ima do it anyway...
Chess.....a flawed musical. a musical i love nonetheless.
there was a big hullabaloo that they would be rewriting the book, and they certainly did write something tho idk if i can call it good, really. now we get chess with the most ham-fisted narration i've had the pleasure of seeing in a show for adults (lol).
so the issue with this is not only is every single "scene" narrated, it means that the show completely looses any sense of flow. each emotional moment is interrupted by an comment from the arbiter ranging from unnecessary to just downright dumb. why do you have to tell us this is a "cold war musical" every half hour? it honestly was making me have flashbacks to Urinetown with the way the arbiter is almost an officer lockstock type character now. the political jokes and allusions to "look, this is happening today, right now" are so beyond unnecessary, it makes the audience feel dumb and cheapens the message.
meanwhile, the three leads are absolutely giving their all with their performance, like to the point when nicholas christopher starting singing anthem you could feel the entire audience transcend. People were fucking crying. We went from 0 to 100 so quickly. So overall, it did make a good watch. You cant help but have fun when everyone is trying so hard, and the music is so good, and the emotions are there. it. just. keeps. getting. interrupted. lol. just like this sentence i just wrote, eh?
just going through number by number: so, freddies backstory is changed to be that he is mentally ill and has bipolar. florence has been with him for 7 years as his second and as his gf, and in this version he is the chess champion. Anatoly is the challenger.
The order of the show has been changed so were introduced to anatoly first. for me, this does not work because it means they have to cut the entire scene with molokov and anatoly talking about freddie, you dont get to see the friction between molokov and anatoly as strongly, and they are set up to be like father and son (though not quite). to me, this makes anatoly feel like he is less chafing upon his forced position by the government. when hes forced to work with a second who doesnt even play chess, you feel that leash that is tied around his neck. now instead its them talking about he has to win otherwise hell be killed by the kgb. ok to me this is fine, and creates a decent stakes, but i feel like it could be even further emphasized by just straight up having a dude constantly following you who doesnt care about you at all. (where i wanna be goes here as per usual)
then, we are introduced to freddie and florence. this is a completely new scene (by the way, we transition to these scenes with the arbiter snapping, which was just the stupidest direction of all time) where freddie is in a catatonic state, having forgotten to take his meds/mood stabilizers/whatever it may be. florence comes in and finds him and gets him up and encourages him to take his pills (which he does)
i find this new direction for freddie works, and makes him slightly more sympathetic. i know some people didn't like this choice, but i personally did think this worked and the two people i was with who had never seen chess really enjoyed his character for it.
next we go to merano, freddie and florence showing up for the match, and we get the interview portion. aaron tzveit did an excellent job portraying a man whos on the emotional wire, and you can see him getting more mentally distressed with each question, resulting in an outburst. again, i honestly found this really effective to his character, paired with the scene beforehand. HOWEVER. this should have been the first 2 scenes in the show. THEN, you get into molokov and anatoly arguing about his interview and his outburst. because now, you dont really understand anatolys character with "where i wanna be" being the second song in the show without the original intro. i digress, it is a nitpick but to me, would have been a stronger structure. i assume they put the anatoly scene first because he is supposed to be the "hero" or whatever (its all three main leads obvi) and also think the audience is smart enough to root for the right people.
so they introduce this whole subplot with the cia and the kgb meeting. its stupid, doesnt really effect the stakes but the russians want freddie to throw the match basically and tell the cia they have to do this if they want to make the salt treaty work out. you could just eliminate this. the scene is stupid, the jokes in it are stupid. just keep the stakes that anatoly will be killed if he doesnt win???? thats already stakes enough, he will literally die. maybe hes so freaked out about dying he has no chance of winning, so he goes along with the whole disturbing freddie plan? it just adds time to an already long show.
we go into the chess match, arbiter is still narrating and telling jokes and its getting pretty damn grating already, and because of this, they also play the arbiter song as a big joke which absolutely KILLED ME. its a cool ass song, trust your material and play it seriously!!!! Damn.
so. this productions chess match. i dont even know. anatoly and molokov make a plan and are like "he'll flip out and throw the match if we annoying him and make noise" the chess match is staged with both players standing in front of a mic center stage. there is no chessboard and no visualization at all of the game. its like theres barely chess. freddie and anatoly read out their moves. and then as the game goes on we get their internal monologue as well. this could have been effective but the direction here was so poor....they were zipping through this scene. there was no meditation, no thought or deliberation, they were just calling move after move out. it made the scene so much less impactful, and it made the internal monologue very unnatural and shocking, some people laughed at it. it made me think of robert wilson. for those unfamiliar, robert wilson was a theatre direction (RIP btw) who emphasized deliberate movement, his shows very veryyyyy slow, but each action was done with intention. its can be very meditative and thought provoking to watch (check out Einstein on the beach or the black rider for examples). that is what this scene needed. there was no intention within the dialogue being said, the time it took to say it, no pause in between. it felt like lines being read out, not thoughts that were coming to a persons head. it drove me absolutely nuts.
so they fuck with the lights, freddie starts getting like anxious and distraught and he runs out (this to me was more effective, again) we get the model of decorum, nobodys side, etc.
