#viigand

First of all, let me saythat the storyline is VERY different between the In-Concert version and theBroadway version! Also, there isn’t just one official American version—to myknowledge, there’s two. Not counting whatever little changes colleges/amateurcompanies might make, there’s the original Broadway storyline and then there’sthe similar but much worse American tour version.

Anyway, the storylines between the two are:

           Broadway:Anatoly, the Russian, is a disenchanted chess world champion who is tied to anextensive, controlling team. Among this team are Molokov and Nikolai, twosecret agents for the Soviet government. Freddie, the American, is hischallenger in the 1979 (don’t quote me on the year because I think Broadwaymight have changed it) world championship. His team is smaller than Anatoly’s—Ibelieve he only has one backup second and then Walter, his media agent who alsoworks for the government, and Florence, his ex and primary second (and manager?Every production has issues with blurring her job title). The plot begins tomove when, at the first game they play, Freddie threatens to throw thechampionship because he thinks Anatoly is cheating by receiving signals on howto play via the flavor of yogurt he’s brought by his team as a snack. This wasreally just a tactic he was using to demand more money for every match heplayed. This leads to Florence and Molokov agreeing to have a reconciliatorydinner in town with both the players so they can discuss how the match willproceed. Freddie doesn’t show. Because of this, Anatoly has the opportunity toflirt with Florence and they end up hitting it off even though, when Freddiefinally shows up, she won’t commit immediately to leaving with Anatoly orstaying with Freddie. Eventually, though, they end up making their relationshipofficial when Anatoly defects from the Soviet Union and nearly gets killed inthe process so that he can be with her. As a consequence, the match is put on aslight hold and is planned to reconvene in a few weeks. Act two begins aseveryone arrives in Budapest to complete the championship. Anatoly’s wife,Svetlana, also arrives, and that’s only the first thing that begins to put astrain on Anatoly. Anatoly also finds out that Molokov is threatening hisbrother back in Russia. As the final nail in the coffin, Molokov and Walterbegin to work together to essentially exchange Anatoly (from Walter) forprisoners in Russia (from Molokov). Among these prisoners is Florence’s father,or so Molokov says. All of this makes Anatoly lose matches distractedly untilhe’s tied with Freddie. Freddie has a breakdown on television where he opens upabout his childhood—his absent dad and his neglectful mom. In the end, Anatoly decidesto forfeit the championship because he was offered the deal of that in exchangefor Florence being reunited with her father. Freddie becomes the champion andit is revealed that Florence’s father likely isn’t alive.

