What Is Chess?

A really successful concept album.

A really unsuccessful stage show.

Andersson and Ulvaeus's two MT scores aren't really easily pigeonholed; both Chess and Kristina have pop and rock inflections in amongst the classical fugues and choruses. I think it's just safest to call them traditional musicals with some slightly odd 80s/90s touches in their scores.

While reviews of the original production suggested the show was a rock score, I think it's only Freddie's numbers that lay claim to rock by any modern standards, and that's mostly because of the wailing guitar in Pity The Child and the high Cs.

It has some absolute banger songs ( Nobody's Side, Pity the Child, Anthem, Mountain Duet, You and I) , some more comic songs ( Merano, Soviet Machine), and a few that i love that are less easily categorised ( Quartet, Deal or No Deal). Them there is Benny's beautiful orchestrations

Yeah, the book is a bit of a mess but I'm interested to see if with a longer rehearsal period than they had for the Washington and NYC concerts if Danny Strong's book can be successful.

I actually find the story much easier to follow than other people seem to but maybe as someone who was growing up in the period it was set, living with the fear of nuclear war even in far off Australia, it just resonates with me.

Plus I was watching the 2008 concert the other night again and the section where Florence and Molokov were discussing/singing about her being Eastern European and Florence talking about Hungary being overtaken by the Russians and losing her family and her people, it hits in a really different way in the world we live in right now.

Fact is I'd rather see this staged again with some phenomenal voices ( and Lea and Ramin hopefully together again is a very good start) than a bunch of other musicals with less interesting music and a more straightforward book or yet another musical based on a movie or another jukebox musical thats easy to follow.

It really is a anamoly!

Parts of the original Sydney production work well ( Maria Mercedes Someone else’s story is gorgeous ). If you look you can find the whole show on video and audio.

DeNada said: "GirlFromOz68 said: "Them there is Benny's beautiful orchestrations


I don't think Benny has ever orchestrated Chess; I think Anders Eljas has orchestrated basically every major production of the show ever. Fun fact - Anders Eljas also was one of the orchestrators for Carrie (I'd love to know which bits - did he do theincrediblebombastic orchestrations for Eve Was Weak, or was that Michael Starobin?).

Every time he re-orchestrates the show he does something newly horrific to Someone Else's Story; the original Judy Kuhn version and the gorgeous Helen Sjoholm version in the Swedish production have always been wonderful, but the weird country and western guitar sounds he's whacked in there since the Albert Hall concert are completely lost on me. Strip it back, if anything - there's a heartbreakingly simple video on Youtubeof Helen Sjoholm singing it in English on a Swedish talk show that shows what an absolute banger the song is without any bells and whistles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZt9c2Tips)."

sorry not a music expert, so obviously i used the wrong word when I said orchestrations but I meant the beautiful music that Benny wrote for the other sections of the score that I love. I'm happy to be corrected on what I should be calling that but I am right that Benny wrote that as I've heard Tim say he did.

To go back to the initial question, I'd still call it a rock musical, kind of in the same vein as how Hamilton can be called a rap musical even though there are a lot of parts that aren't rap. Or maybe a European rock musical, just to give a slightly different connotation. But the most accurate would probably be "a musical based on a concept album with primarily rock influences" or something.