While the game of chess is hundreds of years old, it has seen a resurgence in popularity this past year thanks to the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit,” the story of an orphaned chess prodigy as she rises through the ranks to become one of the world’s best players while dealing with drug and alcohol dependency. The show became Netflix’s most watched series ever and led to many stores selling out of chessboards.
The novel the show is based on was released in 1983, a year before another chess-centric piece of entertainment took the world by storm — the musical “Chess.”
“Chess” is a musical by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and the legendary Tim Rice. “Chess” the musical has a long and infamous history, having been reworked and rewritten several times throughout its staged runs. Some versions have been more well received than others, the 1986 West End production in London ran three years and won several accolades while the 1988 Broadway show in New York closed after two months to abysmal reviews. But throughout its many runs and tinkerings, one thing has always been praised in “Chess.”
“The music is what is most memorable from the production,” says Kenny Howard, Florida Theatrical Association’s education director and the director of “CHESS in Concert,” a show coming to The Mezz in Orlando Aug. 22-24. “I have seen successful concert versions of ‘Chess’ before and it’s been a musical that I’ve always loved with music that is so iconic, so I wanted to do it utilizing some of our amazing local talent.”
Before taking any stages, “Chess” was released in 1984 as a double LP concept album, a strategy that worked for Rice’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Evita” in the ‘70s, and became a hit.
The story of “Chess” has been changed with each iteration of the show but the basic plot remains mostly the same. Set in the 1980s, two world chess champions — one American and one Russian — compete in a chess tournament during The Cold War. Adding to the tension between the two is a fight over a woman named Florence, who manages Freddie, the American, and falls in love with Anatoly, the Russian.
“This kind of love triangle with Florence, she has been with Freddie for many years but then she meets Anatoly and there is this instant kind of magnetism that draws them together,” Howard says. “At the same time, he wants to defect, then his defection and their love adds more complications to both.”
Also adding to the complications, Anatoly has a wife named Svetlana.
“The game of chess lends itself to all the layers of this story,” Howard says. “There are so many different ways to move the pieces, so many different ways you can win and I think that’s why it works so well as an analogy of The Cold War. There are certain rules in the game but after that it becomes a game of wit as you try and outmaneuver your opponent. That analogy also applies to the relationships between each of these characters.”
Howard says that while this is a concert version of “Chess,” some of the spoken dialogue from the musical will be incorporated into the production to help tell the story but that much of the “extra stuff from the full show has fallen by the wayside.”
“CHESS in Concert” stars Trevor Southworth as Anatoly, Brett McMahon as Freddie, Janine Klein as Florence and Marissa Volpe as Svetlana. Additional cast members include John Gracey, Joe Swanberg, Ron Miles and an ensemble that brings the total cast up to 17.
“I love that we are able to do this show in The Mezz,” Howard says. “First, because the black and white decor just goes perfectly with a show about chess. It is a great space and you can really create a mood that will lend itself to this show. Also, with a large cast of people who will be on stage at the same time, we will have a lot more room to spread out.”
Giving the cast room to spread out is something that has become a necessity for all shows given the ongoing pandemic. Howard says that he initially planned to bring “CHESS in Concert” to the stage earlier this year when he thought we might be coming out of the pandemic but felt it was best to push back. And while the show will be going on, Howard says the current rising numbers have led to more safety precautions being put in place.
“Making sure everyone, on and off stage, is safe is number one,” he says. “The staff and the crew at The Abbey and The Mezz have been vaccinated. Everyone here will be wearing masks and we highly encourage anyone coming to see the show to wear masks during the show. I think policies will probably change as we get more information. Just like during Fringe, it was changing day to day based on what capacity was allowed to be at, what case numbers were looking like.”
The pandemic hasn’t only impacted how the show will be seen, but it was also factored into the casting process.
“I think auditions were a fascinating element to the entire process,” Howard says. “We did auditions strictly through video, including callbacks.”
Howard had performers submit a video of them singing, then he contacted back people by email giving them songs from the show to sing which had to be resubmitted by video.
“It was definitely an audition process that I needed to get used to,” Howard recalls. “For Florence and Svetlana, because they sing ‘I Know Him So Well’ as a duet, I had the Florences record their part on video, email it to me and then I would email the videos to the Svetlanas and then they sang on video with the video recordings from the Florences playing and then sent it back to me. That way I could check for blend and chemistry, well as much chemistry as you can have with video. I have to say when I got Janine and Marissa’s video back my jaw dropped.”
“CHESS in Concert” plays at The Mezz in Orlando Aug. 22-24. Tickets are available at AbbeyOrlando.com.
