CHESS
Here are a few notes about Chess that I've compiled from other sources. I worked in a production of of the show put on by Merivale High School in 1996. The show was exhausting to play, running over three hours with an intermission. We performed the show five times over the course of four days in early May of that year. I also worked on the show in March 1998 with Carleton University's Sock 'n' Buskin troupe.
Never heard of CHESS? It features lyrics by Tim Rice, and music by the two guys from Abba. The story follows the conflict between the chess contingents from the United States and the U.S.S.R. Tim Rice got together with the two guys from ABBA, and they released a concept album of their musical. A couple of the tracks were big hits, notably One Night In Bankok. The show was put on in London, lasting for a few years, getting great reviews. Unfortunately when they took it to Broadway, it was a flop.
Since then it has gone though several incarnations, some getting great reviews, and some getting mediocre reviews. Rumor has it Tim Rice is getting set to re-write it again for release in a major market sometime soon. Here's a note from Tim Rice on one of his latest versions that's kicking around.
The Merivale show featured a cast of over 40, 13-piece rock orchestra, and amazing sound and lights. (Someone told me over 200 students in our school of over 1000 students participated in some capacity.)
For more info on musicals, check out rec.arts.theatre.musicals.
More info: e-mail ggower@ottawastart.com.
LAST UPDATED: January 11, 1998.
A NOTE FROM TIM RICE
(Distributed in early 1992 at his "definitive" version of CHESS.)
The history of Chess the musical has become far more
complicated than any of the story-lines in its many different
productions. Of all the musicals for which I have written lyrics
and/or book, Chess has caused me most professional, personal and
financial anguish, but has also enabled me to work with some of
the most outstanding music any composer has entrusted to me.
Chess has had great highs and ghastly lows, but will not go away.
Around 1980 I conceived the idea of a musical set
consisting of a love story against the backdrop of an American-
Soviet world chess championship match, such as that played by
Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Iceland in 1972. I approached
several composers but no great interest was sparked until I met
the Swedish writers and performers Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny
Andersson in late 1981. They told me at the time that the
geographical position of their country gave them a particular
interest in the East-West confrontation. The Cold War was of
course still in full swing, so to speak.
In 1981 Bjorn and Benny were still part of the amazingly
successful rock quartet ABBA, for whom they wrote and performed
dozens of hit songs. Worldwide they were the biggest selling
recording act of their time, only in the United States (where
they had several hits) being less than a phenomenon, I was
involved in another show in London so it was not until 1983 that
we really got going with our joint venture - with a research
visit to Moscow. We decided to launch Chess on record and began
recording the work in early 1984. The finished album was
released at the end of the year on RCA records. We promoted the
release in Europe with concerts in five major cities, featuring
the full forces of the recording - symphony orchestra, rock band,
classical and rock choirs and the soloists Elaine Paige
(Florence), Tommy Korberg (Anatoly) and Murray Head (Freddie).
Throughout the next twelve months, the album was a best-seller in
Europe with two songs, "I Know HIm So Well" and "One Night In
Bangkok", number one singles in many territories. The album came
out in America in early 1985, sold more than respectably and "One
Night In Bangkok" became a substantial hit on the pop charts.
So far so good. The problems began with the efforts to
transfer the work to stage. The record's success attracted
armies of producers and directors. Among the most distinguished
was the Shubert Organisation in the former category and Michael
Bennett in the latter and it was with this combination plus the
Robert Fox Organisation as co-producers that our company three
Knights Ltd. began to prepare for a London stage presentation for
the summer of 1986. A considerable amount of rewriting and
expansion of the recorded version took place under the guidance
of Michael Bennett, vast amounts of money were spent on sets,
costumes and assorted technology, a huge cast was assembled, but
all was thrown into tragic confusion when the director was forced
to withdraw as a result of ill health just before rehearsals
began. The entire production was nearly aborted but saved at the
last minute when Trevor Nunn agreed to take over the troubled
ship. Nunn did a magnificent job in enabling the show to open on
schedule and although we were all aware that the eleventh-hour
crisis had resulted in a show that was not totally one director's
clear concept, the production was by and large well received and
ran for three years at the Prince Edward Theatre. We were
particularly fortunate to have Elaine Paige, Tommy Korberg and
Murray Head repeating their record roles in the stage version.
It was ludicrously expensive (well over 4.3 million pounds
sterling) but the London investors eventually (just) got their
money back.
