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Saturday, March 15, 2014
'Chess the Musical' at Wharton Music Center, March 28-April 6
Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2014
Hello everyone,
The Berkeley Light Opera Company will present the “Chess the Musical,” starting March 28 and running through April 6 at the Wharton Music Center, 60 Locust Ave. in Berkeley Heights. Performances will be held on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets will be $25 and can be bought online at bloc.ticketleap.com. A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the Wharton Music Center.
The opera company aims to produce creative and inspiring productions of light operas and infrequently presented musicals, while promoting music education in the community through its association with and support of the Judith G. Wharton Music Center.
Inspired by the gripping 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, the show originally played London's West End and Broadway. The show uses game of chess, its pieces and its strategies as the backdrop for a tale of political intrigue, love and betrayal during the Cold War. With lyrics by the legendary Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita) and music by ABBA members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (Mamma Mia!) the show features what Time Magazine called “One of the best rock scores ever produced.” The score includes the 80’s chart topping hits One Night in Bangkok and I Know Him So Well as well as the much loved Anthem, Someone Else’s Story, Pity the Child and Heaven Help My Heart.
The production focuses on the music and employs a small tight ensemble of singers and a rock band. The cast, which includes singers with Broadway and Regional credits, includes local performers Ronit Horowitz, Heath Weisberg, Brain C. Jones, Alison Endee, David Claypoole, Alexa Ortiz and Katherine Guantez.
The show is directed by David Claypoole and musically directed by Chess band leader, Staten Island’s Robert Herbert. The lighting and set are being handled by local residents Wendy Romm and Brent Baab.
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.
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."
Cool chess video of Musical artistes trying a game of chess
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
This is the video from Toronto where the Princess of Wales Theatre is showing Chess The Musical from September 24-October 30. The theatre artistes of the musical came out to play a game of chess on a giant board. Pretty cool. Let us know if you go for the play. You can check details of the show here.
Catching up with the writer of Chess - The Musical
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
Here is a delightful article by Sarah Swain for Scotland's top-selling evening newspaper Evening Times.
Abba star Benny checks out Chess in Glasgow
He might already know it so well – because he wrote it – but Abba’s Benny Andersson popped in to check on his show Chess in Glasgow.
The Abba star, who also penned smash-hit musical Mamma Mia, was at the city’s King’s Theatre on Saturday to see the last night of the production directed by Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood.
Benny, 64, who wrote the music with fellow Abba member Bjorn Ulvaeus while Sir Tim Rice provided the lyrics, even signed autographs for some fans who spotted him, before heading backstage to meet the cast. The musical includes the song I Know Him So Well, which was recently a Comic Relief hit for Susan Boyle and comedian Peter Kay. A spokesman for the King’s Theatre, said: “It must have been very exciting for those sitting beside him in the Grand Circle, and it just goes to show you never know who you might be sitting next to!” The Swedish singer/songwriter was in Abba from 1972 until 1982. The group found fame after winning the Eurovison Song Contest in 1974 with Wateroo.
Chess, Benny and Bjorn’s first musical, opened in London’s West End in 1986 and played for three years. It is set against a backdrop of the Cold War as two great chess masters, an American and a Russian, battle it out at the world championships.
There are hundreds of videos online of Chess - The Musical staged across the world. Here is just one of those.
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