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musical theater review: chess match
May. 20th, 2005 02:12 pmUp until recently, all I knew about the musical Chess was that it was the source of "One Night in Bangkok". This song (if "song" is the word) was frequently played on pop radio during the short period in the early 80s when I was listening to pop radio. It was kind of catchy in its bizarre, rap-like way, but I'd have had no interest in an entire musical that sounded like that.
Nevertheless, when I recently saw a copy of the Broadway cast album in the public library, I borrowed it out of curiosity. This is when I discovered that Chess is actually a typical 80s musical, part old Broadway and part power-pop, with clever lyrics by Tim Rice, and as such, it strikes me as better than the typical offering by, say, Andrew Lloyd Webber. There were two songs in particular I liked.
Chess is a Cold War political-intrigue/romance story set against two championship chess matches between Freddie, an obnoxious American (clearly modeled on Bobby Fischer, only less eccentric), and Anatoly, an introverted Russian. (It's Freddie who, out on the town to sneer at it, raps out "One Night in Bangkok.") The real protagonist is Freddie's long-suffering second, a woman named Florence. She has a passionate "I Want" song titled "Someone Else's Story" with what I found to be a particularly good tune.
The other song I especially like appears after Freddie walks out of a game in a huff, leaving Florence, Anatoly and his second, and the arbiter to pick up the pieces. With increasingly frayed tempers, they sing what is called the "Decorum and Tranquility" Quartet. There's a type of song in musical comedy that always tickles me, the one in which several characters are arguing or otherwise all trying to talk at once. "Fugue for Tinhorns" in Guys and Dolls, "Politics and Poker" and "The Bum Won" in Fiorello, and above all "But, Mr. Adams" in 1776 are the kind of song I mean. This is a worthy addition to that number.
I'm writing about Chess because I saw a performance of it last night at San Jose's Montgomery Theater. The local children's musical theater has decided to try putting on fund-raising productions with adults, cast mostly with CMT alumni. This is their first attempt. It plays through Sunday. I enjoyed it a great deal. The plot was interesting, fast-moving, and sometimes even touching. The stage acting was adequate for the minimal amount of time that spoken dialogue took up, and the singing, particularly in the major roles, was much better than that. While not better singers than the Broadway cast, these people were better suited for their parts. Lyndsay Faye as Florence was less brassy; she had a good voice and her only problem was that she moved stiffly. Adam Campbell as Freddie really filled the role. He pulled off Freddie's self-justificatory number, "Pity the Child," without the self-indulgence that so annoyed reviewers of the Broadway production. His only problem is that he can't rap, so "One Night in Bangkok" fell a bit flat. Ian Leonard as Anatoly made a potentially bland part interesting, and also sang well. Better yet, especially as actors, were Michael Mulcahy and Gary Beytin as the chessmen's handlers and spymasters, and Shannon Self in a virtuoso turn as the arbiter.
The most impressive part of the show, though, was the staging: the sets were extremely inventive and elaborate but amazingly never fell down or otherwise made hitches; and the choreography - dancers dressed as chess pieces move silently through the show - was conventional but well-executed. The pit, as usual in shows like these, was not up to what was on stage, but was not disastrous. The ads described the show as a rock musical, but it really was nothing of the sort. In particular it was not too loud, though it was amplified, and the actors all wore those wireless microphones on their cheeks that made them look like sports announcers, and those microphones inevitably did not always work.
Overall a terrific production of an unjustly neglected show.
Nevertheless, when I recently saw a copy of the Broadway cast album in the public library, I borrowed it out of curiosity. This is when I discovered that Chess is actually a typical 80s musical, part old Broadway and part power-pop, with clever lyrics by Tim Rice, and as such, it strikes me as better than the typical offering by, say, Andrew Lloyd Webber. There were two songs in particular I liked.
Chess is a Cold War political-intrigue/romance story set against two championship chess matches between Freddie, an obnoxious American (clearly modeled on Bobby Fischer, only less eccentric), and Anatoly, an introverted Russian. (It's Freddie who, out on the town to sneer at it, raps out "One Night in Bangkok.") The real protagonist is Freddie's long-suffering second, a woman named Florence. She has a passionate "I Want" song titled "Someone Else's Story" with what I found to be a particularly good tune.
The other song I especially like appears after Freddie walks out of a game in a huff, leaving Florence, Anatoly and his second, and the arbiter to pick up the pieces. With increasingly frayed tempers, they sing what is called the "Decorum and Tranquility" Quartet. There's a type of song in musical comedy that always tickles me, the one in which several characters are arguing or otherwise all trying to talk at once. "Fugue for Tinhorns" in Guys and Dolls, "Politics and Poker" and "The Bum Won" in Fiorello, and above all "But, Mr. Adams" in 1776 are the kind of song I mean. This is a worthy addition to that number.
I'm writing about Chess because I saw a performance of it last night at San Jose's Montgomery Theater. The local children's musical theater has decided to try putting on fund-raising productions with adults, cast mostly with CMT alumni. This is their first attempt. It plays through Sunday. I enjoyed it a great deal. The plot was interesting, fast-moving, and sometimes even touching. The stage acting was adequate for the minimal amount of time that spoken dialogue took up, and the singing, particularly in the major roles, was much better than that. While not better singers than the Broadway cast, these people were better suited for their parts. Lyndsay Faye as Florence was less brassy; she had a good voice and her only problem was that she moved stiffly. Adam Campbell as Freddie really filled the role. He pulled off Freddie's self-justificatory number, "Pity the Child," without the self-indulgence that so annoyed reviewers of the Broadway production. His only problem is that he can't rap, so "One Night in Bangkok" fell a bit flat. Ian Leonard as Anatoly made a potentially bland part interesting, and also sang well. Better yet, especially as actors, were Michael Mulcahy and Gary Beytin as the chessmen's handlers and spymasters, and Shannon Self in a virtuoso turn as the arbiter.
The most impressive part of the show, though, was the staging: the sets were extremely inventive and elaborate but amazingly never fell down or otherwise made hitches; and the choreography - dancers dressed as chess pieces move silently through the show - was conventional but well-executed. The pit, as usual in shows like these, was not up to what was on stage, but was not disastrous. The ads described the show as a rock musical, but it really was nothing of the sort. In particular it was not too loud, though it was amplified, and the actors all wore those wireless microphones on their cheeks that made them look like sports announcers, and those microphones inevitably did not always work.
Overall a terrific production of an unjustly neglected show.
