Chess -Actors Fund Benefit 7/30

Posted: 7/26/12 at 11:52am

Is anyone going on Monday?

http://actorsfund.org/performances-and-events/chess-concert

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/26/12 at 12:19pm

I wish I could go! I love Chess. I'm curious to know which songs will be in and which will be out.

Posted: 7/26/12 at 12:46pm

I will post after the concert!

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 7/26/12 at 1:15pm

The site itself seems to say CHESS, the London/Concept score by Benny Andersson/Tim Rice/Bjorn Ulvaeus, first time ever in NY.

[p.s.]

Posted: 7/26/12 at 2:01pm

Discount codes are now available!

CHESS
The Musical In Concert
To Benefit the Actors Fund of America
One Night Only!
July 30, 2012 at 7:30PM

LaGuardia Arts!
100 Amsterdam Avenue at 65th Street

Special offer 30% off!
Ticket Prices
$128.50 (premium reserved) $89.95 with code CH302
$97.50 (side reserved) $68.43 with code CH303
$67.50 (general admission) $47.25 with code CH301

p.s. Why is this event not sold out?
I'll be there to try to convince Drew Sarich to do the Rocky musical on Broadway.

Posted: 7/26/12 at 3:48pm

of course, i paid full price... ugh

Posted: 7/30/12 at 5:43pm

anyone going tonight?!

[Eliza2]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 3:33am

Wish I could've gone! How was it?

[mee.who]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 8:48am

I was there. Wasn't that familiar with Chess going in (though it turned out I was familiar with more of the score than I thought I was) and overall I really enjoyed it. That said, they definitely could have used more rehearsal time. The ensemble was more often than not a bit of a mess, came in late a lot and sounded uneven and were sometimes hard to hear (that was more of a microphone issue, I think). Sarich had a hard time hitting some of his highest notes last night, which surprised me, but overall, I thought all of the leads were strong.

Audience was maybe 2/3 full. Perhaps a little less. I'm awful at gauging these things.

Posted: 7/31/12 at 9:46am

I went and mind you I have seen probably every version of Chess out there and this is the one that I think best suits the show- the one with the least amount of dialogue. This was last night, as the director said, the London version. It was not the Menzel/Pascal version but the original that Paige and Head did.

Overall, it was pretty good. The cast according to the director had only 24 hours of rehearsal time and for such a complex show vocally, I think they did pretty darn well.


There were some clunkers soundwise with mikes going in and out and the sound board messing up.

The light went out on One Night in Bankok which was kind of funny really.

Poor Drew Sarich was having some difficulty with the higher notes- i was surprise too. His middle register was really amazing and i just think it was an off night.

Natascia Diaz was excellent. I really enjoyed her Florence. Lovely tone to her voice. Would love to see her do this again in a fully realized production.

The Arbitor Gus Solomons Jr was woefully miscast. He talk-sang and never hit any of the higher notes in fact a guy in the chorus often sang "behind" him on the high notes... why not cast him instead- he sounded great- wish I knew who that was. Gus' bio said "Chess marks his musical theatre debut" UGH.

Wasn't loving Robert Cuccioli as Anatoly ... I feel though, again, that with more rehearsal time he would have been better. There is some fire to his voice which sadly just wasn't there last night. He seemed nervous.

The sound was an issue but the small orchestra of five was excellent.

[mee.who]

Posted: 7/31/12 at 10:25am

The only thing I'd seen Diaz in prior to this was Jacques Brel. I enjoyed her in that, but didn't remember specifics of her performance all that well. I was also really impressed with her Florence, and with her voice in general.

Despite Sarich's issues with some of the high notes (I agree it must have just been an off night for him), he sounded great on the rest of it and I really liked where he was going with Freddie.

I'm generally a fan of Robert Cuccioli and I thought he sang it well, but I found that I wasn't as invested in Anatoly as I was in Freddie and Florence.

Agree that the Arbiter was the biggest casting disappointment.

Overall, definitely glad I went!