No matter how frosty the West’s relations with Russia, is there really any reason to roll “Chess” out of cold storage? For all the bangers of its retro score, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ eighties musical, based on a brainwave by lyricist Tim Rice, simply doesn’t stack up. Never has, never will – and Laurence Connor’s grandiose semi-staged revival for English National Opera fares no better at coaxing a coherent, satisfying evening out of a canny concept than any of its predecessors.
An attempt to encapsulate the testy stalemate of the entire Cold War in a game between rivalgrandmasters, “Chess” has a checkered history. A turbulent but respectable West End run was followed, 30 years ago, by a drastically revised Broadway premiere that lasted little longer than the Cuban missile crisis. It’s been tinkered and toyed with ever since, but the fact that original bookwriter Richard Nelson is...
An attempt to encapsulate the testy stalemate of the entire Cold War in a game between rivalgrandmasters, “Chess” has a checkered history. A turbulent but respectable West End run was followed, 30 years ago, by a drastically revised Broadway premiere that lasted little longer than the Cuban missile crisis. It’s been tinkered and toyed with ever since, but the fact that original bookwriter Richard Nelson is...
- 5/2/2018
- by Matt Trueman
- Variety Film + TV
The first West End production ofChesssince 1986 starsMichael Ballas Anatoly,Alexandra Burkeas Svetlana,Cedric Nealas The Arbiter,Tim Howaras Freddie,Cassidy Jansonas Florence and Phillip Browne as Molokov. This epic musical love story had its press night last night and is now playing at the London Coliseum for a strictly limited season. Watch a video from the opening night party below...
- 5/2/2018
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
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