I very much wanted to like this version of Chess. Having seen brief clips of it on YouTube, and this being the only recent staged production, the singing and acting seemed great, and the stage designs lavish. Well, it's a mixed bag, folks.
Tommy Körberg reprises his role as Anatoly Sergievsky, and he does a good job of acting, great job on the singing. Helen Sjöholm is fantastic as Florence, best acting and singing I have seen yet. Nobody can beat her Lämna Inga Dörrar På Glänt or Om Han Var Här. Anders Ekborg would have been included as great singing AND acting for the abusive and crude Freddie Trumper, but his overacted Pity the Child just marked him down a few notches. Jossefin Nilsson was a different matter--screechy, wailing, off- key (well, I guess technically it's on key but it's so screechy and wailing you're not sure)! In Jag Vet Vad Han Vill (I Know Him So Well), every time I heard Jossefin I got a headache, and every time I heard Helen I felt relief. I can't really say much on Molokov, but Rolf Skosglund (or however you spell his name) can't sing. He can, however, provide a most amusing caricature of this sleazy, grotesque French arbiter. Now, most of the singing was good.
The first act, the tension is wound up quite nicely, with arguments between Freddie and Florence over his inappropriate behavior and Florence's past, with dissatisfaction from Anatoly about his home life, Anatoly and Florence seeking asylum; in short, asides from the Arbiter moments and the interchanged settings, very close to the original concept album. The stage design is both appropriate and eye-catching, and you really can't beat the scene where Florence reminisces about her past in Hungary, 1956. The Arbiter's moments were just plain...weird. However, I got a laugh out of those scenes (and so did my friends).
The second act doesn't have much of a storyline. So Anatoly gets Florence, Freddie causes one last outburst, for some unknown reason Anatoly needs to go back to Russia, tearful goodbye, and it ends. Pretty much, asides from a blowup between Freddie and Florence about her leaving him and an argument between Svetlana and Anatoly (Endgame), there's not much. And Endgame drooped quite a bit, being placed in the middle of the show, instead of towards the end as a climactic song. There are a few songs that, to me, don't really have context--Jag Vet Vad Han Vill, or Om Han Var Här, for example. What's the reason for a big fight between Florence and Svetlana? Why is Florence feeling apprehensive? I don't know. And the scenes in the circus didn't fit in with the rest of the dark, brooding plot. That just did not mesh well, and in such a serious setting I wanted to laugh and blush in embarrassment for its incongruity.
There were some interesting rearrangements; sometimes it worked out really well, sometimes it didn't. I love the singing and the stage setting, which are brilliant, but sadly the meaningless second half of the plot and some really out-of-place scenes kind of blew it for me. If you can learn to set aside its flaws (which I am doing slowly), you will enjoy this version. The singing and acting and the stage production and the first act are great. Just be warned about the second act.
Oh, and did I add this has no subtitles for English viewers?
