Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Chess Musical Tour


Chess is a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, formerly of ABBA. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other; all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes. Following the pattern of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, a highly successful concept album of Chess was released in 1984.

The premiere of the musical provoked an overall mixed to favourable verdict from the critics and, according to Variety Magazine, "one of the bigger West End mob-scenes in recent memory". Most of the naysaying notices had comments ranging from "far too long" and "shallow, improbable story masquerading as a serious musical" (The Sunday Times) to The Guardian's conclusion, "A musical is only as good as its book, and here one is confronted by an inchoate mess."

Other newspapers posted raving reviews. The Daily Telegraph wrote that the show "gift-wrapped and gorgeous...compels admiration", The Times noted that "it turns out to be a fine piece of work that shows the dinosaur mega-musical evolving into intelligent form of life" and Today called it "gripping, eye-catching.. nearly a major triumph". Michael Ratcliffe wrote in Observer that "operetta plot which would have delighted mature Lehar is dramatised in a buoyant, eclectic and stirring theatre-score" and called Körberg "the indisputable star of the show". Sheridan Morley in International Herald Tribune complimented show's "remarkably coherent dramatic shape ... staging of considerable intelligence and invention".

The first theatrical production of Chess opened in London's West End in 1986 and played for three years. Chess came seventh in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the United Kingdom's "Number One Essential Musicals.Chess Musical Tickets are available at Sold Out Ticket Market at nominal rates.

Chess Musical Tickets at Sold Out Ticket Market
Ticket Market for Chess Musical Tickets

Chess Musical Videos








Chess Musical Tickets at Sold Out Ticket Market
Ticket Market for Chess Musical Tickets

Chess Musical Picture Gallery








Chess Musical Tickets at Sold Out Ticket Market
Ticket Market for Chess Musical Tickets

Chess Musical West End

Chess premièred in the Prince Edward Theatre in London on 14 May 1986 and closed on 8 April 1989. It was originally set to be directed by Michael Bennett, but he withdrew for health reasons. He only did so, however, after casting the show and commissioning the expansive set and costume designs. The show was rescued by director Trevor Nunn, who shepherded the show on to its scheduled opening, though with considerable technical difficulty. The three principal singers from the concept album, Elaine Paige, Tommy Körberg and Murray Head reprised their roles on stage. Barbara Dickson declined to appear, and Siobhán McCarthy played the part of Svetlana.

According to set designer Robin Wagner, interviewed in Lynn Pecktal's book Set Design, the original Bennett version was to be a "multimedia" show, with an elaborate tilting floor, banks of television monitors, and other technological touches. Nunn, realizing he could never bring Bennett’s vision to fruition, instead applied his realistic style to the show, although the basics of the mammoth set design were still present in Nunn's show. This included the three videowalls, the main of which featured commentary from chess master William Hartston, along with appearances from BBC newsreaders.

The London version was a massive physical production, with estimated costs up to $12 million. It expanded the storyline of the concept album, adding considerable new recitative, and attracted several West End stars, such as Anthony Head, Grania Renihan, David Burt, and Peter Karrie, during its three year run.

The production won the 1986 London Critics' Theatre Award for Best Musical, and received three 1986 Laurence Olivier Award nominations: Best Musical, Outstanding Performance by an Actor (Tommy Körberg) and Outstanding Performance by an Actress (Elaine Paige). Notably, in two of these categories (Best Musical and Outstanding Performance by an Actor) Chess lost to The Phantom of the Opera, by Rice's former collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber.



Chess Musical Tickets at Sold Out Ticket Market
Ticket Market for Chess Musical Tickets

Chess Musical History


Tim Rice had long wanted to create a musical about the Cold War; in the 1970s he had discussed writing a musical about the Cuban Missile Crisis with his usual collaborator, Andrew Lloyd Webber. In 1979, Rice had the idea to instead tell the story through the prism of the American-Soviet chess rivalry; he had previously been fascinated by the political machinations of the 1972 "Match of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Lloyd Webber was busy at the time with the musical Cats, so American producer Richard Vos suggested working with Andersson and Ulvaeus instead, knowing they were looking for projects outside of ABBA. Rice, who was a fan of ABBA, agreed; he wrote later that he felt no reservations because "there is a sense of theatre in the ABBA style". Rice met with the two for the first time in December 1981 in Stockholm to discuss the concept (Vos was also in attendance), and they quickly signed on to the project.

All through 1983 Rice, Andersson and Ulvaeus worked on the music and lyrics. Rice would describe the mood of particular songs he wanted, then Andersson and Ulvaeus would write and record the music and send the tapes to Rice, and Rice would then write lyrics to fit the music. Some of the songs on the album contained elements of music Andersson and Ulvaeus previously had written for ABBA: the chorus of "I Know Him So Well", for instance, was based on the chorus of "I Am An A", a song from ABBA's 1977 tour; while the chorus of "Anthem" used the chords of the guitar solo of "Our Last Summer". Ulvaeus would also provide dummy lyrics to emphasize the rhythmic patterns of the music, and some of them ended up in the final version since Rice found them "embarrassingly good" ("One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble" is the most well-known example).One song, which became "Heaven Help My Heart", was recorded
with an entire set of lyrics, sung by ABBA's Agnetha Fältskog, with the title "Every Good Man"; though none of the original lyrics from this song were used.


Chess Musical Tickets at Sold Out Ticket Market
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Chess Musical Introduction


Chess is a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, formerly of ABBA. The story involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other; all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes. Although the protagonists were not intended to represent any specific individuals, the character of the American was loosely based on chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, while elements of the story may have been inspired by the chess careers of Russian grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.

Following the pattern of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, a highly successful concept album of Chess was released in 1984. The first theatrical production of Chess opened in London's West End in 1986 and played for three years. A much-altered US version premièred on Broadway in 1988, but survived only for two months. Chess is frequently revised for new productions, many of which try to merge elements from both the London and Broadway versions; however, no major revival production of the musical has yet been attempted either on West End or Broadway.

Chess came seventh in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the United Kingdom's "Number One Essential Musicals."


Chess Musical Tickets at Sold Out Ticket Market
Ticket Market for Chess Musical Tickets