World Premiere of New Version of Chess to be Staged at London's Union Theatre; Casting Announced

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

A new version of Chess, the West End and Broadway musical featuring music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and lyrics by Tim Rice, is to receive its world stage premiere at London's Union Theatre, according to a playbill.com update. (Photo (left): Tim Oxbrow)

Rice, who adapted the musical with Hugh Wooldridge for a concert version staged at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008, has given the Union's production team exclusive access to mount the first fully-staged production based on it. Rice has called this the definitive version of a much altered and often re-worked show.

The production is co-directed and staged by Chris Howell and Steven Harris, and will feature a cast of 16 including Sarah Gilbraith as Florence, Nadim Naaman as Anatoly, Tim Oxbrow as Freddie, Natasha J Barnes as Svetlana, Gillian Kirkpatrick as Molokov, Craig Rhys Barlow as Arbiter and Neil Stewart as Walter.

Musical arrangements are by Christopher Peake, with musical direction by Simon Lambert. It is designed by Ryan Dawson Laight, with lighting by Ben M. Rogers and fight direction by Andrew Ashenden and Annie Duggan. It is produced by Sasha Regan for The Union Theatre.

Chess, which involves a romantic love triangle between two players in a World Chess Championship, and the woman who manages one and falls in love with the other, began life as a concept album that was released in 1984. It was first staged in a concert version later that year by the recording cast at London's Barbican Centre.

The world premiere of the first fully-staged production was to have been directed by Michael Bennett, but he withdrew owing to ill health (he would later die of an AIDS-related illness) and was replaced by Trevor Nunn, opening at the Prince Edward Theatre in 1986, where it ran for nearly three years. Nunn would subsequently stage a revised, far shorter-lived production on Broadway, where it opened at the Imperial Theatre in April 1988 and closed two months later, after 17 previews and 68 regular performances.

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New Stage Version of Chess Musical to Premiere in London in February

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

 

Elaine Page, pictured with Chess creators Benny (right) and Bjorn, had a No 1 hit with I Know Him So Well

Here is a nice news story about the great musical 'Chess'. The BBC reports that a new version of the 1980s musical Chess is to premiere at a small London theatre in February.

Sir Tim Rice, who co-wrote the original music with Abba stars Benny Andersson and Benny Ulvaeus, has given exclusive permission to the Union Theatre to premiere the new stage adaptation. The updated work was first performed at the Royal Albert Hall in concert in May 2008, with Wet Wet Wet's Marti Pellow. Sir Tim has called it "the definitive version" of the 1984 love story.

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The Chess 'In Concept' Concert in New York on Monday!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,


Andy Propst has written a nice preview of the latest version of the classical Chess - The Musical in The Huffington Post. He writes (some excerpts): Not many musicals with Broadway runs of under two months end up getting starry concert performances. But then, Benny Andersson, Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus' Chess is no ordinary musical. Its debut as a concept album in 1984 catapulted the show and a couple of songs in particular (the driving dance tune "One Night in Bangkok" and the ballad "I Know Him So Well") into global consciousness. The show ultimately got a London production staged by Trevor Nunn in 1986, which ran for three years and recouped, which, as bookwriter/lyricist Rice points out, "is pretty impressive, bearing in mind how expensive it was."

Broadway, however, was a different story. The show, once again directed by Nunn and heavily revised (although still focusing on the rivalry between American and Russian chess champions and a romantic triangle that develops between them and the woman who is the American's second), lasted a mere 68 performances in 1988. And yet, after the show's abrupt closing, it's enjoyed two concert presentations in New York: One in 1989 at Carnegie Hall and a second in after return visit to New York City as a benefit for The Actors Fund in 2003, featuring Sutton Foster, Josh Groban, Julia Murney, Adam Pascal and Raúl Esparza. Further, Groban and Pascal reunited and were joined by Idina Menzel for a concert performance of the show in 2008 at London's Royal Albert Hall.

And now, the show's New York fans will get a third concert on Monday, July 30, once again benefiting The Actors Fund, and headlined by Robert Cuccioli (a Tony Award nominee for Jekyll and Hyde, Natascia Diaz (from such shows as Lennon and The Capeman) and Drew Sarich (seen on Broadway in Les Miz and starring in the Broadway-aimed Rocky the Musical). Christopher Martin, founding artistic director of Classic Stage Company, is helming the performance, which is being billed as the Chess "In Concept" Concert.

As the title indicates, the event will be a return to the show's origins as a concept album, one which Rice says, in retrospect, "was much more the 'finished version' than even we realized at the time." Martin concurs, saying "we're using the 1984 scenario that Tim outlined on the album. It's still the best and most focused. My feeling all along has been that they had it right in the first place with the recording. It only needed a bit of filling out. That's all we've done."

While returning to the basic outline of the concept recording, Martin has adopted some of the changes that have been made to the work for the stage. For instance, "The Story of Chess" has been shifted to the beginning of the show, although he adds, "It is reprised (in a shorter version) at the end to tie into the recording."

The Chess "In Concept" Concert will be held on Monday, July 30 at LaGuardia Arts at Lincoln Center. Click here for tickets and more information.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com