Kat Views

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Chess in Concert (2009)

Cast: Josh Groban (Anatoly Sergievsky), Adam Pascal (Frederick Trumper), Idina Menzel (Florence Vassy), Kerry Ellis (Svetlana Sergievsky)
For complete info, see IMDb's Chess in Concert page.

As a huge fan of the musical Chess (and a firm believer that the potential in the show has never been realized in a full production), I was really excited about the new concert version. Sir Tim Rice was involved in this production and said he wanted it to be the definitive version.

This version of Chess has gotten some very harsh reviews and I definitely see many of their points. The graphics in the show are pathetic, there's a huge flaw in the only real set piece, and cheerleaders for merchandise? Ridiculous! However, I think they did a very good job for the most part. I knew they would change a lot of the lyrics and many other aspects of Chess. Most of the horrible reviews seemed to want everything exactly as it was in the original concept album. Not only is that unrealistic, but there are some changes that really improved on that concept album.

Some of the lines being changed from one character to another really helped the show. Clearly, a lot of the changes in the lyrics were not for the better. However, a lot of the changes in the show were for the better - even some of those made to the lyrics. Some of them make a little bit more sense now. I'm so glad they finally had Svetlana sing Someone Else's Story (my best friend and I always thought it would make more sense for Svetlana than Florence). Enjoy the latest version of this great show. It's difficult to hear new lyrics to songs we know so well, but I think they did a very good job with this one. If you like the musical Chess, give this version a chance.

The only problem I had with the cast of this show is that they chose three people with musical theatre backgrounds (Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel, & Kerry Ellis) and one who's a singer and has never acted (Josh Groban) as the main four characters. The rest of the cast also seemed to have acting experience. I think with some acting lessons Josh Groban could have done a good job with the acting needed for Chess. However, since he didn't seem to have the time for lessons and hasn't really acted in the past, Groban ended up looking like he didn't belong in a musical theatre cast. If you can get past his lack of acting skills, the cast is wonderful and the story of Chess is better than ever.

Grade: A-

Labels: 2009, Adam Pascal, chess, concert, dancing, drama, Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, Kerry Ellis, musical, romance, sports, theatre, Tim Rice, TV

Reviewed by Kat at the 7:00 PM show | 4 screams

Gee, check Josh Groban's bio on Wikipedia. He definitely has had musical theatre training, and I thought between the earlier Broadway concert version he did with Adam Pascal, and this London one, he did a fine job with his stage presence and expression.
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