Ensemble1711444445 said: "I take it you haven't seen his Galileo.
EricMontreal22 said: "Auggie27 said: ""I hope they dig into the love story more because right now Molokov and Walter have better chemistry than the lovers and you never see any love between Freddie and Florence. By the time we meet them, they are already about to break up..."
Wait, what? Not a ringing endorsement for the fixed book. Strong has had 5+ years and two well-platformed Encores! styled readingsto hone and discover unexplored nuance; it's hard to fathom a major changes during previews. But who knows? I keep reading, "the book is still a problem but--" and then we circle back to the songs and how well they're sung. As I opined earlier, maybe that is enough. ."
Hal have you seen or heard any of those concerts? His book is one of the worst books for a musical I've ever encountered (I say that with all seriousness--it's *awful*) I'll say it again--just go back to the "rock opera" format of the London production. Almost each later incarnation seems worse than the previous one."
I actually saw the London show in the 80s four times in the 3 or so years it was open, as I was traveling to London on business regularly. After the first viewing, I accepted the fact that the show had a decent number of boring parts and I continued to re-visit it because the highs, i.e., most of the score, were so high. It was very bloated, not in a good way, which is why Nunn wanted to take a new look at it. I truly do not remember whether it was sung through and, if so, whether there was recitative or actual melodies.
When I saw it is NYC in 1987 or 1988 (I think), I thought it was much worse than the London version, despite the good voices. Nunn's vision was a total bore. I had an opportunity to see it a second time for free in the 10 weeks it was open, but I felt it was so lousy that I had no interest in seeing it again. I did continue to listen to the original London cast recording on a regular basis, since it is probably to this day my favorite cast recording ever.
I next saw a revival in Shirlington, VA about 12 or 13 years ago at the Signature Theatre. I saw it three times (I lived in VA at the time) that I felt was the best version I had seen, but I began to assume that the show was never going as good as the score. Despite what I felt was a better book I still didn't care about the characters, although the fact that the male leads were not strong enough didn't help matters. For the next 11 or 13 years, I continued to listen to the cast recording more regularly that any other one, including new ones
I purchased (and splurged on really good) tickets the first day they went on sale because I will take any opportunity to see a new production of Chess (which hasn't happened a lot for me, only being in Manhattan about 10 - 12 days a year), and I have been really looking forward to seeing it, given the voices of the leads. Based on everything I have read, I have to admit that I have already lowered my expectations that this might be the production that solves the basic problem (and, more importantly, gives it a chance to reach a larger audience and run more than the 6 or so months that it will probably run, given Tveit's and Michelle's ability to sell tickets.
I am still really optimistic that I will like this, given the voices of the three leads and Lea Michelle's charisma (I have never seen Christopher), but my reset expectations are already thinking that Chess is likely to remain a niche property and that periodic concert stagings will have to do. I am really hoping that I will be wrong, as I really want this to capture a wider audience.
Updated On: 10/19/25 at 12:23 AM
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