Chess

Chess
Longmont Theatre Company
Longmont, CO
May 3-18, 2019

Chess is a relatively unknown musical. It failed to make a big impact on Broadway and has been a work in progress for decades. The many versions make it confusing for producers to decide even which one to use. It is also difficult to perform, adding more for a company to deal with.

So, one has to congratulate the Longmont Theatre Company for even attempting such a difficult piece. They seemed to make a blunder early on by setting the action in modern day. Chess is a Cold War era piece. While there are still tensions between the United States and Russia, it is not even close to the conflict of the Cold War.

Act One was a good start. The vocal performances were strong enough to carry the complex score. Anatoly’s voice faltered in parts and Freddie’s acting wasn’t compelling, but Florence shone. The supporting characters filled their roles well. The base parts were particularly enjoyable.

Act Two marked a change in director style. While the scenes before intermission had purpose, the second act had the performers wandering aimlessly around the stage. The need to constant movement took away from some of the more powerful scenes.

Florence was by far the strongest performance in the show. She acted and sang the part convincingly. Freddy was weaker in the acting department. His strongest moment was during the song “Pity the Child.” But at times he seemed compelled to scream the song rather than sing it.

Anatoly was able to convey his character’s struggle, but his singing faltered at times. It might have been easy to overlook The Arbiter, but anyone who did missed out. He came across as a strong narrator. In one scene he appeared to move the characters around as if on a chess board. It would have been a fascinating take to see that attempted throughout the show.

The costumer had cleverly dressed the Soviets with red accents which the Americans in blue to begin with. But, for whatever reason, the identifying color scheme was all but abandoned in the second act. Anaoly when from a red tie to a non-descript one. But worse was the constant changing of clothes for Florence and Svetlana. Florence went from purple to red (a color she never should have worn in this context) and back to blue. Svetlana started off n green (which had no explanation) to red and back to a different green dress. The costumes in Act Two seemed more like a fashion show for the women than a character statement.

Despite some missteps, Longmont Theatre Company did an admirable job tackling a difficult musical.