CHESS Revival?

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CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 3:06pm

I've been listening to the 2009 Royal Albert Hall Concert recording with Josh Groban/Adam Pascal/Idina Menzel et al...The score is absolutely lovely (especially with the aforementioned voices), if not a little long.

What would you all think about a revival (with as much of this cast as possible)? I think (especially if Groban joins) it would give a new generation exposure to this otherwise underrated score.

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CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 3:09pm

But it's just such a terrible, terrible show!

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 3:13pm

There's a lot of interesting music and opportunities for great singers to perform it, but what works in a concert doesn't really work that well in a production. I saw last year's revival/revisal at Signature in VA (with Euan Morton, Jill Paice, and Jeremy Kushnier) and while the three of them (and the rest of the cast) performed effortlessly, the show is a long bore.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 3:42pm

^^^
Ditto about it being a bore. Yaaaawn.

Love the score though. Works as a recording, not a staged production.

....but the world goes 'round

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 4:16pm

Anyone else think the concert version with at the RAH would work as it is? I mean sure add some dialogue and such and cut some minor things but I thought the plot was the most coherent in that version

"Life in theater is give and take...but you need to be ready to give more then you take..."

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 4:24pm

Perhaps a concert tour that played a limited engagement on Broadway?

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 7:19pm

I absolutely loved this score, until I saw it on Broadway! Still happy I went, for David Carroll and Judy Kuhn, but what a depressing show! I still have the original 'concept' CD and video with Elaine Paige, but it's one show I'd never want to re-visit. I'll never forget eating at Orso's after, sandwiched in between Bernadeete Peters and Beverly Sills tables.

Updated On: 9/19/11 at 07:19 PM

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 9:40pm

Leave Chess alone!!!11!11!!!

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/19/11 at 11:20pm

Isn't the London production supposed to be considered a successful production in comparison to the Broadway one?

Gypsy - Betty Buckley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUN5XoB5vFs&feature=youtu.be

#10

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 12:29am

They were two completely different things. The London production did quite well. The completely (and horribly) rewritten Broadway production did not.

Like Cabaret and Follies, no two versions of the show are the same.

#11

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 2:15am

Except they're all crap... :P

*For the sake of P-Letti, this is a JOKE.*

Updated On: 9/20/11 at 02:15 AM

#12

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 3:41am

Clap Youl Hands, you are too young to have seen either the Broadway or the London production. You get very, very, very angry when people are negative about Love Never Dies, so maybe you should stop these vitriolic attacks on productions you have NEVER seen. Maybe you do not like Chess, because its storyline is too complicated for you to follow ?

#13

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 3:45am

The British version (basically the one at the Albert Hall) is not a good show, there is a half hour of expositional and local color numbers before the plot actually starts, its boring. The recent actors-as-orchestra version that toured the UK and is now in Toronto (again, based on the original West End) may be the worst professional theatrical production I have ever seen. However. The Broadway version got things going immediately. Its a very adult musical, well rooted in its time period, that had three very layered, three dimensional characters that captured my interest immediately. I have a great fondness for the Broadway production, I saw it three times and still go to Lincoln Center every six or seven years to watch it again.

#14

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 4:17am

P-Letti, the fact that you are assuming to know my exact age is a little scary...Besides which, I have seen Chess. It may not have been the original London or the original Broadway production, but then I am not making comments about either of those productions. I am making comments about the SHOW. Which I SAW. The show that I saw had a couple of nice songs. Thus ends it's merit. It had a misguided book and a long, boring storyline. The production values of the particular production I saw were terrible to the extent that it made me feel ill. But then, of course, I am merely making comments about the show. I left the theatre thinking "what the hell just happened?", and the people who watched the show with me agreed. Of course, everyone else is entitled to their own opinion, just as I am. My opinion happens to be that CHESS is the WORST musical I have ever seen. Remember, it's not a song, or a score it is a MUSICAL. And for me, it fails as a musical. It fails in it's storytelling, it fails in it's characters and the score is one of the most confused, mis-matched things I have ever heard. And this is coming from a fan of ABBA.

