Chess, the musical

If you are going to regress and relive your lost youth, you may as well do it thoroughly. Having seen Miss Saigon on Friday evening, Saturday saw me heading to London to meet up with friends and to see Chess, the musical.

Like Miss Saigon, Chess is a musical I'd never seen live before, although I was very familiar with the score and lyrics. (although I don't think I have the bootleg cassette tape of the original cast recording any more). I had not regretted not seeing it as much as with Miss Saigon, but the chance to meet up with old friends and relive our shared memories was too good an opportunity to miss!

The production was at the Coliseum in London, by the English National Opera, and features Michael Ball as Anatoly,  Cassidy Janson as Florence, Tim Howar as Freddie, Cedric Neal as The Arbiter and Alexandra Burke as Svetlana.

'Chess' Stage

The musical is set in the early 80s, and the stage and set reflect that, with neon squares marking out the stage and back drop, although as the show proceeds the backdrop is revealed to be big screens on which are projected everything from mountains and a jet-plane (for the arrival of Freddie at Merano) to Indian-style shadow puppetry (for the opening 'Story of Chess' song).

Production pic  of 'The Story of Chess' (from @Chessthemusical twitter feed)

The main characters are also shown on the big screens, which was handy for those of us in the cheap seats who couldn't see them at all when they were placed at the front of the stage! 

It was a lot of fun, and the music was excellent, as was some of the singing (I think the theatre had some issues with the sound, as the music drowned out the singing at times, which was a little frustrating.)

The show does have a very weak plot, but the performers gave it their all, and in the moment one can forget and forgive the lack of coherence or character development!

My favourite part remains the Embassy Lament (although I was disappointed that they have taken out the percussion typewriters)

I did not care for the use of mirror images when projecting the singers images - once noticed that the images were mirrored it was impossible not to notice, and be distracted!

The run ended on 2nd June, so it's no longer available, but it was fun.