Chess – London Coliseum

Cassidy Janson in Chess at the London Coliseum. Picture: Brinkhoff Mögenburg

Chess continues at the London Coliseum until 2 June 2018.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Can we drop the use of “semi-staged” when talking about Grade-Linnit’s annual summer musical revivals at the London Coliseum now?

That the production team continues to use the term in association with their shows seems more to try and deflect any criticism than to have a basis in fact. Don’t like the set? Never mind, it’s only semi-staged. Don’t understand at which points the onstage orchestra should be revealed from behind a sliding screen, and when they should be hidden? It’s only semi-staged, perhaps they should only be visible half the time.

And yes, there are plenty of choices made by director Laurence Connor – the constant use of onstage cameras being the most egregious – that may be questionable. But Matt Kinley’s set design, all black squares with neon surrounds, and a couple of huge, jagged video screens are not among them. It’s a gaudy 1980s throwback, just as Chess itself is.

Tim Rice’s first big musical in his post Andrew Lloyd Webber days ploughs a similar furrow to the works with his previous collaborator: mixtures of musical styles from Gilbert and Sullivan to rock, from power ballad solos to quasi-operatic ensemble numbers. Composers Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus help perpetuate this, with numbers that bounce between Lloyd Webber clones and Abba-style pop numbers.

And to be fair, it is that combination which makes Chess’ music its biggest draw. And with an onstage orchestra and large choral ensemble comprising both musical theatre performers and the ENO’s operatic choir, it is hard to imagine it sounding better than here.

Unfortunately, as a play everything remains a bit of a mess. Nearly every revival of Chess has tinkered with the book, and this production is no exception. The programme contains no credit for the book writer at all, which is perhaps just as well. The story – of a battle between US and Soviet chess grand masters at the height of the Cold War – has precious little suspense or other dramatic structure.

Neither Michael Ball (as Sergievsky) nor Tim Howar (the mercurial Trumper) succeeds in imbuing their chess player with anything approaching audience sympathy. Along with Alexandra Burke as Sergievsky’s wife Svetlana, the trio each accomplish strong musical performances imbued with character and emotion, only for everything to fall flat in between songs.

In contrast, Cassidy Janson’s Florence emerges as the strongest character, and strongest performance. Janson manages to maintain her emotional strength both in song and in dialogue, marking her out among the cast. Unfortunately, she has too little to work with: her attraction to Sergievsky suffers from Ball’s emotional laxity, while a crucial subplot involving her family history is thrown away in Act I, making a reveal at the end of Act II ineffectual.

If you look beyond the book, though, the songs remain. And what songs: from the breakout numbers ‘One Night in Bangkok’ and, of course, ‘I Know Him So Well’ to the soaring ‘Anthem’ and the anger-fuelled ‘Nobody’s Side’, the combination of Rice, Andersson and Ulvaeus certainly created a classic set of songs. Conductor John Rigby delivers Anders Eljas’ orchestrations to great effect, with a rich sound that fills the Coliseum’s auditorium.

Stephen Mear’s choreography, which is strongest when conveying the rigid uniformity of Soviet life, enlivens what could otherwise have been a rather portentous three hours. For while this production of Chess can not accurately be described as semi-staged, there are perilously too many times when it could be accused of being half-baked.

Scott Matthewman

Tickets for Chess at the London Coliseum are available HERE.