DIRECTOR'S NOTES
What you are about to see is an intimate version of Chess. I
call this a chamber piece because I have pared down the show in
an attempt to get to the root of its universal story, told
through its hauntingly beautiful music.
What is Chess about? It's about three people, their ideals,
their lives and their love and beyond that it is about one woman
and her search for herself. It is not about governments, or
philosophical ideals, it is about people. People who are
manipulated by governments who believe in and compromise their
ideals, but people nonetheless. I wanted to look into the
specific motivations and the pulse of these people and attempt
to tell their stories. After all, story is what drama has been
about for thousands of years. Spectacle has been important too,
but I believe the story always wins out.
Messrs. Rice, Andersson, Ulvaeus and Nelson have written a
timeless piece that withstands the rapidly changing political
winds when considered against the backdrop of humanity. The
Soviet Union is no more. To me this is of little consequence
when realizing this piece.
If you look at these two adversaries presented in this piece you
will find that it is about more universal ideals than the US vs
USSR. It is a metaphor for the powers that manipulate us every
day. After all, the game of "chess" is merely a metaphor for two
opposing armies trying to protect their king and capture their
opponent's monarch. What could be more theatrical that that?
- Daniel Henning
REVIEW
"All across the country, critics have seen the musical 'Chess'
and cried 'Check Mate!' And yet the show, a Cold War love
triangle told in an insistent but largely personality-free pop
score, refuses to yield.
Originally directed by Trevor Nunn, 'Chess' opened in London in
1986 where it was a high-tech hit. It later bombed on Broadway,
as well as on its refurbished national tour directed by Des
McAnuff in 1990.
Its love story involves an American woman with Eastern European
roots and two chess champions, one a bratty American, the other
a soulful Russian, hoping to defect. They play out their moves
against the backdrop of political intrigue at world champion
chess tournaments in Bangkok and in Budapest, amid a gaggle of
hangers-on, reporters and CIA and KGB agents.
Regional theatres continue to produce the musical, which just
opened at the Hudson Theatre. Produced by the Blank Theatre
Company, this version is pruned and infinitely more bearable
than it was on Broadway. With 'Chess,' it seems, less is
more.
A full orchestra has been reduced to one piano and one
synthesizer, with the hard-working Gene Mattison manning both.
If you can imagine the Cold War paranoia set to self-important
pop songs, you can imagine the music, by former ABBA members
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulveus, and with lyrics by Tim
Rice and book by Richard Nelson. This production has wisely cut
'One Night in Bangkok,' a hyperventilating tour of the city's
flesh palaces, which as a single sold more than four million
copies. This is a quieter, more contemplative 'Chess,' with an
emphasis on the love story.
And the love story is captivating, thanks to the casting of two
appealing actors with fine voices. Marcia Mitzman radiates
decency and worry as Florence, the American who falls suddenly
in love with the Boris Spassky character, a sincere Russian
named Anatoly (Sean Smith, who was last seen as Leon Czolgosz,
the McKinley assassin in Stephen Sondheim's
'Assassins.').
Florence may have slept with both of the leading male
characters, but as musical heroines go, she is rather dully
virtuous in spirit. But the presence of Smith's tender Anatoly
seems to embolden and lighten Florence. They make such a good
couple that they give you something to care about in the
musical's chilly spy-novel terrain.
As Florence's former lover, the obnoxious Freddie, Douglas Sills
gives in to Michael Bolton-type flourishes in his singing,
making Freddie seem more fussy than he needs to be. This is an
unfortunate choice, particularly when Freddie sings a
self-pitying song that comes entirely from left field, with no
warning, about his parents' neglect.
Under Daniel Henning's direction, the crowd scenes look
cluttered and sometimes clumsy. But Henning does good work with
the lovers, particularly when they are crumbling under the
pressure of two countries pulling them apart from each other. In
a program note, Henning notes that the musical is 'not about
government or philosophical ideals, it is about people.' To his
credit, 'Chess' is a little more about people than it ever was
before."
--Laurie Winer, Los Angeles Times
Blank
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Hair and Wig Designer Butch Belo
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