After breaking with composer Andrew Lloyd Weber, lyricist Tim Rice collaborated in 1984 with the two former ABBA stars, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, to produce what became ‘the most successful “Swedish” musical ever written’ – Chess The Musical.
A concept musical about the chess match between world champions Victor Korchnoi and Bobby Fisher at the height of the Cold War, the work is refreshing for its novelty. However, the book is convoluted, at times ridiculous, and hopelessly over-developed, involving a love triangle, intrigues, political machinations and attempts to make statements about the Cold War.
The show survives on its musical hits, such as the party number One Night in Bangkok and the ballad I know him so well, forcefully rendered by dynamic female lead Gina Schmukler with Anne-marie Clulow. Amongst the rest of the cast, James Borthwick (the Russian patriot Molokov) is the clearest and the only one who’s every word is intelligible in song. But the night belongs to young Brennan Holder (the Russian chess grandmaster) who is fast establishing his reputation as a leading man.
This unusual choice for Pieter Toerien’s established creative team of musical supervisor-arranger Charl-Johan Lingenfelder and director Paul Warrick Griffin, Chess is their most robust production to date. The cast cope well with what is at times a hellishly difficult score. Conceptually some of the choreography is preposterous, but the new revolve for the theatre’s stage has certainly paid off.