As we knew that the London show was too confused and too
costly to recreate on Broadway we looked upon the prospect of a
production in New York as a chance to start again with what we,
perhaps arrogantly, felt was an outstanding score that had to
date not been given the breaks it deserved. More and drastic re-
writing took place. A new book by American playwright Richard
Nelson was added to the score, and the piece now gained a great
deal of spoken dialogue compared with the London and record
versions which were virtually sung through. I can only say that
we got it wrong for Broadway. There was much to admire in the
production, most notable an outstanding cast headed by Judy Kuhn,
David Carroll and Philip Casnoff. However, the length of the
work, the elements of rock music in the score and the serious
problem that the story, set in "the present time", became more
outdated by the minute as the Soviet empire collapsed and the
Cold War thawed, alienated most critics.
By beefing up the political elements in the story we
inevitably weakened the human elements and drifted away from the
original intent of the piece. There were two interesting works
struggling to escape from one show. As it was we fell between
the two stools of what might have been a fascinating play by
Nelson or an original musical by Andersson, Rice and Ulvaeus.
Although we played to good houses for eight weeks in early 1988,
the confidence of the producers in an extended run was low and
after virtual total rejection by the Tony Awards committee it was
decided that we should cut our losses and close.
Despite this high-profile financial failure, interest in
Chess remained high. A concert in Carnegie Hall by the Broadway
cast was ecstatically received. Many different productions,
professional and amateur, were launched in the United States,
with varying degrees of success. An Australian version, directed
by Jim Sharman, played in Sydney for six months. A tour of the
United Kingdom ran for two years. There were many concerts and
productions in Scandinavia which invariably pulled huge crowds
and critical approval. As I write, a major production in New
Zealand is about to open (starring Murray Head and Tommy Korberg)
and further 1992 openings include Germany and Hungary.
The only problem about this continuing enthusiasm around
the globe was that no two versions of the show and of the story
were the same. Some were based on the Broadway version, some on
the London and some were hybrids. Many were very confused. When
the 'Artists' Perspective" approached me in early 1991 about a
new production for New York city I was happy to agree on the
condition that I could rework the show for such an important
theatrical city, in the hope of establishing a definitive final
version for all future productions.
Only time will tell if I have been successful in this aim
but with the invaluable assistance of this production's director,
David Taylor, I have made important changes to Chess which have
addressed the principal problems that troubled previous
incarnations of the script. The political background to the tale
is made totally plausible by setting the action in 1972 and I
have restored full musical status to the work, as originally
envisaged when we began writing nearly ten years ago. Whatever
the future of this production or of Chess in general, it has been
an enormous pleasure for me to work with the Artists' Perspective
and I thank the entire company, off-stage and on, for their
enthusiasm and talent.
CHESS: A comparison of 6 of 7 Major
Versions
by Joann Lawler (jal1@voicenet.com)
LONDON 1986. The London version was an expansion of the
1984 recording with book and lyrics by Tim Rice. Michael
Bennett was announced as the director in September of 1985,
and a world-class production team was assembled and began
work. Millions were spent on the high-tech production and
it was fully cast and about to begin rehearsals when Bennett
suddenly withdrew in 1986 due to health reasons. Trevor
Nunn came in, saved the show, and it ran for three years and
(just) made back its enormous investment. Nunn may have
felt that he had "godfathered" Bennett's production rather
than created his own. He demanded and got complete artistic
control of the New York production.
BROADWAY 1988. This is the song order of the Broadway
production on opening night. The published script (ISBN 0
573 68917 6) is available from Samuel French Inc, 45 West
25th Street, New York, NY 10010, but it is an abbreviated
version of what was seen in New York. Nunn brought in
Richard Nelson to totally rewrite Rice's London book.
Nelson's plotting is very good (and his dialogue is
excellent) but the motivations for the songs are weaker than
in London, and sometimes a song is rendered redundant by the
scene which precedes it. The original show ran past 11:00,
forcing the producers to pay more than $20,000 a week in
overtime. In an economic move to shorten the lenghth, Nunn
cut "The Chess Hymn", "The Arbiter's Song" and "Someone
Else's Story"(!!!). A good deal of the inside information
on how the Broadway version went so wrong can be found in
the May 1988 issue of "Vanity Fair". (It's very dishy.)
