's about giving the first part of act 2 some better progression and pace.

Posted: 5/17/16 at 11:13am

I have seen approximately 25 productions over the past 30 years and musically its one of my absolute favorites.  I do think now it needs to be set as a period piece.  As little off broadway production starring Kathleen Rowe McAllen as Florence (I think it was the Master theatre?) set it in the 70's which actually worked save for the Rubik's Cube line in the Merchandisers Song.

I also agree that the choreography needs to completely eliminated.  Its distracting and has no point other than perhaps the stunning opening number from London  "Story of Chess", perhaps as little Florence's father telling her how the game began.