Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, book and lyrics by Tim Rice, directed by Craig Revel Horwood
Michael Harrison & Mirvish Productions,
Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto
September 28-October 30, 2011
“Gambit Accepted”
Chess is one of those strange musicals much loved on disc but seldom seen. The fact that Mirvish Productions has brought a production of Chess to Toronto will be reason enough for fans to flock to it. As the last stop on a tour that began in Newcastle, UK, in 2010, it has arrived here completely intact with its British cast. The score has often been acclaimed as one of the best of the 20th century. It is Tim Rice’s book that has been the problem and it has been altered virtually every time the musical has been presented. The current production does not solve all the musical’s problems and adds in some of its own, but it does give a glimpse of what the ideal Chess might be like.
As directed by Craig Revel Horwood, the current Chess hews most closely to the West End version that premiered in 1986 rather than the heavily revised Broadway version of 1988. Act 1 focusses on a fictional 1979 World Chess Championship match in Merano, Italy, between the American Freddie Trumper (James Fox) defending his title and the Russian Anatoly Sergievsky (Tam Mutu). During the course of the tournament Freddie’s second and lover Florence (Shona White) falls in love with Anatoly and Freddie loses his title. Act 2 is set the following year in Bangkok where Anatoly, who has defected to the UK, must defend his title against another Russian player. Behind the scenes manipulation by CIA agent and television presenter Walter De Courcey (James Graeme) and KGB agent and the Russian’s second Alexander Molokov (Steve Varnom), involve bringing Svetlana (Rebecca Lock), the wife Anatoly left in Russia, to Bangkok and promising freedom for Florence’s father whom she thought dead.
As a simple summary shows, there is just too much plot. In Act 2 when the problems posed in Act 1 ought to be developed, Rice introduces new characters and new plot points. The show already has the obvious symbolism of chess as a game between East and West and the plot as the manipulation of people as if they were chess pieces. In terms of structure the musical has two narrators--the Arbiter (David Erik), who makes pronouncements about chess and walks about looking ominous, and Walter De Courcey, who updates us on times and places through his new broadcasts. Horwood’s version also lays on a heavy and unnecessary satire of the media for not only fanning but initiating fiery news stories. The weight of the symbolic/satiric framework and the fact that the central characters have little chance to make their own decisions means that we don’t get to know the characters well enough to become involved in their fate.
Faced with these problems a director should try to bring the human side of the drama as much to the fore as possible. Instead of doing this, Horwood adds on yet another layer of abstraction by having the cast play the orchestral accompaniment as John Doyle did in his famous revival of Sweeney Todd in 2004. A key scene is thus made slightly ridiculous when Anatoly is torn between Svetlana playing the clarinet and Florence banging sticks.
The challenge of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ near-operatic score is to create visuals that adequately reflect it. Here, the design of Christopher Woods mingles good and bad ideas. As a touring production it has been built to fit the smallest of the British venues which is clearly much smaller that the stage opening of the Princess of Wales Theatre. The action thus appears unnecessarily cramped in the middle of the stage. Adding to this, Woods has given the set a square raised dais in the centre. Obviously, this stage-within-a-stage is meant to reflect a chessboard, but having the central portion of the stage raised also inhibits movement. Only six people across can stand on it and fewer across can dance there. The most complex dancing is forced into the narrow strip between the dais and the proscenium.
Woods has cleverly dressed the chorus/orchestra as chess pieces, black versus white, that Horwood as director uses to amplify the interpersonal conflicts on stage. As choreographer, however, Horwood never takes full advantage of the costuming. On the one hand, Woods’s set prevents it, on the other Horwood allows the chorus simply to look on at the various chess matches for far too long when he could have them acting out the moves on stage. In general, Horwood’s choreography never rises to the level of inventiveness of the music, so that “One Night in Bangkok”, which ought to start off Act 2 with a bang, is a rather sad affair of the semiclad chorus half-heartedly feigning sexual abandon.
As Freddie, James Fox has the high, strangled cat kind of voice most often heard in heavy metal bands. Luckily, when he’s not straining for volume, he can be very effective as in “Pity the Child” in which he accompanies himself on the guitar. As Florence, Shona White is a belter who sounds remarkably like Cindi Lauper but with a wider range. Her emotional performance of “Nobody’s on Nobody’s Side” stops the show and for that moment at least gathers the musical’s potential into one powerful statement. White comes through again and again with each of her numbers though her duet with Anatoly, “You and I”, is spoiled by Horwood’s attempt to make the essentially reflective song into a playful romp.
Good as White is in her Broadway approach, the nature of Andersson and Ulvaeus’ music really requires voices of a more operatic quality. In that realm Tam Mutu as Anatoly and Rebecca Lock as his wife shine brilliantly. Mutu has a rich, strong baritone that makes “Anthem” into a truly stirring conclusion to Act 1. He also possesses the most natural acting style of the cast that insures our empathy with his character. Lock’s clear soprano make’s “Someone Else’s Story” into a fine introduction to a character who really appears too late in the action, and her duet with Florence, “I Know Him So Well”, is one of the show’s highlights. The chorus proves amazingly adept at its double duties as singers and musicians.
The upside of Horwood’s production is that all of its various flaws can be remedied, suggesting that Chess is not as hopelessly unstageworthy as some people think. What the principals need is more stage time to develop their characters and their relationships. Horwood could afford to take a page out of Des McAnuff’s direction of Jesus Christ Superstar at Stratford this year and explore the characters more fully through silent interactions during music in which they are not involved. Why not introduce Svetlana silently in Act 1 to prepare for her arrival in Act 2?
Opportunities to see a full production of Chess on stage are so rare that no fan of musicals will want to miss this chance. The score drawing on influences from Haydn to Prokofiev to rock puts the vast majority of modern musicals in the shade. Musically, Horwood’s production is nearly flawless. Dramatically, the flaws in Rice’s book are still too evident. Nevertheless, it’s not hard to see Horwood’s production as showing the way forward to a solution.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Original UK production with David Erik (centre). ©2010 Keith Pattinson.
For tickets, visit www.mirvish.com.
2011-09-29
Chess