| re: Could Chess be redeemed like Merrily? | |
| Posted by: sf 09:14 am EDT 07/12/24 | |
| In reply to: Could Chess be redeemed like Merrily? - bobby2 10:36 pm EDT 07/11/24 | |
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| Probably not. The version of the show that makes the most sense, probably, is the Swedish script from the production at Cirkus in Stockholm - but to do it in an English-language production would require Tim Rice to rewrite a lot of lyrics, which I think isn't going to happen. Also, that version pretty much cuts One Night in Bangkok. Even the version of the show that originally played in London would be difficult to revive successfully. There's a lot of great music, but you're about half an hour into the first act before anything much happens. And yet the more streamlined version that played in Japan in 2020 and in concert at Drury Lane a couple of years ago isn't satisfying either - it takes the London version of the show and trims away a lot of the music that holds up the plot, which should be an improvement but somehow, oddly, isn't. Wheeling out the version that was performed at the Coliseum in London a few years ago - basically the concept album with knobs on - is a non-starter. It was a glorious musical experience - huge chorus and orchestra - but as a piece of theatre it just didn't work. And Richard Nelson's Broadway script isnt' viable either. The dialogue is terrible, and the book scenes, which read a not-very-talented Le Carré pastiche, don't sit very easily against the score's big, bombasic pop opera sound. Much as I love it, I think Chess is probably best served by concert productions. |
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