*ears perk up* A fellow fan of Chess the Musical! (Perhaps "fan" is the wrong word. It is...well, it's Chess. The closest to a good stage version imo is the '08 concert version, which, well, isn't staged.) I would love to hear you go off about any bit you care to, because there is nothing like this musical to make me, an otherwise ordinary person, want to learn enough music theory to do a proper treatment to make it good. (No matter the version, Svetlana deserves better)
Yes! I'm not going to recount the full mess of its history, but for those who don't know: Chess: The Musical is a concept album created by Tim Rice (of Evita fame), Bjรถrn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson (of ABBA fame), and Murry Head (of Murray Head fame). Its story is loosely inspired by two chess matches between US and USSR competitors in the 1970s โย one between famous American "bad boy" Bobby Fisher and Soviet "wunderkind" Boris Spassky in 1972, and one between Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi and Soviet loyalist Anatoly Karpov.
As any good fan of Chess: The Musical knows, there is no musical of Chess: The Musical. There are only banger-ass songs like "I Know Him So Well," "Nobody's Side," "Mountain Duet," and "One Night in Bangkok." Because there have been between 3 and 7 different versions of this story (depending on how you define "version"), most of which dramatically change the characters, setting, plot, stakes... and most of which suck. The Wikipedia page has four plot summaries, natch.
So, bearing in mind that I've never seen the stage show(s)...
I do think that the real people who inspired the story are cool as hell and that there's some awesome material there, especially in the life of Petra Leeuwerik. I think most of the songs work already, and that the story gets stupider with every single revision. IMHO, lean into Freddie in Act I being a jerk! It's the kind of complexity that a Cold War story practically begs for; let the excesses of American individualism be a contrast to the excesses of Soviet engineering, and present a story the audience can feel several things at once about.
Also: mock the politics. When the show gets too serious, it starts to feel like the literal fate of the entire Cold War literally hinges on a literal board game, and we're meant to buy into that idea. Instead go for the angle that works so well in other sports stories, that Anatoly and Freddie view each other as companions in gaming while it's spectators like Florence pushing nationalism onto them.
Like, there are two kinds of sports stories โย those that end on the message there are things in life more important than the sport (Remember the Titans, Creed, Karate Kid) and those that end on the message that, in fact, nothing in life is more important than the sport (F1, The Wrestler, Million Dollar Baby). Pretending for a second that I agree with the "chess is a sport" crowd, I think that the story has GOT to be of the first kind, where the people who take the game too seriously look anywhere from ridiculous (The Arbiter) to insane (Walter) to deeply damaged (Florence). Any time it stops being as fundamentally silly as the name Chess: The Musical suggests, it starts becoming American propaganda. Outdated propaganda, at that.
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In his introduction before singing "Gethsemane," Hugh identified Jesus in โJesus Christ Superstarโ as his favorite role that, at that time, he had ever played. ย Then he remarked, โquite frankly, once youโve played God, where do you go from there?โ
โGethsemane,โ from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webberโs โJesus Christ Superstar.โ
The performance took place on April 8, 2017, as part of the series, โBroadway Voices,โ at the Garner Performing Arts Center, Garner, North Carolina
Jesus Christ Superstar โข Redux โข 2026 Edition - Google Drive
โVisual albumโ version (the preferred method) also available to watch here:
Hey there! So what's all this, then? Just my personal ultimate mega anal-retentive fan mix for my favorite musical of all time, and this vis
(Detailed tracklisting within)
Happy Good Friday! So remember years ago when I made that first โpersonal mega mixโ for this favorite musical of mine and said something like โthis is my ultimate best of the best! Iโll never revise it!โ or something like that? Well, I guess that was a bit of a lie. I had started thinking before the new year about certain little tweaks and changes Iโd like to make to the overall mix, just some different choices and all. Well my particular nitpicky tendencies only proved to multiply, and perhaps get even worse. For example, this new โTrial Before Pilateโ is perhaps the craziest now as it continues to switch to and fro throughout various cast recordings, and I can only imagine the reason being, in this particular case, because I got to play the part of Pontius last summer in a local production, so I guess I have very definite ideas about โhow it should be doneโ now in regards to every single line. Also aiding in my obsessive compiling and experimenting was having the latest AI technology to literally separate not just vocals and backing tracks but now get the *background* vocals as well (see โHeaven On Their Mindsโ for the best example of that one.) I, as always, have to give immense thanks and accolades to my longtime online buddy Gibson for his invaluable input and ideas, for always being there to listen and give constructive criticism when Iโm not sure if a particular crazy idea Iโve had really โworksโ or notโฆand most of all for forgiving me when I decide to go ahead and stick with my initial plan of action. Super thanks as well to my local friend and fellow JCS freak Michael Herzing for not only giving his own input and ideas but for letting me borrow his mint condition copy of the 1971 โBrown County Chorale & Country Music Ensembleโ LP so I could digitally rip it and, of course, use some particular excerpts in this new 2026 edition; I just HAD to with the whole historic Nashville connection, you know! So, as always, I so hope you enjoy this crazy little labor of love, let me know what you think, and do PLEASE let me know what *your* ultimate JCS playlist / megamix might look like! Rock on, Superstars xxtyler
PS. I STRONGLY suggest you enjoy this via the โvisual albumโ option. I promise itโs never boring. Where there was no *true* accompanying video footage for a particular cast recording excerpt, I definitely got creative with some rather satisfying results, and I just personally think it adds so much to the overall experience.