If you still believe that I am neither entitled to my opinion, or that my opinion on the SHOW is somehow invalid because I didn't see a particular production, you are a fool.

Updated On: 9/20/11 at 04:17 AM

#15

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 4:20am

If you would like any more information on my opinion of the show further to this, then, by all means, I can supply you with my review.

#16

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 4:59am

WOW, I may have stepped on some toes.

I do not do a lot of posting, reading posts is more my thing.
You continuously make references to your age. You even posted a photo of yourself - so no need to be scared.

On more than one occasion you have posted a link to your review. I had the misfortune to write I did not like the way it was written (it had the grammar of a 7-year old) not to mention your illegal use of copyrighted material on your blog and YOU started World War 3.
Apparantly only YOU are entitled to an opinion.

"Except they're all crap... :P " was a comment on the London and Broadway productions, which YOU have not seen.
Later you updated that post and wrote that is was a joke for my sake .... very childish.

Anything else ?

#17

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 5:17am

"You continuously make references to your age. You even posted a photo of yourself."

Wow, OK, umm, where?

Also, that post was meant to be light-hearted. However, I did mean that no matter how amazing a production is, I still maintain that the show is crap. Therefore, surely all productions have that theme in common?

Updated On: 9/20/11 at 05:17 AM

#18

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 6:01am

HAHAHAHA you are so funny .... the photo where you are seen blocking Sondheim's light ? Not only did you have to photo taken against Sondheim's wishes , you then posted it on here and on your blog. That IS very respectful and mature, isn't it ?

You are the only one entitled to determine when a show is crap. For me Love Never Dies is crap, but I nor anyone else is allowed to say so, because you get so upset.

#19

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 7:29am

That's fair enough if you think Love Never Dies is crap, I just happen to disagree.

Also, let me make this very clear to you: I did NOT have a photo taken against the wishes of Stephen Sondheim.

I think that this thread is also evidence that I do not have the "grammar of a 7 year old".

#20

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 8:09am

I have never liked Chess but the recent UK Tour really did a great job turning a rather dull show in to a great night out. The book is still a mess, the show is almost as camp as Priscilla but the new production embraced the 80s fel of the score and ran it through the visual production.

My review from What's on Stage last year
http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/northwest/E8831288168636/Chess+%28Tour+-+Salford%29.html

Namo i love u but we get it already....you don't like Madonna

#21

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 3:26pm

"Its a very adult musical, well rooted in its time period, that had three very layered, three dimensional characters..."

Oh, now I have to clean up the water I spit all over my desk.

#22

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/20/11 at 5:34pm

"There's a lot of interesting music and opportunities for great singers to perform it, but what works in a concert doesn't really work that well in a production. I saw last year's revival/revisal at Signature in VA (with Euan Morton, Jill Paice, and Jeremy Kushnier) and while the three of them (and the rest of the cast) performed effortlessly, the show is a long bore."

I actually disagree with that. This was the first time I encountered a production that got saddled with Richard Nelson's extremely cumbersome book that didn't feel like a small eternity.

Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you. --Cartman: South Park ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."

#23

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/21/11 at 11:54am

Looking back, they could have done things differently.

A LOT DIFFERENTLY!

Still, in an age when "Memphis" can be a hit and win a tony, it has to be conceded that Chess is leagues above.

#24

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/21/11 at 1:06pm

I'm no expert in chess but hazard this prognostication that the Musical 'Chess' returning to Broadway has better chances of winning The Kentucky Derby than keeping his title today!

#25

CHESS Revival?

Posted: 9/22/11 at 7:50am

I will say a local community theatre production of "Chess" I saw a few years back gave me much unintentional amusement that still makes me chuckle to this day.

I actually like the show and have a soft spot for it, but when Anatoly looks like he is 20 and BOTH Svetlana and Florence look to be on the wrong side of 50... I am suprised I didn't stop the show with all me giggling at the thoughts of Anatoly being a granny-chaser every time one of the combinations appeared on stage...

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