Everyone knows Tim Rice. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lyricist, Disney,
\nElton John, yadda yadda yadda, wrote brilliant lyrics for most of
\nthe major theatrical programs of the last twenty years. And to be
\nfair, he’s the rare combination of famous and justly so. He writes
\nwell. But even he has odd little side projects that you may have
\nnever heard of.
\nChess<\/i> is one of them, and it’s sadly overlooked; people who
\nactually discover this musical tend to be fanatically devoted to
\nit.<\/p>\n
\nChess<\/i> is a collaborative work between Tim Rice and Benny
\nAnderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of Abba. Yes, I said Abba. Stop
\ntwitching. It was originally envisioned in the early eighties.
\nAfter three years of work, a ‘concept album’ was recorded in 1984
\nusing the show’s music. That’s the “Black Chess”, the album we’re
\nreviewing today. After its London stage debut in 1986, it was
\noptioned to Broadway, where it was
\nbutchered<\/i>, based on the belief that American theatre-goers
\nwouldn’t go to a musical where the American was a villain. (There
\nis an American cast recording, the “White Chess” album. Avoid it
\nlike you would ebola.) This butchering has continued; there are now<\/p>\n
\nsix<\/i>
\n<\/b> definitive versions of the libretto, and six arrangements of
\nthe music, all of which are an attempt to update the musical to the
\ncommon day.<\/p>\n
First question:
\n
\nWHY<\/i>
\n<\/b> ? The plot of Chess revolves around an international chess
\nchampionship between an American and a Russian at the height of the
\nCold War, and the love triangle that destroys them both. Why update
\nit at all? No one moves
\nSouth Pacific<\/i> to the Vietnam War. Because this mismanagement
\nand idiocy has obscured one central fact; the music itself to
\nChess<\/i> as recorded on the 1984 CD is utterly and simply
\nbeautiful.<\/p>\n
The performers are exemplary; Murray Head as The American, Tommy
\nKorberg as The Russian, and Elaine Page as Florence, the central
\npoint in the love story. Head and Paige are well known to
\ntheatre-goers; Head was Jesus in the original
\nJesus Christ Superstar<\/i>, Paige was Grizabella in the original<\/p>\n
Cats<\/i>. And the songs…<\/p>\n
American audiences were only treated to “One Night In Bangkok”,
\nand it’s little more than a novelty tune, though it has its
\nmoments. The real meat is the powerful rock opera of “Nobody’s
\nSide” and “The Deal”; the interwoven, Gilbert and Sullivan-like
\nvocals of “Quartet (A Model Of Decorum And Tranquility)” and
\n“Embassy Lament”; the emotion of “Mountain Duet”; and the simple,
\narching female voices on “Heaven Help My Heart” and “I Know Him So
\nWell”.<\/p>\n
The single most powerful moment, though, has to be Murray Head’s
\n“Pity The Child” – a song where you can FEEL the anger and
\nbitterness, a song for every child who was every ignored or
\nabused.<\/p>\n
There are moments where
\nChess<\/i> drags, though they’re brief. However, I can close this
\nreview in no better way than by echoing the sentiment I saw on
\nseveral web pages while I was researching dates for this review:
\nBroadway, get it together. Straighten out the contracts, find one
\nversion of
\nChess<\/i>, and put it on stage. It is a powerful musical that
\ndeserves a chance. Meanwhile, go find the soundtrack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6748],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39429","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-original-london-cast","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39429"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39429"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}