King’s Theatre, Glasgow
Until: Saturday 9 April
Performance reviewed: Tuesday 5 April
Rating: * *
Having previously enjoyed Mamma Mia! and The Lion King, I was looking forward to seeing Chess as it combines the talents of Bjorn and Benny of ABBA fame and Tim Rice. It also contains the song I Know Him So Well, currently flying high in the charts thanks to Peter Kay and Susan Boyle.
I wondered why I hadn’t made a point of seeing Chess before but that quickly became apparent.
The story centres around the Chess World Championships – the current champion, American Freddie Trumper (James Fox); challenger, Russian Anatoly Sergievsky (Daniel Koek) and a love triangle between both men and Freddie’s PA, Florence Vassy (Shona White).
For the majority of people, chess won’t be seen as a particularly interesting premise for a musical but it’s not just the plot that disappoints.
Directed and choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood this production aims to sex up chess. However, chess just isn’t sexy and there is a lot of thrusting and grinding within the choreography which seems irrelevant and unneccessary.
There isn’t an attention grabbing huge production opening number, instead there are people dressed as chess pieces playing musical instruments.
The set is very minimal with only white lighted squares as a backdrop and occasionally these change colour or show video content, however, although the story takes place in various settings according to the programme, this is not clear when viewed on stage.
With three fantastic songwriters on board the songs should be of a high standard but in reality the majority are repetitive and bland. The exceptions to this are Anthem thanks to a wonderful performance by Daniel Koek and I Know Him So Well which received the loudest applause of the night but also proved to be the signal for the people in front of me to leave.
Another song I’ve heard done well in the past is the emotional Someone Else’s Story by Svetlana, Sergievsky’s wife. However, in this case I felt too much emphasis was put on trying to sound Russian and not singing the song with the passion it needs. A chance to emotionally connect with the audience was lost here.
There is a distinct ABBA feel to the show with lots of synth sounds and a random line from Money Money Money thrown in for good measure.
Now for the positives. The three main cast members of Shona White, Daniel Koek and James Fox are all extremely talented with distinct singing styles each. Counter melodies are used to great effect to show off the fantastic vocal ability of the cast but even a great cast can’t make a bad show good.
