Well, it looks like a full audio recording, and a highlights CD will be publicly available on the 16th June, just under a month away! A Region 1 DVD of it is also due for that date, but no announcement on Region 2! Are we likely to get it, or are they gonna air it on TV first?
I'm rather irritated at the price, if you order the CD on Amazon.com from the US it works out at around £13 and around £11 for the R1 DVD plus postage and packaging which I'm told would be around £4-5 if you order both at the same time. So that's somewhere in the region of £30 for both, whilst over here its £24.99 just for the bloody CD.
Only major downside is the time it takes to ship and the R1 DVD (although not a problem for 2 of the DVD players in our house).
I'm getting the DVD and CD, just haven't figured out which way I'm going to do it. I've got to actually y'know, HEAR it since I did actually go to the concert.
Most DVD players can easily be converted to region free. So the region 1 thing shouldn't be unduly problematic for most. But the higher price is probably just intended to be a disincentive to buy it in advance of the actual screening over here.
That book I mentioned ('Broadway Babies Say Goodnight') on another thread laid into 'Chess' and tells its production problems but most importantly goes on about how dated it was from day one. I'll find a few lines and post them, they are interesting.
When I went to see the concert version, I admit that I really knew nothing about it beyond 'I Know Him So Well' and that it had something to do with Chess...and my motive for going was the line up.
The storyline? Could not care less, don't remember a thing about it - perhaps the concert presentation left out a lot, or it complicated what was going on. Most of the songs I have no recollection of, however their were a couple that did stand out and have me interested...and yes they were the famous ones.
I completely agree with you that it seems dated, and not even in a 'this captures a moment in history' kind of dated, more a 'can you believe that anyone found this new and riveting?'.
