'Chess' To Return To Broadway. — Page 2

#26

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 12:42pm

I actually liked Idina.

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"Y'know, I think Bertolt Brecht was rolling in his grave."
-Nellie McKay on the 2006 Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera, in which she played Polly Peachum

#27

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 2:59pm

Please let this be true.

#28

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 3:36pm

Bustopher: I agree with you about the show.

Count me in as one of the people who think Idina should stay far, far away from the role of Florence.

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Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!

#29

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 4:41pm

Chess revival = YES.

Idina as Florence = No.

I would be more articulate, since Chess is one of my very favorite musicals, but I have a headache.

#30

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 8:59pm

I love this idea. I saw the concert filming when it aired on PBS and I loved it. I really wanted to see it live, and I hope this happens quickly.

#31

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 9:09pm

Julia Murney please!!!

#32

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 9:10pm

He wants to lose his only hit well keep it up he's doing fine.

We already have Mamma Mia on Broadway, could the NY theatre survive another Swedish Pop Pogrom?

#33

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 9:20pm

IMO Chess will not happen, the story isn't relevant anymore, even when it was Chess flopped.

I have not see the show myself, but people I know who have seen the West End and the Broadway productions, say the former was a lot better and that the latter was a mistake.

#34

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/4/09 at 9:55pm

Idina is fine but she destroyed "Nobody's Side" for me. I really don't want to hear her sing it again. I was not crazy about the concert version.

I love the score for this show and would run to see it with a good cast.

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Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

#35

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/5/09 at 12:21am

When I opened the link, I expected more definitive information than this. The creators of Chess have been claiming for years that "there's something in the works" or something along those lines. I'll believe it when I see it.

I think Chess's book is pretty much doomed no matter which way you cut it, but I'd welcome a revival for my own selfish reasons (i.e., to be able to hear the songs live on Broadway).

I also think some people say they liked Idina just to be contrarians (takes one to know one). I am actually baffled as to what anyone saw in her performance worthy of praise.

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Let me watch your toes and fingers twitch.

#36

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/5/09 at 12:25am

Did that horrific concert not teach us anything? Indina Menzel has no business playing Florence.

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"What a mystery this world. One day you love them and the next day you want to kill them a thousand times over." The Masked Bandit in THE FALL

#37

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/5/09 at 1:08am

If they give us a good English translation of the Swedish libretto, I can die a happy man. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only version of the story that makes complete sense and actually lets the audience care about the characters.

*I know they won't give us that, but it's nice to dream...let me dream, dammit...

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-- SDG

#38

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/5/09 at 5:57am

Please no Josh Groban this time, let him record his songs for his fans and keep him away from this great musical.
And agree with Julia Murney, she MUST be Florence

#39

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/5/09 at 2:51pm

Julia Murney NEEDS to play Florence in this after her excellent performance at the concert version a few years ago.

#40

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/6/09 at 2:02am

Why is everyone apparently treating Julia Murney and Idina Menzel as the only viable options for Florence?

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Let me watch your toes and fingers twitch.

#41

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/6/09 at 3:41am

Everyone is treating Murney and Menzel as the only viable options simply because they are the last two people to play the role in major concert productions.
I didn't mind Menzel in the role, but I really liked Murney a lot more.

#42

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/6/09 at 8:58am

I really like Josh Groban's Anatoly. He's not the most fabulous actor, but he sings the role beautifully. And because he's not really an actor, his Anatoly has something of a hapless quality. Which is actually not a bad thing as Anatoly is really kind of a jerk, if you think about it. Groban's more sympathetic than most people would be in the role.

#43

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/6/09 at 10:03am

"Idina is fine but she destroyed "Nobody's Side" for me. I really don't want to hear her sing it again. I was not crazy about the concert version."

Amen to that! But I still listen to the CD just because I love the score so much!

"
If they give us a good English translation of the Swedish libretto, I can die a happy man. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only version of the story that makes complete sense and actually lets the audience care about the characters. "

Yeah, but they'd have to rewrite the lyrics in a lot of cases, I think.

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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."

#44

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/6/09 at 6:33pm

Yeah, but they'd have to rewrite the lyrics in a lot of cases, I think.

Since I don't speak/read any Swedish, I can't really say. It seems, though, that quite a few of the big numbers have the same meaning/intention as their original English version, so using the original lyrics shouldn't be a problem (I'm thinking mainly of sings like History of Chess, Merano, Anatoly and Molokov, Nobody's Side, Someone Else's Story, Anthem, Pity the Child, and I Know Him So Well). Obviously we'd need new lyrics for the revised parts of the Quartet, The American and Florence, and The Arbiter's Song, et al, but would that be such a bad thing? New production, new story, new lyrics.

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-- SDG

#45

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/6/09 at 7:44pm

^ Do you mean Chess pa Svenka? Cause that "I Know Him So Well" is the only version that has ever made any sense to me.

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#46

re: 'Chess' To Return To Broadway.

Posted: 9/22/09 at 12:02am

I'll be happy as long as they re-write this line:

"Haven't you noticed we're still a protagonist short
In this idyllic, well-produced scene?"

I love ABBA's music and crazy, out-there lyrics, but seriously? Was that actually one of Tim's lyrics he wrote? That's definitely something you would hear in one of ABBA's weaker songs, lyrically.