Rating:
Genre:
Soundtrack
Release Date: 06/16/2009
In introducing this concert version of his musical
Chess, lyricist/librettist
Tim Rice says, "I think at last we're getting it right." If so, it's been a long time coming for a work
Rice described right off the bat in his liner notes to the 1984 concept album as "a work in progress." That work has progressed through a 1986 West End production, a 1988 Broadway version, and numerous staged and concert performances since, including a 1994 concert in Sweden recorded for an album also called
Chess in Concert. This one, performed at
the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2008, may not be "right," but it is the most lavish (for a non-theatrical production, that is) and the most comprehensible yet.
Rice seems to have been inspired by
Bobby Fischer's bad-boy behavior at the world chess championship at Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972, where he defeated
Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union for the world title in a competition rife with Cold War implications. But his hero is not the
Fischer-like character, here called
Frederick Trumper and portrayed by
Adam Pascal, but rather the Soviet champion, here called
Anatoly Sergievsky, played by
Josh Groban.
Anatoly not only wins the championship, set at Merano, Italy, in 1979, but also walks off with
Frederick's girlfriend,
Florence (
Idina Menzel), and defects to the West by the end of the first act. Although
Rice introduces much information about the history of chess (if precious little about the game itself), he is really using it and the tournaments to muse about romantic infidelity (there are two interlocking romantic triangles, with
Anatoly's wife, played by
Kerry Ellis, turning up in the second act, set at the next year's competition in Bangkok, Thailand) and about matters of success and media manipulation. (
Frederick turns into a TV personality in the second act.)
And all of it is set to music composed by
Benny Andersson and
Björn Ulvaeus of
ABBA, music that ranges from hard rock to light pop, with lots of classical elements thrown in. In this lengthy production, there is still too much plot, and some of it still doesn't make any sense. (
Anatoly's decision at the end to return to the Soviet Union seems especially unlikely.) But the show has been mounted well, with a large screen above the giant chorus and
the City of London Philharmonic, providing attractive visuals, and the singers, who do some minimal acting, joined by dancers on occasion.
Groban may play the hero role, but it is an underwritten one, and although he sings well, he doesn't have the acting chops to bring off a convincing characterization; most of the time, he just looks slightly worried. In contrast,
Pascal and
Menzel, teaming up again after launching their careers on Broadway in
Rent, have come up with strong portrayals, which tends to unbalance things. In particular,
Pascal, playing a role roughly similar to
Rice's
Judas Iscariot in
Jesus Christ Superstar and
Che in
Evita, has fun with
Frederick's clever, troubled, and mercenary character. This is the first filmed representation of
Chess, and while it may not be perfect, it does suggest that the show is still worth working on if only because, whatever the failings of the plot, as
Rice justifiably claims, "every few minutes another great tune turns up."
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
;)
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