For some reason, the Gallery Players have
chosen to revive "Chess," a pop opera written by Tim
Rice and the male half of ABBA, about Cold War intrigue at the
chessboard.
And while they’ve assembled the considerable talents of director
Mark Harborth ("Animal Fair," "Noises Off,"
"Angels in America"), there’s also an uneven cast of
actors, many of who are making their Gallery Players debut. There
are a memorable moments in the production – like the scenes between
Florence (Michelle Lane), the mistress, and Svetlana (Mary Mossberg),
the wife; and anytime Joe Enderson appears on stage as Molokov,
the Russian chess champion’s second.
But for the most part, the play has the vitality of a wet sponge.
It’s too bad the Gallery Players had to end an otherwise fine
season on such a tepid note.
Rice conceived "Chess" as a musical about the way the
Cold War influenced both our culture and the individuals who
live in it. At first, Rice approached his former partner, Andrew
Lloyd Webber, with whom he had created such hits as "Evita,"
"Jesus Christ Superstar," and "Joseph and the
Technicolor Dreamcoat," to write the score. But Webber was
already committed to another project.
Then, in 1981, producer Richard Vos introduced Rice to Benny
Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, who created the ’70s Swedish pop
group ABBA. The duo was looking to branch out into musical theater.
Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote a concept album based on Rice’s idea,
and two numbers from the album, "One Night in Bangkok"
and "I Know Him So Well," were hits on the charts –
numbers, one might add, which remain the best ones in the musical.
Unfortunately, Bjorn and Ulvaeus also composed over two dozen
nondescript and indistinguishable songs for the London production,
which ran for three years, but never managed to recoup its original
investment.
With this kind of inauspicious beginning, it’s hard to understand
why "Chess" was brought to Broadway. Yet on April 28,
1988 the musical opened at the Imperial Theatre – and closed
rather promptly on June 26 after only 68 performances, even less
of a commercial success than the London production.
Some blamed director Trevor Nunn (whose impressive credits include
"Vincent in Brixton," "Noises Off," "Not
About Nightingales" and, of course, "Les Miserables")
for the debacle. Nunn replaced Elaine Paige, for whom Rice had
written the romantic lead role of Florence, with American Judy
Kuhn, and he brought in playwright Richard Nelson to write a
new book and add more extensive dialogue to a script that had
been mostly sung. Others pointed to New York Times theater critic
Frank Rich, whose scathing review praised several performers
but little else.
If you ask this reviewer, Broadway had no one and nothing to
blame this failure on other than the greed of the producers.
Set against the background of East-West rivalries during the
Cold War, "Chess" is a love triangle involving Freddie
(Scoop Slone), the snide and arrogant American chess master,
Anatoly (Jason Watson), his sensitive and sincere Russian opponent,
and Freddie’s second, Florence, a Hungarian refugee who was taken
to America after the insurrection of 1956.
Anatoly defects from East to West, and Florence defects from
Freddie to Anatoly. Neither defection brings the defectors happiness.
Watson is adequately sincere, but he is seriously lacking in
passion – even for a chess player. Lane has a nice, strong voice,
but her portrayal lacks maturity, and she always seems to be
wearing a business suit, no matter what she puts on. Then there’s
Slone, who looks and acts like a skinny Elvis with laryngitis.
Since when did the King play chess?
Pop operas with recognizable names attached to them will always
have a cult following. But serious lovers of music and musicals
can certainly find better fare than this dull revue. As for the
plot – it was suffocated by cliches and dialogue your kid brother
might have written before he flunked out of college.
At the end of the play, when Florence and Anatoly say goodbye
at the airport, the echoes of "Casablanca" were so
strong it was surprising that no one began humming the "Marseillaise."
But don’t be fooled. Watson and Lane are no Bergman and Bogie.
The Gallery Players production of "Chess"
plays through May 18, Thursday-Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at
3 pm, at 199 14th St. at Fifth Avenue. Tickets are $15, $12 children
under 12 and seniors. For reservations, call (718) 595-0547.
