Tim was very familiar with this strategy of releasing a recording first, and then scrounging around for a producer to stage it. This worked very well for Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. Nevertheless it took a further two years before Chess the musical could be staged. It opened in the West End in to generally favorable reviews, and ran for three years. The original story begins in the Italian city of Merano.
Anatoly, the Russian world chess champion, falls in love with his American opponent's second, Florence. Anatoly defeats the American, Freddie, and defects to the West to be with Florence. The second act takes place in Bangkok , where Anatoly defends his title against the next challenger, a Russian. When this fails, they concoct a story about Florence's father wanting to leave communist Hungary for freedom in the West. Appealing to his altruistic sensibility, they succeed in persuading Anatoly to return to Russia, in exchange for Florence's father's freedom.
Unfortunately in the end, the deception is revealed; the father had died some time ago, and the person released is a CIA spy. Anatoly is a mere pawn in the ruthless Cold War. Like musical theater, chess is an unpredictable game. Chess lasted for 3 years in London, but the New York production closed in less than 2 months. The original story was thought to be too convoluted, and it seemed to put the Americans in a bad light. Richard Nelson was hired to revamp the entire story.
Unfortunately he diluted the parts that might have caused discomfort among the American audience. He took away some of the lighter touches from the original story, and made it depressingly serious. And he added one character and one subplot too many. The show opens in Bangkok, and moves to Budapest for the second act. Instead of having two tournaments, the American version is confined to just one tournament. However, in exchange for this favor, the KGB asks her to persuade her new-found lover and defector, Anatoly, to return to Russia.
Some blamed Richard Nelson's book. Others blamed the poisonous reviews by several influential theater critics, like New York Times' Frank Rich. He added more depth to the characters, increased the political content, and by having one instead of two chess tournaments, he could retain the main conflict between Freddie and Anatoly throughout the show.
The book was completely rewritten. The back story of Anatoly's family is fleshed out right at the start of the musical. Quarrels with his wife show that his marriage is becoming unstable.
However, he loves his young son, who is to play an important role in the end. There is only one chess tournament, and the conflict between Anatoly and Freddie continues all the way through. History of Chess Sets. Chess Tournaments. General History Medieval History under construction. History of checkered patterns.
Board, Card Games and Puzzles under construction. Chess Culture Music and Chess. Movies and Chess. Famous People. Sightseeing Chess. Chess Art History. Chess Training Activity Cards Dutch translation follows. The steps method Dutch translation follows.
Chess Software. Chess Education Research. Site Overview Acknowledgements. Contact me. Recent site activity. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other; all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes.
Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any specific individuals, the character of the American was loosely based on chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, while elements of the story may have been inspired by the chess careers of Russian grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.
PicasaWeb Slideshow. Chess the Musical. Following the pattern of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, a highly successful concept album of Chess was released in The first theatrical production of Chess opened in London's West End in and played for three years. Chess is frequently revised for new productions, many of which try to merge elements from both the London and Broadway versions; however, no major revival production of the musical has yet been attempted either on West End or Broadway.
In , 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 "Match of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Rice met with the two for the first time in December in Stockholm to discuss the concept Vos was also in attendance , and they quickly signed on to the project. ABBA stopped performing a year later, about which Rice has joked, "maybe that's my fault".
All through Rice, Andersson and Ulvaeus worked on the music and lyrics. Rice would describe the mood of particular songs he wanted, then Andersson and Ulvaeus would write and record the music and send the tapes to Rice, and Rice would then write lyrics to fit the music. Ulvaeus would also provide dummy lyrics to emphasize the rhythmic patterns of the music, and some of them ended up in the final version since Rice found them "embarrassingly good" "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble" is the most well-known example.
It was decided to release the music as an album before any stage show was under way, a strategy that had proven successful with Rice's two previous musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. Recording work on the album musical of Chess began in November The main recording was done at Polar Studios in Stockholm, with orchestral and choir parts recorded in London by the London Symphony Orchestra.
Andersson himself played the keyboards. The album was sound-engineered and mixed by Michael B. Onstage, there is only a small, elevated platform designed to look like a chessboard, which is surrounded by the piece orchestra.
Sometimes, this is helpful: this production avoids the often-racist staging of One Night In Bangkok that other versions of Chess seem to struggle with. The cast is game, too. Paulini, although underused as the jilted wife of Russian grandmaster Anatoly, absolutely kills in her brief moments.
One gets the sense that the moments when the cast can simply show off its talent — as when Bassingthwaite and Paulini duet on the sublime I Know Him So Well — is more the point of Chess than its plot.
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