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Just lately, I frequently seem to be suffering from
'Remarkable Coincidence Syndrome'. As far as I know it doesn't exist in any
psychologist's 'list of weird things that happen', but it really ought to. The
latest example of this happened on the way to the theatre, or to be precise, in
it.
The fact that the revived
musical 'Chess' was playing a 5-day run at the
Theatre Royal in Norwich seemed to have escaped
most of the chess-playing fraternity of Norfolk.
To my mind this was unforgiveable, having seen
and enjoyed the production in the late '80s in
Oxford, after its inaugural London run and also
in Dereham and Lowestoft! With music by Benny
and Bjorn from Abba and more than a little help
from Tim Rice (lyrics), the musical features
some great songs including the smash hit 'I Know
Him So Well'. This duet was number one in the
UK for four weeks in 1985 when released as a
single by Elaine Paige (as Florence) and Barbara
Dickson (as Svetlana), who laid down their
vocals separately and never met during the
recording of the song. This event remains in the
Guinness Book of Records as the biggest
selling UK Chart single ever by a female duo.
However, I've digressed. It's
a great show and I for one wasn't going to miss
the opportunity to catch up with the latest
incarnation. Tickets sold like wildfire at the
Box Office and it was totally sold out by the
time I had determined to go. Fortunately an
extra matinee was arranged for Weds 1st
December, which turned out to be heavily
populated by, err, retired citizens '“ including
me! I was joined by Dave Le Moir and his wife
Sue and my mum (her Christmas treat!). Plans
went well; we met up on time, without incident
and settled into our seats, nicely centralised
in the upper circle. It was then that the
Remarkable Coincidence happened. Five minutes
before the performance was due to start, there
was a slight kerfuffle to my right as a short,
bearded gentleman was ushered to the vacant seat
next to me. He seemed vaguely familiar. Once he
had de-robed and settled in his seat, it was
then that the penny (sorry, shekel!) dropped.
He is a chess-player, a
famous chess-player and easily recognisable. I
have known him as a personal friend for the last
30 years since I first attended the British
Championships in 1981. We recently lunched
together in Canterbury during this year's
British Championships. Sitting beside me was
none other than Stewart Reuben, arbiter and
Candidate Master amongst many other things. He
even lists a quick-play draw with the immortal
Bobby Fischer in 1963 on his chess CV!
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Alex Toll (left) with Stewart Reuben
(centre) and David Le Moir |
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I knew that Stewart had met
Tim Rice a few times and in 1982 had arranged
for Karpov and Tim to eat at the same table
during a dinner engagement! He also provided
this game fragment which appears in the musical
now on tour.
Byre v Reuben, London Schools
League 1957
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0
(diagram) 5.a3 Bxc3 6.bxc3 c5 7.Nf3 b6 8.Bd3 Bb7
9.0-0 Ne4 10.Qc2 f5 11.a4 g5 12.Rb1 g4 13.Ne5
Qh4 14.Nxg4? fxg4 15.g3? Ng5 1-0
'For the show I continued
it to 16 gxh4 Nh3 mate. Black goes off and does
a soliloquy before playing mate. A little
unrealistic! White would have resigned of course
in real life without waiting for the mate. A
fragment from this game also appeared in
Tales of the Unexpected 'The Greatest
Chessplayer in the World' - Stewart Reuben.
As it happened, Stewart also
had an advisory role in the revival, with a
credit in the program notes as 'Chess Master'.
Shockingly, although the players made their
moves and pressed the clock 'de rigueur' there
was no sign of any score sheets. Stewart had
advised the director accordingly, but the chance
of 'too much clutter on set' had seen this
normal chess protocol dismissed out of hand!
The lights dimmed and the performance began. As
with most revivals, a couple of songs had been
removed, notably the extravagant opening number
- 'Merano' (venue of the Korchnoi-Karpov 1981
World Championship) and 'the Arbiter's Lament'
'“ to Stewart's chagrin! 'The Story of Chess',
charting the game's development worldwide was
logically inserted at the beginning of the
musical rather than left to the end as in the
original production. The action all took place
on or around a 5x5 square grid on a raised
plinth which was lit from below. Why not 8x8? I
guess that would have meant a bigger wage bill
for the chess-piece cast and less room on the
stage.
And what a supporting cast!
Multi-talented, they were often required to
dance, sing and play their instruments
simultaneously. At one point the double bassist
actually played her instrument lying on her
back, mirroring the moment when the pieces on
the board were scattered to the floor by an
infuriated losing player.
Their costumes were
alternately all black or all white, with no
small S&M overtones '“ slave harnesses and
leather in abundance. Lots of flesh was on show
throughout the raunchy production, especially so
during the Act 2 opener 'One Night in Bangkok'
'“ very aptly named!
All this excitement caused an
audible muttering (wow!) amongst the mature
audience, but surprisingly no old dears were
carried out for resuscitation! The two male pole
dancers left nothing to the imagination and the
male and female leads did everything but
actually copulate whilst lying in an erotic
clinch, stage front. Such excitement! 'Ooohs and
'aahhs' rang around the theatre, more action
than most of the audience had seen in many a
year!
I was beginning to wish I
hadn't brought my slightly prudish Mum,
especially when the brash, vulgar American
Grandmaster 'Victor Trumper' let out two very
audible and unnecessary 'F' words, one in each
act!
Despite this the packed
audience gave the cast a tremendous ovation at
cease of play; to my mind the operatic Russian
anti-hero 'Anatoly Sergievsky' (Daniel Koek) had
the best voice, though the heroic Bette Midler
look-and-sound-alike Florence Vassy (Shona
White) ran him a close second.
But a big mention from me for
the bare-chested, moody, enigmatic shadowy
figure of the Arbiter (David Erik) who ghosted
around the stage, glowering Twilight /
Buffy-like in a marvelous red-lined vampiric
cape. He didn't seem to have too much control
over the chess shenanigans, (JC!) but you
wouldn't want to meet him on a dark night. Hang
on, what am I writing - most of the old dears
bloody well would!
Bottom line, musically I don't think it was
anywhere near as strong as the original
production, partly because the supporting cast
weren't 'miked-up' like the leads, so most of
their lyrics were lost in the general hubbub.
But as I knew them inside out, I just lapped up
the spectacle and the imaginative set-pieces. Go
see if you can, it's doing the rounds until
Christmas.
© Tollmeister 2010
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