           In-Concert:Here, Freddie is the incumbent champion and Anatoly is the up-and-comingchallenger to his title. The team structures remain largely the same with theexception of Walter and Nikolai. In this version, Walter runs Global Televisionand is a reporter while also working in the CIA. Nikolai doesn’t exist in thisversion but Viigand does and he is Anatoly’s second. So, really, the teamsaren’t that much the same but the dynamics remain, is what I mean. Freddiebadmouths Anatoly for months leading up to the championship and earns himself ahorrible reputation, leading most people to think he should just resign andalso leading the match to begin with a very sour sort of feeling (which, given,it was already going to because of Cold War tensions). This leads Molokov tobelieve Freddie has lost it and that the match will be an easy win for Anatolybut Anatoly doesn’t believe Freddie has actually lost his spark. Here, it alsobecomes clear that Anatoly and Molokov have quite a bit of tension and thatAnatoly resists Molokov’s thoughts and suggestions frequently. Cut to the firstgame and Freddie once again forfeits the match in order to demand more money,this time from Global Television and this time by flipping the board ontoAnatoly and saying he demands an apology from Anatoly. A meeting is once againarranged although Freddie doesn’t show up. Once again, Anatoly and Florenceunexpectedly find themselves attracted to each other and hit it off beforeFreddie arrives. This distraction causes Freddie to lose until he’s 1 win to 5losses to Anatoly. It’s at this point that he blames Florence for this, causinga fight between them that leads to her quitting. After this, Freddie surrendershis title without ever officially losing the 6th game. As the newworld champion, Anatoly’s next move is to defect from the Soviet Union (onescene that is much less dramatized than it is in the Broadway version). Thesecond act is when the true differences between the Broadway and In Concertversion come to light. Act two happens a year later when the next worldchampionship is beginning. This time the competitors are Anatoly and Viigand,his prior second. Anatoly is playing for London and Viigand, of course, for theSoviet Union. Freddie now works as a reporter for Global Television but hisreal purpose for attending this match is to get revenge on Anatoly. Quite a fewthings happen in act two but I’ll summarize them quickly. Anatoly is given aninterview with Freddie in which Freddie humiliates him on live television.Svetlana arrives and is told by Molokov that she is to put pressure on Anatolyto come home or Molokov will make sure that her and her children suffer. Walterand Molokov strike a deal for Anatoly in exchange for several Americanprisoners and Florence’s dad. Svetlana tells Anatoly to come home and thendrives home the point of his earlier reflection: that no matter how much hewins, he will always end up back where he started and just as unhappy as healways has been (he gives no definitive answer). Walter approaches Florencewith a deal that she can have her dad back if she convinces Anatoly to lose thematch and go home (no deal). Freddie approaches Anatoly and tries to convincehim to throw the match for Florence’s sake (no deal). Freddie approachesFlorence and says to come back to him because he loves her and Anatoly wouldnever sacrifice his career to help her (no deal). Freddie reflects privately onhis childhood and on who it has made him. All of this stress causes Anatoly tolose matches against Viigand until they are tied and are continuing to pull outdraws for three weeks. Svetlana and Florence meet each other and discuss theirrelationships with Anatoly and how neither of them ended up being what theythink he needs (I have opinions about this BUT). Freddie unexpectedly comes upto Anatoly in the park before the deciding match and gives Anatoly advice on aflawed tactic of Viigand’s that Anatoly could exploit to win the championship.Freddie tells him that since Anatoly has already let down all the people heloves, he should at least do justice to the game and to himself by winningsince he is, in essence, a much better player than Viigand. Although thespecifics of the ending and why it occurs are more complicated than Anatolysimply choosing to win, I have other posts talking about that so it’s enough tosay that he wins and agrees to go home in exchange for Florence’s father.Florence then finds out that she has lost Anatoly for nothing—her father isn’teven guaranteed to be alive.

So! Those are thesummaries of the different plotlines. It’s obvious that the two versions reallybranch away from each other when act two begins but it isn’t just in storylinethat the productions differ.

           Characterizationbetween the two is very unique as well. Where Broadway tries to make Freddiemore likeable and funny, In Concert goes for a slightly more serious take onhim. That’s not to say that Freddie isn’t supposed to be funny in In Concertbut it is kind of clear that Broadway had more joke lines with him (all of thejoint press conference, the conversation about all the ways they’re milking hisfame for money, arguably “No Contest” and even “Freddie Goes Metal”). Anatoly’scharacterization is also unique in each version. Notably, Broadway makes himmuch more romantic and sweet and sensitive. In Concert plays up his bittercharacteristics more, especially in “Where I Want To Be” and “Endgame.” One ofthe main differences in Broadway’s Florence is the extended depth she isgiven—more songs, more backstory, more explored character traits…

           And,necessarily, the soundtracks between the two productions are very different.Broadway cuts out a great deal of songs while adding others. It cuts: “PressConference,” “Commie Newspapers,” “Molokov and Anatoly,” and mixes around theordering of the songs. It adds: “Argument” (a repurposing of the song from the1984 concept album), “Hungarian Folk Song,” different versions of “You and I,” “FreddieGoes Metal,” “Let’s Work Together,” “Father’s Lullaby,” and “No Contest.” It alsoMAJORLY restructures “Endgame.”

1. In Broadway, the pretty much complete exclusion ofSvetlana and Florence from Endgame is one of my favorite things to Discuss. Ithink it’s so interesting because in my opinion, Broadway gives Florence a lotmore attention in the show than London or Concert versions or even the Germanversions. But she’s basically forgotten in Endgame despite still having theplotline with her father, something that could have definitely been given voicein Endgame since it has to do with the match at hand? It’s an interestingversion of Endgame because of how much it centers on only Freddie and Anatolydespite Florence being so important in the rest of the show.

