I've been listening to the 2009 Royal Albert Hall Concert recording with Josh Groban/Adam Pascal/Idina Menzel et al...The score is absolutely lovely (especially with the aforementioned voices), if not a little long.
What would you all think about a revival (with as much of this cast as possible)? I think (especially if Groban joins) it would give a new generation exposure to this otherwise underrated score.
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There's a lot of interesting music and opportunities for great singers to perform it, but what works in a concert doesn't really work that well in a production. I saw last year's revival/revisal at Signature in VA (with Euan Morton, Jill Paice, and Jeremy Kushnier) and while the three of them (and the rest of the cast) performed effortlessly, the show is a long bore.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
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Anyone else think the concert version with at the RAH would work as it is? I mean sure add some dialogue and such and cut some minor things but I thought the plot was the most coherent in that version
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I absolutely loved this score, until I saw it on Broadway! Still happy I went, for David Carroll and Judy Kuhn, but what a depressing show! I still have the original 'concept' CD and video with Elaine Paige, but it's one show I'd never want to re-visit. I'll never forget eating at Orso's after, sandwiched in between Bernadeete Peters and Beverly Sills tables. Updated On: 9/19/11 at 07:19 PM
Clap Youl Hands, you are too young to have seen either the Broadway or the London production. You get very, very, very angry when people are negative about Love Never Dies, so maybe you should stop these vitriolic attacks on productions you have NEVER seen. Maybe you do not like Chess, because its storyline is too complicated for you to follow ?
The British version (basically the one at the Albert Hall) is not a good show, there is a half hour of expositional and local color numbers before the plot actually starts, its boring. The recent actors-as-orchestra version that toured the UK and is now in Toronto (again, based on the original West End) may be the worst professional theatrical production I have ever seen. However. The Broadway version got things going immediately. Its a very adult musical, well rooted in its time period, that had three very layered, three dimensional characters that captured my interest immediately. I have a great fondness for the Broadway production, I saw it three times and still go to Lincoln Center every six or seven years to watch it again.
P-Letti, the fact that you are assuming to know my exact age is a little scary...Besides which, I have seen Chess. It may not have been the original London or the original Broadway production, but then I am not making comments about either of those productions. I am making comments about the SHOW. Which I SAW. The show that I saw had a couple of nice songs. Thus ends it's merit. It had a misguided book and a long, boring storyline. The production values of the particular production I saw were terrible to the extent that it made me feel ill. But then, of course, I am merely making comments about the show. I left the theatre thinking "what the hell just happened?", and the people who watched the show with me agreed. Of course, everyone else is entitled to their own opinion, just as I am. My opinion happens to be that CHESS is the WORST musical I have ever seen. Remember, it's not a song, or a score it is a MUSICAL. And for me, it fails as a musical. It fails in it's storytelling, it fails in it's characters and the score is one of the most confused, mis-matched things I have ever heard. And this is coming from a fan of ABBA.
If you still believe that I am neither entitled to my opinion, or that my opinion on the SHOW is somehow invalid because I didn't see a particular production, you are a fool. Updated On: 9/20/11 at 04:17 AM
I do not do a lot of posting, reading posts is more my thing. You continuously make references to your age. You even posted a photo of yourself - so no need to be scared.
On more than one occasion you have posted a link to your review. I had the misfortune to write I did not like the way it was written (it had the grammar of a 7-year old) not to mention your illegal use of copyrighted material on your blog and YOU started World War 3. Apparantly only YOU are entitled to an opinion.
"Except they're all crap... :P " was a comment on the London and Broadway productions, which YOU have not seen. Later you updated that post and wrote that is was a joke for my sake .... very childish.
"You continuously make references to your age. You even posted a photo of yourself."
Wow, OK, umm, where?
Also, that post was meant to be light-hearted. However, I did mean that no matter how amazing a production is, I still maintain that the show is crap. Therefore, surely all productions have that theme in common?
Updated On: 9/20/11 at 05:17 AM
HAHAHAHA you are so funny .... the photo where you are seen blocking Sondheim's light ? Not only did you have to photo taken against Sondheim's wishes , you then posted it on here and on your blog. That IS very respectful and mature, isn't it ?
You are the only one entitled to determine when a show is crap. For me Love Never Dies is crap, but I nor anyone else is allowed to say so, because you get so upset.
I have never liked Chess but the recent UK Tour really did a great job turning a rather dull show in to a great night out. The book is still a mess, the show is almost as camp as Priscilla but the new production embraced the 80s fel of the score and ran it through the visual production.
"There's a lot of interesting music and opportunities for great singers to perform it, but what works in a concert doesn't really work that well in a production. I saw last year's revival/revisal at Signature in VA (with Euan Morton, Jill Paice, and Jeremy Kushnier) and while the three of them (and the rest of the cast) performed effortlessly, the show is a long bore."
I actually disagree with that. This was the first time I encountered a production that got saddled with Richard Nelson's extremely cumbersome book that didn't feel like a small eternity.
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I'm no expert in chess but hazard this prognostication that the Musical 'Chess' returning to Broadway has better chances of winning The Kentucky Derby than keeping his title today!
I will say a local community theatre production of "Chess" I saw a few years back gave me much unintentional amusement that still makes me chuckle to this day.
I actually like the show and have a soft spot for it, but when Anatoly looks like he is 20 and BOTH Svetlana and Florence look to be on the wrong side of 50... I am suprised I didn't stop the show with all me giggling at the thoughts of Anatoly being a granny-chaser every time one of the combinations appeared on stage...