NATIONAL 1990. The National Company was directed by Des
McAnuff, and even though the production received excellent
notices (Variety 1/31/90), it had to compete with the
public's perception of CHESS as the monstrous bomb which had
flopped on Broadway two years earlier. McAnuff and
playwright Robert Coe restored many of the London songs
cut from the Broadway, used much of Nelson's dialogue and
plotting, but streamlined the whole thing. McAnuff went
back to some of Michael Bennett's original ideas, making the
show much more visual (almost like music videos) and
emphasizing the romance (Bennett had seen CASABLANCA as the
model for CHESS). In the second act, Freddie is built back
up as a romantic alternative to Anatoly, and Florence sings
"Someone Else's Story" in the final scene -- like Elsa on
the tarmack -- forced to choose between two extraordinary
men. This is, in my opinion, by far the best version that
anyone has come up with. The script is unpublished, but
there was recently a reading of it in California in January
of 1995 with Kathleen Rowe McAllen as Florence and Patrick
Cassidy as Freddie. Let's hope that McAnuff has amassed
enough clout after directing TOMMY and H2$ to spark a revival.
CASA MANANA 1991. Casa Manana Musicals is a production
company in Fort Worth, Texas. Tim Rice came to Texas in the
summer of 1990 to do an uncredited rewrite of Nelson's
Broadway script in the hope of coming up with a more
commercial version. The biggest changes are that it gets
rid of the "Chess 1" and "Chess 2" instrumental interludes
during the games, cuts much of the cloak-and-dagger stuff,
and there is a compromise happy ending. Anatoly sacrifices
himself for Florence's father, but not in vain. There is a
tearful reunion between the father (and it really is Daddy)
and daughter at the end of the show and they sing
"Lullabye", just as they do in the Prologue at the
beginning. This version toured the country in 1991 and it
was produced at Papermill Playhouse in 1992. If you didn't
see CHESS in London or New York, this (or one of its
hybrids) is probably what you saw. This version is
unpublished.
OFF-BROADWAY 1992. Rice was approached by The Artist's
Perspective, a new Off-Broadway company, in 1991 about a
revival in New York. Rice saw this as a chance to rework
CHESS "in the hope of establishing a definitive final
version for all future productions." He threw out
everything written by Nelson and went back to many of the
ideas from London. The scale of the production is smaller,
Svetlana is present from the beginning (she sings "Someone
Else's Story" with new lyrics), the "Merchandiser's Song"
becomes a zippy patter song for Freddie and the chorus
(there's no Walter and no Father in this version), and "One
Night in Bangkok" is sung by the Arbiter (!!!). "Endgame"
is not the final game of the tournament -- the show ends
with Anatoly and Freddie sitting down to play again -- with
the women seemingly forgotten or superfluous. In my
opinion, it was a giant step backward, and it broke my
heart. This version is unpublished.
NEW BRITISH SCRIPT 1993. This published script (ISBN 0 573
08095 X) is Tim Rice's November 1993 rewrite. It is now the
standard version outside the United States, and is available
from Samuel French Ltd, 52 Fitzroy Street, London W1P 6JR.
World Champion Freddie loses his title to Anatoly in the
first act and the Russian defects. The second act is a year
later with Freddie, returning as a TV commentator for the
network that Walter runs, covering (and manipulating) the
tournament between World Champion Anatoly and his new
Russian challenger. Rice, in his Author's Notes, encourages
playing around with scenes and songs, but the only
alternatives he will allow are those authored by him. "Der
Kleine Franz", is a German drinking song whose sole function
in the show is to drive Anatoly and Florence outside to sing
the "Mountain Duet" (Rice allows you to cut it.). The
lyrics for "One More Opponent" do not seem to correspond to
any tune I know from any version. I am not aware of any
professional productions which have used this script.
EDINBURGH 1994. The seventh version, another unpublished
Rice rewrite, premiered in Scotland at the Edinburgh Arts
Festival in August of 1994. I have a friend who saw it
there, and described it to me, but she has not been able to
find her program from it. Anyone who saw it and has a
program could be very helpful to me in completing the table.
CHESS: What Went Wrong on Broadway
Ed Lawler (jal1@voicenet.com)
Tim Rice wrote the role of Florence in CHESS for Elaine
Paige, who had originated the role of Eva Peron in London in
1978. EVITA made Paige a star in Britain (her most important
credit before this was a supporting part (to Michael Crawford) in
BILLY, the 1974 London musical version of the film "Billy Liar"),
but she was not considered enough of an international star to
repeat the role in New York.. It was reportedly during the run
of EVITA that Rice and Paige began their long-term affair.
It may be simplistic, but its not hard to see the emotions
going on among Rice, his wife and Paige reflected in the
relationships among Anatoly, Svetlana and Florence, especially
after the British tabloids made the affair public. The 1984
studio recording was an international hit, and turned CHESS into
the hottest and most-anticipated musical of the 1980's (okay,
maybe it shared that title with MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG). A
one-year bidding war for the rights to this guaranteed hit was
won by the Shuberts who could deliver Michael Bennett to direct
the production in London (and New York). It seemed assured that
Paige would have another London success and then, her chance to
conquer Broadway in a show written for her by the man she loved.