2. I love discussing the way Broadway approaches the TerraceDuet romance. In basically all other versions of the show, Anatoly is acharacter that you come to view as romantic only reluctantly—he doesn’t seemlike the most likely candidate for some sweeping romance right off the bat. ButBroadway having him flirt with Florence at the restaurant, for example, is oneof those decisions that I think really shows just how different Broadway makesall of the characters. Talking about whether Anatoly’s character is better as asurprising romantic character or one whose romance you “see coming” is really funbecause I’m still on the fence about it myself. I usually lean towards thinkinghe’s a very romantic person who just doesn’t always get to express it—so I gomore for Broadway instead of the idea that, like in in-concert, he’s as surprisedby Mountain Duet as everyone else is. BUT STILL there’s pros and cons to bothcharacterizations and I love hearing people’s thoughts on it.

3. An actual trivia now—I think it’s bizarre that theBroadway version cuts so many songs from the official soundtrack. It leaves thesoundtrack sounding really barren, honestly, because you miss so much of theplot-filling stuff when they cut songs! What I really mean here is that I wantto hear Freddie Goes Metal and I’m still pissed that it’s not on there.

4. IT’S SO INTERESTING TO SEE HOW DIFFERENTLY PEOPLE OFDIFFERENT AGE GROUPS PLAY ANATOLY and also how SIMILARLY people of all agegroups play Freddie? For instance, the differences between Josh Groban in theBenefit Concert vs him in in-concert vs the Swedish version? You’ve got like a20yo vs a 27yo vs a middle aged person and it Reflects? The younger the actor,the more sympathetic and victimized they want to make Anatoly. But the olderthe actor, the more they want to play him as angry and righteous and they’realso the ones who play him as more outgoing? Super cool to see? But it’s likeno matter how young the person playing Freddie is, his personality is very… Uniform?The most Changed one I can think of is the 2008 German version which portrayedhim as… Pretty abusive, to be honest.

5. I LOVE THE INCLUSION OF ANATOLY AND MOLOKOV IN THEBROADWAY PRESS CONFERENCE because, first of all, that version of PressConference is hilarious. Second of all, it shows so much about Anatoly andMolokov’s relationship (Molokov standing up to answer the first questionAnatoly is asked, for example). I think it also really changes the dynamicbetween Molokov and Anatoly because, unlike in other versions, Molokov isallowing other people to see what a tight leash he has Anatoly on. So it reallychanges how you can imagine the American team thinks of the Russian team andalso changes the perception of the Russian team that the rest of the world has.

6. I also love to Debate™ about what the main point(s) ofChess are with other people. It seems like everyone walks away thinking Chessis about one thing but other people always feel differently—the romance, themedia, the Cold War, the actual game of chess, Anatoly’s journey… It also seemslike everyone differs on who they think the main character is. A lot of peoplehave told me they think it’s Florence, for example. I haven’t really seen toomany musicals where people disagree so much on its main message or on its maincharacter—Wicked, for example, is pretty clearly about discrimination and aboutthe double-sided nature of all situations and its main character is Elphaba. Butwith Chess, lots of people have disagreed with my opinion that it’s about theromance and the media and really isn’t about the Cold War or chess at all.

7. Trivia number two—why is there so much cursed Chess mediaout there? Why do so many versions glitch on Endgame? I have, like, twoversions that just stop working whether it’s visually or with audio when itgets to Endgame. And besides, so many productions as an entirety are justCURSED and I can’t for the life of me imagine who makes half the decisionsabout stage directions for these productions (what I mean here is every singleGerman version of Talking Chess) (I also mean every college production of it).

8. Can we also just… Talk about Talking Chess? People callit Freddie’s redemption arc and, in a way, I get that and I call it that toobut… I would love to talk more about how, honestly, it’s just a further “degradation”of his moral character? Sure, he’s making peace with Anatoly and helping him,therefore showing for once in the show that he’s not completely selfish. But isit really an Improvement of Himself if he’s only helping Anatoly at Florence’sexpense RIGHT AFTER he finally had to come to terms with Florence never wantinghim back? So why is it called a redemption arc? That would be like me calling Endgamea redemption arc when everyone agrees that that was mainly self-centered.

9. ALSO ABOUT TALKING CHESS another trivia-esque thing isthat there are, like, no recorded versions of this song lmfao? So many versionshave it onstage and yet… None of these versions feature it on their soundtrack(or they just don’t get a soundtrack). But it’s such a pivotal song to the plot—it’swhat helps Anatoly finally make up his mind on winning/losing and thus youwould think more versions would bother to put it in the soundtrack, but.