Jekkienumber24601
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Hmm Interesting Song ListBackstage last night, someone had a program for San Bernadino Civic Light Opera's Chess. I look at the song list and see
ACT 1 Rome Italy
Story of Chess- Arbiter
US vs. USSR- Ensemble
What A Scene- Freddie
Smile you Got Your First Exclusive Story- Reporters, Florence
Russian and Molokov- Anatoly and Molokov
Where I want to be- Anatoly
How many Women- Florence, Freddie
Arbiter's Song- Arbiter
Merchandisers- Ensemble
Quartet- Molokov, Florence, Arbiter, Anatoly
You want to lose your only friend- Florence, Freddie
Lullabye- Florence, Freddie.
Terrace Duet- Florence, Anatoly
Who'd Ever Think It- Freddie
Florence Quits- Freddie
Nobody's Side- Florence
Embassy Lament- Embassy
Heaven Help My Heart- Florence, Ensemble
ACT 2 Bangkok
One Night In Bangkok- Freddie, Ensemble
You and I- Anatoly, Florence
Anthem- Anatoly
No Contest- Walter, Freddie
Argument- Florence, Anatoly
Someone Else's Story- Florence
Let's Work Together- Walter, Molokov, Freddie
Whole New Board Game- Freddie
I Know him so well- Svetlana, Florence
Pity the Child- Freddie
Endgame- Ensemble
You and I- Anatoly, Florence.
(act 2 might have been out of order. this is from memory)
Wayne? Do you know of this script and can you shed some light on this interesting American production?
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Salome
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sounds like a creative director did what ours did and did some adapting to help the flow of thep iece.
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Jekkienumber24601
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Well I would do the same, it's just this one seems almost too good. I really wanna see a script for it. I still like the full Deal song, but other than that this one is almost perfect. (I do find it interesting how Freddie is in Let's Work Together)
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Jekkienumber24601
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oh I checked again. Walter and Molokov sing no contest...
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bugaboo_4
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What a strange arrangement of songs. Freddie and Florence sing "Lullaby"? Yccckkkk. And "Anthem" should always end Act One. Period. Why reinstate mediocre songs like "Embassy Lament" and not reinstate "The Deal," which has some of the best material ever written for musical theatre? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me...
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High-baritonne
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Does anyone have a plot synopsis from this version? I would like to learn more about this setting!
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navada
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What the ???
How could they not end Act One with Anthem?
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Cadriel
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Re: Hmm Interesting Song List | Jekkienumber24601 wrote: | | Wayne? Do you know of this script and can you shed some light on this interesting American production? |
Not a thing, to be honest. Sylvia Stoddard never mentioned it; the Long Beach Civic Light Opera did a production by David H. Bell (director of the Chicago production) with Jodi Benson as Florence and using the set and costumes from the US Tour, but that followed Bell's script, which was much closer to Broadway. Nobody ever talked about the San Bernardino show on RATM or the Yahoo list. I'll do a deeper Google search after work but very little seems to show up so far. Can you recall the year or any performers?
| navada wrote: | What the ???
How could they not end Act One with Anthem? |
It's clearly influence from the Sydney version of the show, which also ended Act I with "Heaven" and used "Anthem" in Act II. It doesn't work badly with the Sydney ending to "Heaven." I don't know how it worked here. I'd be curious to read the script, obscure American variations are hard to find.
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navada
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I've seen several productions of Chess in Melbourne, but not in Sydney. I suppose Heaven is a logical piece to end Act I with thematically, but I would personally miss the power of Anthem just before interval.
One of the fascinating things for me regarding Chess is that the music is incredibly powerful, but the storyline has always seemed problematic. The advantage is that it has resulted in several permutations and made life more interesting for the true devotees. The disadvantage is that you're never quite sure what you're going to get.
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Cadriel
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| navada wrote: | I've seen several productions of Chess in Melbourne, but not in Sydney. I suppose Heaven is a logical piece to end Act I with thematically, but I would personally miss the power of Anthem just before interval.
One of the fascinating things for me regarding Chess is that the music is incredibly powerful, but the storyline has always seemed problematic. The advantage is that it has resulted in several permutations and made life more interesting for the true devotees. The disadvantage is that you're never quite sure what you're going to get. |
The Sydney version, staged in 1990 by Jim Sharman with a rewritten (post-Cold War) book by Tim Rice, was an excellent show. There's a dynamism to a lot of the presentation that makes it the sort of thing you have to see and hear in order to really "get" (and yes, there is a video of it going around).
It's really a shame that Sylvia Stoddard took her Chess website down in early 2002, (I can't believe it's been as long as it has!!) because it's not just the ever-shifting storyline that is really fascinating. The backstage drama and back-and-forth of the musical is also a fascinating story in its own right. Sylvia was definitely partisan in favor of Tim Rice, but wrote a lot of great analysis of what was going on. But yes, you can talk for days on end about the story. (Or spend a couple of years trying to fix it.)
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navada
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I imagine that with the ever-shifting storyline unfolding on stage, there would be an equally fascinating parallel happening behind the scenes as creative sensibilities (and money-oriented producers) clashed heads over their contrasting visions.
Sounds like fertile material for a biopic one day ...
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