Chess From Royal Albert Hall - Review- Page 6

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 9:34am

I love Chess, but the book never worked. I saw it on Bway, which was a big disappointment except for Kuhn and Carroll who were terrific. I am one of those who feel like the original book works best.

Idina was terrible, imo, but not just because of her shaky vocals. Her acting was abismal! Groban had better technique! He was much better than I expected and sounded wonderful. I was most taken with Pascal whom I've never really "got". He made a terrific Freddie, imo...although his nipples were distracting. Whoever wondered about his costume, the black and white/good and bad/east and west idea is like a sledgehammer and was on broadway too.

I do love Ellis' voice and she was a nice highlight, though as much as I like "Someone Else's Story", it is so unnecessary that it sticks out to me, though the switch to Svetlana made more sense than Florence singing it.

I was unimpressed with Marti as the Arbiter. His voice was okay, though a bit muted for the role imo, but he seemed almost as uncomfortable as Menzel.

The choreography was terrible and made me hate the onstage chorus. SO distracting, and just bad choreography. I did think the larger chorus sounded great...but did we need cheerleaders? REally?

I think Freddy is always played with sexual ambiguity and it works for the character...I've always wondered if he was gay, but still felt like the "love triangle" works. Whether he wants to sleep with Florence is irrelevant. She is the most important person in his sad life...he does love her. I love alot of women and never wanted to "do it" with them...and would be very jealous of someone who I felt was trying to take them away from me. I've never read sexual tension in their relationship or that they were sleeping together.

BTW, Florence's father does turn out to be an imposter in the bway version.

[Colle]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 3:34pm

I saw it on PBS last night. It was interesting and overall I did enjoy it. I actually thought Idina was pretty good, I especailly liked her "Nobody's Side," true maybe not quite as good as Juila Murry or Judy Khun(I have listened to both of them), but still pretty good. Also, I also liked Kerry's "Someone Elses' Story."

As for what the musical Chess is about, the way I understand it, it is supposed to be a metaphor for the cold war, through the game of Chess and the love triangle.

Updated On: 6/19/09 at 03:34 PM

[bwayguy22089]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 4:35pm

It's all based on a true story.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 4:42pm

Isn't Freddie supposed to be like Bobby Fisher?

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 6:20pm

Tim Rice is from that last generation of Brits raised and educated to believe they were going to rule an empire, only to find out that there wasn't an empire left to rule.

Writing lyrics and, heaven forbid, books for musicals is so obviously his third career choice: it's lucrative but really it's all too degrading when he should be sat in the Foreign Office.
Updated On: 6/19/09 at 06:20 PM

[LadyDramaturg2]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 6:53pm

Bloody well right, and then to be handed a Knighthood for that third-string, libretto/lyric-writing business --

shabby!

[sanda]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 8:07pm

"Tim Rice is from that last generation of Brits raised and educated to believe they were going to rule an empire, only to find out that there wasn't an empire left to rule.

Writing lyrics and, heaven forbid, books for musicals is so obviously his third career choice: it's lucrative but really it's all too degrading when he should be sat in the Foreign Office. "

I just don't buy this. Do you know Tim Rice so well that you know what he really want to be? So an artist should not touch politics in his work? If he did, he must have some personal political agenda and ambition? What about he may find the story fascinating and want to create something unique? Yes, his works involved politics a lot and what's wrong with that? And even if he did have personal political agenda, what's wrong with that?

[Pgenre]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 9:11pm

I don't think I even wanna know what Scripps2 thinks of Caryl Churchill...

P

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 10:14pm

Quoting WestEnd2: "And that's one of my problems, they've had to take the sound direct from the singer's mics, and that just makes it sound flat, I like a bit of the sound of a performer's voice echoing through the auditorium and not the flat and dull sound on the DVD and CD."

I completely agree. You've hit the nail right on the head. That's why I keep on bringing up the 1995 LES MIZ concert, which was held in the same hall, as well as the Andrew Lloyd Webber Birthday Concert in 1998. The performers in those concerts didn't need their voices to get fixed up so much in order to make such concerts presentable for commercial release as much as the performers in this version of CHESS did. The bootleg of this CHESS has more of that "echoing through the auditorium" sound (which the LES MIZ concert has) though not as clear as the piped in (but flat) sound on the CD and DVD. Plus, the bootleg reveals more of the vocal snafus of the singers.

Well, it is what it is and what's done is done. I still love the score. Here's hoping a "Dream Cast" of sorts will preserve it in the future.

[chino]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 10:24pm

So... is it worth buying? CD and the DVD?

[I<3bway]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 10:39pm

Is the DVD quality better than what appeared on PBS? Does it have subtitles?

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 10:39pm

Depends. If you want to add this 2008 version to your collection of CHESS recordings, I would say yes.

But based solely on the performances and the sound production values, then, no, it's not worth it. Rent the DVD or DVR the concert and keep it in your cable box for as long as you want to hold on to it instead.

[jsg03jd]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 10:47pm

The DVD does offer English subtitles but the visual quality of the disc is not noticeably different from the broadcast. As someone mentioned earlier, there is a SURROUND SOUND audio option but it still doesn't really fix any of the sound problems that I heard in the PBS telecast.

[jpbran]

Posted: 6/19/09 at 11:24pm

According to Amazon, the disc is only 1:33, not even widescreen. That's almost worse than their not releasing a Bluray version.

