By Christy Hudson
Out of all the board games that could be turned into musicals, chess is not one of the most obvious ones, at least to me. But the University of Utah’s Department of Theatre has created a pretty great production of Chess the Musical, with music by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Richard Nelson, based on Rice’s idea.
Chess takes place during the Cold War era, during which American Freddie Trumper and Russian Anatoly Sergievsky compete against each other to become the world’s greatest chess player. Of course, the characters’ lives are like a game of chess, with each side trying to manipulate the other to come out the winner in aspects of politics, money, and love.
Derek DuBay plays Freddie, and Cam Holzman plays Anatoly Sergievsky. Both characters go through significant changes throughout the show. DuBay and Holzman are both expressive performers, with great voices that fit the characters they played. Not many people can make chess seem so exciting (at least to a non-player like me), but they make it so captivating as their characters express the importance that the game plays in their lives.
Mary Nikols plays Florence Vassy, Freddie’s second who was born a Hungarian but is now an American. Nikols has a very powerful voice, and her performance is spot-on. She is very enjoyable in the role, with all of the twists and turns her character takes. Micki Martinez plays Svetlana Servievskaya, Anatoly’s wife. While she doesn’t appear until the second half of the play, Martinez has a strong stage presence. Her part is memorable and sympathetic. She also has a powerful voice. Nikol’s and Martinez’s duet “I Know Him Well,” is a beautiful and both actresses perform their parts extremely well.
Chase Quinn plays the Arbiter, the referee of the chess match. However, he also acts as the impartial judge and commentator of the moves the players make, both in the chess match and in the Russians and Americans competing against each other. His character is the most extravagant (think of the platform boots that the bandmembers of ABBA would wear). His part was a lot of fun to watch.
The ensemble does a lot in this production. They are one of the strongest aspects of the show, with both their singing and their choreography. Director and Choreographer Denny Berry makes all the movement on the stage strategic and purposeful, like the game of chess. There is almost always motion, whether it’s from news reporters or spectators, spinning around the chess players. It takes some imagination to turn a game of chess into a visual spectacle, but the staging is really captivating. It was one of my favorite parts of watching the show.
Costume Designer Brenda Van der Wiel also plays a big part in the visual aspect of the show. The majority of the costumes are in shades of white, black, and grey. However, there is a clearly-accented motif of the color red. Florence is almost the only character wearing red in Act One, but it shows up more in Act Two, in Anatoly’s and Freddie’s costumes as well. I think it has to do with the reoccurring theme of people using people the way players use chess pieces. They are the ones being used, as people try to strategically manipulate each other for their own personal gain. But some of them, especially Florence and Anatoly, just want to play chess and go on with their lives. They will not let themselves be used by others.
The entire stage is a giant chessboard, tilted at an angle. Set Designer Halee Rasmussen uses the set to create a visual to accompany the motif of the characters “playing games” with each other to get the things they want. The set pieces mostly consist of these blocks that fit together like Tetris, creating chairs or tables or whatever they are needed to be. When they are moved during scene changes, it is choreographed to be placed kind of like actual chess pieces. Lighting Designer Cole Adams does a great job of adding to the movement onstage. In some scenes, the actors’ shadows are cast onto the walls, magnifying the motion and creating a kind of eeriness that helps build the tension of the scenes and songs.
I will say, Chess is not a musical for everyone. The story-telling is interesting, but at times I was unsure about what was going on. Sometimes things the characters said and did didn’t make sense to me. Afterward, I found out that there are actually a few different versions of the play. As Berry states in the program, “Chess has been produced in different forms between the West End and Broadway. Industry professionals tend to agree that neither form worked perfectly. Tim Rice, whose idea this play was, invites new directors to continue the work of shaping this story, its character development, and the interplay of its different worlds.” I believe this one most closely follows the original UK version, but in some versions, songs are added or omitted, characters are changed, some characters sing different songs, and entire plot points are altered.
As someone who was not familiar with the story beforehand, a few things didn’t make sense to me, just because of the story structure. Some characters didn’t have enough exposition, sometimes the timeline didn’t make sense, or some things weren’t explained clearly enough. So I was a little confused about some of it (although, I also don’t really know how to play chess very well, so maybe there’s a correlation there).
That being said, I really like the music in the show. I could definitely hear the ABBA-esque orchestrations from Andersson and Ulvaeus’s music, and Rice has crafted some clever lyrics. I could see myself listening to it again. This production also does some cool things with the imagery and movement, making it a lot of fun to watch. And the performers are very talented. It is clear that a lot of work has been put into making this production, and it has paid off. It is not a conventional musical, but it is entertaining and well-put together. The University of Utah Department of Theatre has made a brilliant show that is worth seeing. (Although, if you’re not a fan of unique plays, maybe read the synopsis on Wikipedia or something first.)
University of Utah presents Chess the Musical, Music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, Lyrics by Tim Rice, Book by Richard Nelson
The Hayes Christensen Theatre at the Marriott Center for Dance
September 14-23, 2018 7:30 PM, matinees 2:00 PM
Tickets: $18 general public, $15 seniors, military, UofU faculty, $8.50 students, Free for students with valid student ID
Contact: 801-581-7100
University of Utah Department of Theatre Facebook Page
University of Utah Facebook Page
University of Utah College of Fine Arts Facebook Page
Chess the Musical Facebook Event
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