Custom Made Theatre Co. Opens 2016-2017 Season with CHESS

Custom Made Theatre Company opens its 18th season in San Francisco with Chess, the legendary rock opera from Tim Rice ("Evita","Jesus Christ Superstar") and Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, members of the celebrated pop group, ABBA. Set towards the end of the cold war, Chess uses politics and sport as metaphor for a love triangle between an enfant-terrible American superstar (loosely modeled on Bobby Fisher), his Hungarian-born lover/second, and a Soviet player looking to start a new life.

Chess reunites Artistic Director Katz and Musical Director Armando Fox, the team responsible­ for Custom Made's award-winning production of Next to Normal. Chess will be a reimagined revival of the ground-breaking musical, which played for three years on the West End of London. Custom Made has taken up lyricist Tim Rice's call to create their own version of this rarely seen musical, rearranging the score and taking the best of the London, Broadway and concert versions of the show. With its Cold War plot, and recent US-Russian tensions, Chess is getting a timely showing as politics and relationships intersect to make for unforgettable musical.

The Custom Made production of Chess features Leah Shesky (SF Playhouse's Promises, Promises), Misha Stephens (Ray of Light's Heathers) and returning Custom Made veterans Chris Uzelac (Assassins) and Heather Orth (Grey Gardens). Director/playwright Stuart Bousel (Grey Gardens, Six Degrees of Separation) served as dramaturg on the new cut of the musical, and is also in the cast. It runs September 15-October 15 at Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, two blocks from Union Square, in San Francisco

Cast

Florence Vassy.................. Leah Shesky

Freddy Trumper.................Misha Stephens

Anatoly Sergievsky............Chris Uzelac

Molokov..............................Matin Bell

Arbiter.................................Alan Coyne

Walter.................................Stuart Bousel

Svetlana Sergievsky...........Heather Orth

Television Network Host..Juliana Lustenader

Ensemble:
Katie Francis
Tony Lynn Guidry
Paul Hogarth
Rowan Rivers
Gabrielle Traub
Ted Zoldan

Creative Team

Director - Brian Katz
Musical Director - Armando Fox
Choreography - Daunielle Rasmussen
Scenic Design - Austin Kottkamp
Costume Design - Brooke Jennings
Lighting Design- Maxx Kurzunski
Video Design - Maxx Kurzunski
Dramaturgy - Stuart Bousel
Stage Manager - Rachel Maddux
Asst. Stage Manager- Linda Huang

Chess premièred in the Prince Edward Theatre in London in May 1986 and ran for three years to enthusiastic reviews. The Daily Telegraph wrote that the show was "gift-wrapped and gorgeous...compels admiration", The Times noted that "it turns out to be a fine piece of work that shows the dinosaur mega-musical evolving into an intelligent form of life" and Today called it "gripping, eye-catching... nearly a major triumph".

The show moved to Broadway in 1988, and its complex staging was changed radically. There is more dialogue in the American version, and subsequent productions have combined elements of both the British and American approaches. The Broadway production garnered numerous award nominations, including Outstanding Music for Andersson and Ulvaeus.

Tim Rice had long wanted to create a musical about the Cold War; in the 1970s he had discussed writing a musical about the Cuban Missile Crisis with his usual collaborator, Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 1979, Rice had the idea to instead tell the story through the prism of the American-Soviet chess rivalry; he had previously been fascinated by the political machinations of the 1972 "Match of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Webber was busy at the time with the musical Cats, so American producer Richard Vos suggested working with Andersson and Ulvaeus instead, knowing they were looking for projects outside of ABBA. Rice, who was a fan of ABBA, agreed; he wrote later that he felt no reservations because "there is a sense of theatre in the ABBA style." In a 2001 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Rice said he considers Chess his best work in musical theatre.

Brian Katz (Director) is the Founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Custom Made Theatre Co in San Francisco. For the company, he has directed over thirty productions including the SF Bay Area Critic's Circle Best Overall Play of 2012: Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby and the recently nominated This is Our Youth (also nom., best director). Other recent projects include Will Eno's Middletown, Kushner's A Bright Room Called Day (nominee, Best Director, SFBATCC), Next to Normal (nominee, Best Overall Production), and the regional premieres of Slaughterhouse-Five, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Red Light Winter among many others. His adaptation of Voltaire, Candide, of California, has been presented in both San Francisco and New York. Brian has worked at Cal Shakes, Berkeley Rep, the Goodman Theatre, Killing My Lobster, as well as other excellent places, and is an alumnus of Clark University (Distinguished Young Alumni Award, 2006) where he recently returned to direct their production of Cabaret. He produced the Off-Broadway premiere of Custom Made's Sam and Dede, or My Dinner with Andre the Giant, and is developing his adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night, which will close Custom Made's 16/17 season.

CURTAIN TIMES AND TICKETS
Venue: Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco
Previews: Sept. 15-17, 8:00 pm; $25-28
Opens: Sunday, Sept. 18 at 7:00 pm
Runs: Sept. 15-Oct. 15. Wed (9/28, 10/14 only) 7:30 pm; Thursdays & Fridays & Saturdays 8:00 pm; Sunday (9/25 &10/9 only) 3:00 pm
Running Time: approx. 2 hours, 15 minutes
Tickets: $60 Opening Night; Other times $25-45. (415) 798-CMTC (2682), www.custommade.org