they did add that florence and anatoly had met before and had a flirtation previously a few years ago. this felt natural to me, and also made the "whole situation" florence wanted to avoid on the mountains make more sense within the narrative. they include a new scene of them talking right before the match that is cute. florence and freddie argue over anatoly which is what results in nobodys side. his jealousy still makes him an asshole in this version. i wish there was more dialogue before the mountain duet, but instead we go straight into the song.
so more kbg/cia shit the cia basically threatens florence into throwing the game or they will revoke her right to come back to the USA and will deport her. they have her throw out freddies pills to make him lose. some people were really bothered by this choice and said it made her too unlikeable but honestly it was messyyyyy and i was for it. personally, i dont think the cia interaction was necessary. you could have probably just had molokov come up to her and be like "hey....theres no way anatoly will win.....do you know what happens to people who dont win in the ussr?". i feel like that would be enough to push her, especially right after her breakup.
so freddie forfeits, anatoly and florence hook up, they put heaven help my heart here. florence and anatoly talk about staying together, he talks about thinking about defecting. then theres a cia/kgb discussion where theyre like anatolys going to defect:????? and theyre both shocked. then we get anthem. im not sure what would be the best way to go into anthem honestly. like what they did for bway didnt really work (hes just doing an interview and goes right into it.) maybe instead he just sings it to Florence in bed? likes hes like i want to defect and shes like why? dont you have a wife and kids there? and then he answers her with this very heartfelt song.
act 1 ends
act 2 starts uh....one night in bangkok. it was pretty fun. (btw overall the choreography for the show was pretty meh) the whole ensemble strips, and freddie is in tighty-whities (woooo!)
we then see molokov and svetlana, who has been brought to bangkok to throw off anatolys game. she sings hes a man, hes a child. was not the biggest fan of this song, personally i found it lessor compared to all the other songs in the show. i feel like this was really unnecessary dramaturgically, its just a scene of molokov threatening svetlana, we already know this is happening and it will happen more later. i assume they put it just to give her another song but i think its so unnecessary and also takes away the mystery of her later.
the kgb gives the cia a tape of svetlana. *insert the soviet machine here* which was fine except the choreo looked like knock of fiddler stereotypical russian dancing which was sooooooo boring and lame.
the cia gives freddie a tape with svetlana on it to show to anatoly when he interviews him. why not just have molokov give him the tape directly lmao? freddie already wants to humiliate them no matter what? so freddie shows the tape, which results in an argument with florence and anatoly. but instead of him being like call my wife and ask her its more uh.... they sing you and i. sure. we go into no deal. now its some thing about anatoly needing to throw the game to prevent an all out war. to me this is dumb and overly-dramatic (lmao), theyre already threatening his wife and kids, why not just focus on that dilemma?
anatoly refuses the deal, freddies sings pity the child, he comes back to anatoly and tells him how to win the match. endgame occurs, anatoly is told his family will be spared if he comes back to the ussr, he agrees with a caveat. florence sings someone elses story which totally fucks with the triumph of endgame and anatoly winning and the despair of it all, this song needs to be cut (im sorry). we go into the you and i reprise, anatoly leaves, the cia agent comes and reveals that FLORENCES DAD IS ALIVE AND COMING BACK TO THE US WITH HER YAYYYYY!!!!! insert a few lines by the arbiter of the story of chess. I mean i cant even begin with how bad of a choice this is. so we get a pretty happy ending (lmao?) florence gets what she's always wanted. i guess anatoly also is finally champion as well (for real this time) and freddie grows as a person.
personally i was really thinking about how to fix this because i found everything related to this part of the second half weak.
so i think they should put the deal where you and i goes in the revival, but only half of it, where they threaten anatoly outright, florence and anatoly argue, he's lying to florence, saying i dont care about my wife, it wasnt real etc. florence decides to call her. i think i know him so well should primarily be sung by svetlana, with florence backing what she says, slowly realizing what sacrifice she should make. because she cant let this innocent (?) woman get killed. to me, this is the shows "every day a little death" i want florence to realize whats truly at stake with anatoly putting his family at risk. this puts florence at the central emotional core of the show. she tells him to throw the match, put *you and i* here. where anatoly is unable to answer her. i think then you put the second half of the deal here. freddie shows up still trying to win florence back, anatoly is like fuck you, freddie has his whole moment with pity the child, decides to man up and gives anatoly advice. insert some conversation here about how theyre the same and how all that matters is the game, discussing anatolys decision etc. put in endgame, he decides to defeat his opponent, molokov is like ok say bye to your wife orrrr you can come back, he says ill go back, but with a caveat. we have the you and i reprise (id shorten it a little) we go into the story of chess instrumental, anatoly is like, ily florence, one day we will meet again, very bittersweet (and shes like so fucking devestated, and he thinks he did something good)...he leaves with svetlana, we see freddie leave, then florence is alone, molokov comes up to her and is like "anatoly agreed to come back to us if we released your father.....however he passed some time ago". arbiter shows up one last time "each game of chess....." show ends. devastating.
so half of this was criticism but also how i would rewrite it (but only vaguely) would love to hear other peoples thoughts on my inane rambling lol
