Talk:Chess (musical)

2018 Revival plot summary incorrect
The third paragraph of 2018 Revival is currently as follows (no citations):


 * The new script reorders the show once again, reviving many elements of the original London production (including returning the first act to Merano, Italy and the second act to Bangkok, returning Florence's background to Hungarian with a lost/imprisoned father, and featuring a single chess match between the protagonists in act one), while introducing new elements including an expanded role for the Arbiter as narrator, and the reimagining of the Walter character to be not a TV executive but a ruthless CIA agent who colludes with the KGB to interfere with the chess matches for the purpose of keeping Soviet leadership engaged in nuclear arms reduction talks with the Americans.

Having watched the show three times, this is not what ended up in production. I'd like to change to:


 * The new script reorders the show once again, reviving many elements of the original London production (including returning the first act to Merano, Italy and the second act to Bangkok and returning Florence's background to Hungarian with a lost/imprisoned father), including the popular "Someone Else's Story" from the 1988 American version, removing the Walter character, and dropping the final twist of Florence's father never having been found after all. It ends instead on the bittersweet parting of Florence and Anatoly amidst the triumphant crescendo of You And I.

As with the previous version, I can provide no citations to back this up, so am posting it here first for discussion -- Alice Purcell (talk) 14:22, 20 June 2018 (UTC)

Revival
Why some revivals haven't been shown here, like for example South Korea? EricaJ4416 (talk) 10:11, 26 March 2020 (UTC)

Norwegian Version
I've noticed a couple times people have added a 2020 production of a revised version of Chess på svenska that was done in Oslo to the "Major Differences" section. I deleted it the first time, as I didn't think it was notable enough to really be considered a different "version" to the Swedish production (it is "Differences between the major versions," after all). Obviously this is subjective, so maybe I made the wrong choice, but, since the plots are so similar (the description of the differences even admits that it's "mostly similar to the Swedish version"), and it's not really as notable as, say, the concept album and the British version, I still question that it's included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kanji dc (talk • contribs) 19:56, 29 November 2020 (UTC)


 * After no response, I've gone ahead and removed the Norwegian production from the table of differences. Kanji dc (talk) 18:00, 16 February 2021 (UTC)

2018 Revival --- Which Version?
So I've been doing some research on the more recent revivals, and we've confusingly noted both the London Coliseum production from 2018 and the Kennedy Center revival from 2018 as the same revival. Having read synopses and listened to recordings of both shows, the scripts are actually very different, and it's ambiguous to which the plot summary refers.

This has in fact been addressed before: according to this talk page, the current passage, which reads:


 * The new script reorders the show once again, reviving many elements of the original London production (including returning the first act to Merano, Italy and the second act to Bangkok and returning Florence's background to Hungarian with a lost/imprisoned father), including the popular "Someone Else's Story" from the 1988 American version, and dropping the final twist of Florence's father never having been found after all. It ends instead on the bittersweet parting of Florence and Anatoly amidst the triumphant crescendo of You And I.

Was changed from:


 * The new script reorders the show once again, reviving many elements of the original London production (including returning the first act to Merano, Italy and the second act to Bangkok, returning Florence's background to Hungarian with a lost/imprisoned father, and featuring a single chess match between the protagonists in act one), while introducing new elements including an expanded role for the Arbiter as narrator, and the reimagining of the Walter character to be not a TV executive but a ruthless CIA agent who colludes with the KGB to interfere with the chess matches for the purpose of keeping Soviet leadership engaged in nuclear arms reduction talks with the Americans.

The current one is the plot of the London Coliseum production, whereas the old one is the plot of the Kennedy Center production.

This needs to be addressed, as it's just false that the two are the same. Kanji dc (talk) 18:42, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Why no subsequent collaboration?
I'd like to see a discussion of why Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice never collaborated again on another musical. Greg Lovern (talk) 00:49, 20 February 2024 (UTC)