So, the DVD will be missing 60% of the resolution/picture quality of the HD original, and 40% of the actual picture (the left and right sides will be gone.) And it's already recorded HD widescreen for PBS, so they have the masters; why no Bluray, and WHY no widescreen anamorphic DVD at least?

Ugh.

PS- I actually thought Pascal's performance was more "full" and fleshed-out than the other leads combined.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 6/20/09 at 5:31am

"Do you know Tim Rice so well that you know what he really want to be?"

I don't know him at all. But I've read enough of his interviews, heard him enough on UK radio and seen enough of him on British panel shows to know what he thinks and how he got into musical theatre.

"Yes, his works involved politics a lot and what's wrong with that?"

Absolutely nothing. I never said there was. Read any of my posts on this site about how Billy Elliott is a musical about the failure of "the experiment of socialism in a democracy" and you'll see I welcome it. I love the student angst politics of Evita. And I like the original concept of Chess.

What I'm saying is that because he regards writing musicals as an accident he fell into, he is a lazy and inadequate author, and thus never realised that brilliant original concept.

As for Caryl Churchill, it's a shame that the rumoured collaboration with Sondheim never materialised.

[sunsetflyer]

Posted: 6/20/09 at 7:51pm

I just finished reading all the comments on this link about this show. I have never seen this show so wanted to see what it was about. At least PBS broadcasts musicals. I give them that credit. This show has some good moments in it but I would not put it on my least of favorites compared to something like Lez Miz, i.e. The book is part of the problem. You could tell they were having technical problems with the voices, etc but it was okay on my tv. I would rate this musical okay but not one I would be anxious to see. Thanks for all your comments. I am watching the repeat of the show that was shown Wednesday night on PBS. It is being shown here on Saturday night.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 6/21/09 at 3:10am

I've only made it half-way through, but I can understand why this show didn't work on Broadway. I'm hella confused. Cheerleaders? a Ballet? What? A whole show about chess? What? The songs - for the most part - are pretty and memorable, but I'm just not into the story whatsoever.

[sparrman]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 12:00am

I saw a commercial today for either the DVD or a rebroadcast of this show (I don't remember which) and it featured Grobin singing "Anthem". Boy, was he singing flat. I'm not sure if it was a different performance or a different take from the one used in the broadcast itself, or if his pitch was digitally corrected for the broadcast, or what. But it was noticeably flat compared to the broadcast.

[alastor]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:16am

Could someone please explain the story in a nutshell? I, like many others no doubt, was really confused at what was happening in this version, especially after watching the Actors Benefit version.

And I think the love story between Anatoly and Florence had so much potential, but they didn't have enough intimate scenes (also the kiss was cut because the Queen was there?!) to make it affecting. And yeah they could have cut out so much of the dancing and Merano choir to make room for this stuff.

But loved the music!

[vassey]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:39am

The Queen wasn't there

[pdjennings]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 11:42am

Just to clear up the widescreen issue -- it's definitely in 16x9 anamorphic widescreen. Amazon's specs are often fishy.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 1:44pm

While I don't think the direction was very good, I also don't have much in the way of expectations for any production billed as a concert. If they want to spend the extra money and time on a longer rehearsal period to flesh out some direction for acting out scenes in a concert, then hooray, but I don't have those sort of expectations for this sort of concert than I would for a Stephen Schwartz tribute concert or a Broadway By the Year concert. As long as the actor can sing the song well and convey the basic emotion, it's fine. Nor can I fault the actors to much on their acting in a concert. Directing a concert version of a show requires a very different set of circumstances (and usually a very short rehearsal period). Mot of the concert versions that have been praised usually have less direction or longer rehearsals with better directors. It's really not unheard of for even the most seasoned actor to give a disappointing performance in a concert, yet deliver a critically acclaimed performance in a full production of the same work. Check out Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett in the concert with George Hearn and then the revival with Michael Cerveris. While I didn't think Idina delivered her best, I've seen her give stellar performances in Rent and Wicked as well as in her own concert, so I'm not willing to write her off as being wrong for Florence. I actually think she's a smart choice for the role, but requires better direction. I also think Josh shows real potential.

But generally speaking, I'm of the mindset that the words "in concert" mean the production exists solely to feature the music. Not the book or the direction or the acting. If they push to feature those as well in pursuit of a Broadway production, great. If not, it's perfectly ok.

[sarla]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 4:38pm

^^ Thank you! That's what I had been trying to explain to people. It was a concert version put together over just a few days, not a full scale production and I wouldn't have expected the performances to be up to the standard required for a full production. I actually quite liked Idina as Florence. Have I heard better? Sure. But I don't believe she should be taking the flack she's getting. Honestly, I was a little disappointed by just about everyone involved in some way, and Idina was certainly not the weakest link.
As others have said, I thought the sound was terrible. I was so looking forward to hearing the score with the huge orchestra and in such an amazing venue, what a let down. I wish they hadn't tried to stage it the way they did. The Les Mis concert worked so beautifully just relying on the score, they should have done the same for Chess.

[jpbran]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 7:04pm

pdjennings: was hoping that was the case, but it showed up as "1:33 full frame" on other sites too, so I was a little cautious...

[Phantom of London]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 7:35pm

I have never seen Chess, even in my native country England and I live in the capital.

I always assumed that America did not take well to Chess, given it only lasted 46 performances at the Imperial?