Checkmate

Some of my regular readers I know are familiar with the musical Chess. Many may not be. For the uninitiated, it was a musical conceived in the mid-1980s that surrounded a face-off between a Russian and American champion for the world chess title. The lyrics were written by Tim Rice after the falling out of his long-time partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber. The music was written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, the two "B"s of the group ABBA. A few songs from the musical broke into the mainstream, such as the odd pseudo-rap One Night in Bangkok, and love duet I Know Him So Well.

But the most significant thing about Chess is that it's never really been "finished." Its original incarnation was a "concept album" released to drum up interest from potential producers, and the structure of the musical ultimately went through some changes before actually being staged in London. After a run there, the musical was brought to Broadway, where it went through a large number of additional changes, and subsequently flopped after a very brief run.

From there, various theaters who secured the rights to present the play would cobble together strange blends of the two or three major incarnations of Chess, trying to present "the best of the best." The creators themselves then undertook such an effort a few years back, when Ulvaeus and Andersson translated the entire work into their native Swedish and rearranged it all again.

Now, in the words of Tim Rice, they may finally "be getting it right." Very recently, Chess was rewritten and shuffled up again, and presented in concert form for two nights in London. The performance was recorded for a CD and DVD release, the latter of which I recently watched.

As a longtime fan of the musical (in its various forms), I have to say this latest incarnation -- which they have for the time being at least dubbed "the official version" -- is as good a presentation of Chess as I can imagine. I say this without even making allowances for the fact this was a concert and not a full-fledged production. Chess has basically defied actual staging for nearly 25 years, and this somewhat heightened and non-literal version of it actually seemed to strengthen it in my mind.

"Chess in Concert," as it is called, features one hell of a cast. The sort of "token name" brought in to appeal to the masses is Josh Groban as Anatoly, the Russian champion. But his presence doesn't feel like a concession or compromise in any way; he gives a powerful performance. If you're a Broadway theater nerd, then you'll probably recognize the actors playing Freddie (the American champ) and Florence (his second), Adam Pascal and Idina Menzel, who both starred in the original production of Rent (and reprised their roles for the film version). They and everyone else in the cast are exceptional.

The presentation is not simplistic, despite it being a concert. A large screen above the stage is used to project material related to the action; the stage has multiple levels to it; significant bits of choreography are presented for several numbers. Aside from building actual sets, you probably wouldn't do much more for an actual production.

And indeed, this newest batch of changes improves the flow of the play tremendously. Spoilers here in the rest of this paragraph, I suppose, if you're unfamiliar with the plot, or are and want to see this new incaranation without foreknowledge. The acts have been restored to the original concept of taking place one year apart and in two different cities. A handful of completely new songs have been written, one in particular to solidify the motivations of Molokov, the Russian "puppet master." Many more reprises (and "forecasts") of major thematic material have been added, transfered to other characters; for example, Act II now concludes with a very resonant reprise of Anthem, which has always closed Act I in all incarnations of the musical. Perhaps the most inspired change is the transfer of the song Someone Else's Story from Florence (singing of her situation with Freddie) to Svetlana (wife of Anatoly).

If you are familiar with any incarnation of Chess, you owe it to yourself to check this out. If you like musicals of any kind, you'll also want to see this -- the music and these performances are outstanding. Chess in Concert gets an A from me.