Months of work and millions of dollars were spent on the
enormous production, and the large cast was assembled and about
to begin rehearsals when Bennett suddenly withdrew due to (at
that time) mysterious health reasons. The entire production was
thrown into chaos and nearly aborted, but at the last minute
Trevor Nunn (who had directed LES MIZ in London the year before)
agreed, with multiple conditions, to step in and take over the
six-and-a-half-million-dollar troubled ship. The production
opened and was another triumph for Paige, and a hit which played
for three years. Rice praises Nunn for saving the London
production, but his relative silence on the Broadway speaks
volumes.
A year after the London opening of CHESS, LES MIZ opened in
New York and greatly enhanced Nunn's American reputation as a
director (his American credits to this point consisted of
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY and CATS). Against Rice's advice, Nunn decided
that the Hungarian-born Florence would be an American (depriving
Paige of her chance to conquer Broadway), he threw out Rice's
book from the London, and he brought in playwright Richard Nelson
to write a new one.
Nunn had been passed over (in favor of Harold Prince) to
direct THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA in London. The Shuberts wanted
to take CHESS to the National Theatre in Washington for two
months to work on it (and maybe California after that),
postponing the Broadway opening to the following fall -- but POTO
was opening that season, and Nunn wanted to go up against it (and
Prince) and win. Nunn left his availability for the fall an
unanswered question, but the producers of CHESS announced the
postponement (New York Times 12/31/87), even with the possibility
of having to find a new director. Nunn persuaded them to change
their minds and open "cold" in New York on April 28, 1988.
The show on its opening night was over three hours long.
Frank Rich wrote a scathing review (New York Times 4/29/88)
praising the performances of Judy Kuhn, Phillip Casnoff and David
Carroll, but panning or dismissing almost everything else. He
saved his most caustic comments for Nunn: "For all the
redesigning, rewriting and recasting that have followed the West
End premiere, it's amazing how little success Mr. Nunn has had in
levitating 'Chess.'" "His main achievements have been to add
running time, to remove the glitzy video and hydraulic special
effects and to tack on a prologue, replete with smoke and
tattered flags, that makes the 1956 Hungarian revolution look
like the Parisian barricades sequences of his far superior
'Miserables.'" Referring to Kuhn, Rich concludes: "War is
hell, and, for this trapped performer and the audience, 'Chess'
sometimes comes remarkably close."
Kuhn and Carroll were nominated for Tony awards, but CHESS,
eligible in ten other categories, received no other nominations.
(POTO recieved 10 nominations and won 7 Tonies, including "Best
Director" and "Best Musical." INTO THE WOODS won most of the
rest.) To save more than $20,000 a week in overtime and keep
the production running, cuts were made to bring the show in
under three hours -- eliminating songs such as"The Chess Hymn",
"The Arbiter's Song" and "Someone Else's Story". CHESS
closed after 68 performances on June 25, 1988.
Responsibility for CHESS's failure on Broadway seems to
rest almost entirely on Trevor Nunn's shoulders. Given the time
to work things out (which the Shuberts strongly urged), combining
Richard Nelson's play about East-West intrigue and Tim Rice's
pop-opera could have worked (as the two best scripts of CHESS,
the Des McAnuff-Robert Coe National Company rewrite and Rice's
own rewrite for Casa Manana Musicals, show). Nunn's treatment
of Rice during CHESS was abominable, (it's no accident that
every copy of the Broadway recording has the disclaimer
"Some lyrics in 'Endgame' have been changed without the
authorization of Tim Rice.") The possibility that Nunn might
treat Boubil and Schonberg as he had treated Rice caused
Cameron Mackintosh to decide that Nunn would not be the
director of MISS SAIGON, a decision that Mackintosh informed
Nunn of even before CHESS's disasterous Broadway opening.
Unfortunately, the continuing emnity among the parties is
the reason why Samuel French, Inc. is stuck with the compromise
script of CHESS that nobody likes. Rice is in the best position
to establish a new American script (which was why his angry
1992 Off-Broadway version was so disheartening). Unless he
writes, or all the parties authorize, another version to be used
in America the situation will not change. My own hope is that
they will allow Des McAnuff to direct a revival using his
National Company script, that it will be successful, and that it
will establish a new definitive American version of CHESS.
Ed Lawler
c/o Joann
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jal1@voicenet.com