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Michael Ball soars in Chess as the musical makes its return to the West End
At last the kings have regained their crown.
In 1986 Chess was supposed to be the crowning glory of ABBA songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and opened to huge fanfare but swiftly hit some bum notes with audiences and critics. Too operatic, too complicated, too much chess.
I Know Him So Well and One Night In Bangkok were huge hits but the show stalled as a frustrating stalemate between ambition and execution.
32 years later, this is the first time the show has returned to London’s West End and in triumphant form thanks to a powerhouse cast, reborn original score and spectacular set design.
Did I mention that music? After endless tinkering and rewrites that satisfied nobody, the main core of the original score is restored in rapturous, goosebumping and glorious form.
This show embraces all that was once criticised, refines it and proudly unleashes it in unapologetic and show-stopping form.
Do not miss this bold, brash and brilliant revival.
This is a show that takes no prisoners and exposes any weakness in performance. There is a good reason Pity the Child is often called ‘Pity the performer.’
Surely one of the most difficult musicals throughout to sing, the intricate phrasing, irregular tempos and operatic counter-melodies require extraordinary ability to pull off.
Six blazing central performances do so with scintilating effect.
Michael Ball, unsurprising, soars but not just on the barn-storming Anthem, which has become a staple of his live shows but achives a majestic new resonance here. He brings a weary dignity to Russian grand master Segyievsky who seeks victory but finds love instead – at the cost of his family and nationality. He is spectacular in Endgame, which I have waited 30 years to see restored to its full, gut-punching glory.
Tim Howar is the perfect counterpoint as Trumper – arrogant, swaggering and insensitive with full-throated rock vocals but bringing real pain and power to the best Pity The Child i have ever heard.
Alexandra Burke keeps her megawatt star power just about under wraps as the discarded Svetlana, including a beautiful Someone’s Else’s Story, but also holds her own alongside the seasoned veterans in the epics group numbers.
Cassidy Janson in the ‘Elaine Paige role’ Florence is magnificent, feisty and fragile. Rich vocals throb on Heaven Help My Heart and wrend the heart on You And I where a final big screen close-up shows her tear-stained face. She is the emotion and emotional heart of the show and is flawless as the woman any man would give up his country for and then, in turn, give her up simply to bring her greatest wish.
Cedric Neal thrills as the Arbiter with beautiful range and runs while Phillip Browne is hugely impressive as the manipulatibve and merciless Molokov.
A strong backing cast impresses throughout, even before the ENO chorus expands the vocals into sublime widescreen virtuosity.
Frederic Aranda
Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus’s musical is a triumph thanks in part to a powerhouse cast
Following unforgettable triumphs with Sweeney Todd and Glenn Close’s Sunset Boulevard, this is another sensationally semi-staged version from the ENO. Making a virtue of the format, it pares down a show to the lean bones which, fundamentally, form the challenging and glorious score.
The set utlises a fractured chess board backdrop of LED screens to show an Italian mountain resort, a private jet landing, Thai red light district or historical newsreels.
The projections of real-life cold war news footage finally puts the show in a global context, rather than a tenuous link between chess and Russian-American tensions. It also allows huge close-ups of the performers that adds intimacy and scale to the biggest moments.
It is still not a perfect show. The opening always suffers from a slow-build and no big numbers until Someone Else’s Story and Anthem. First a first-timer it can challenge you to care at all.
Surprisingly, One Night In Bangkok felt slightly sluggish and underwhelming with a cast which shone so impressively everywhere else looking a tad heavy-footed. Conversely, the slightly peppy tempo on Someone Else’s Story robbed it of some of the pathos.
The shadows of Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, Murray Head and the incredible Tommy Kobborg loom very large and are hard to shake on the best-known numbers. Rather than imitate or be intimidated, though, this new revival seeks to to cast its own impressive shadow.
It is still a mind-boggling concept to have a six-minute scene mid-way through the first act be a chess match with orchestral accompaniment. But oh, that music. The simple staging and an immaculate orchestra suspended above and behind the set allow you to simply listen to the exquisite beauty of the title track.
Game, set and checkmate Chess.
Chess is running at the London Coliseum until June 2.
For tickets and information go to www.eno.org/whats-on/chess
