Chess (theatre): Difference between revisions

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{{quote|[[Blatant Lies|It really doesn't matter who comes out on top, who gets the chop; ]]

{{quote|''[[Blatant Lies|It really doesn't matter who comes out on top, who gets the chop; ]]

[[Blatant Lies|no one's way of life is threatened by a flop.]]

''[[Blatant Lies|no one's way of life is threatened by a flop.]]

[[Serious Business|But we're gonna smash that bastard!]]

''[[Serious Business|But we're gonna smash that bastard!]]

Make him wanna change his name!

''Make him wanna change his name!

[[Disproportionate Retribution|Take him to the cleaners and devastate him!]]

''[[Disproportionate Retribution|Take him to the cleaners and devastate him!]]

[[Disproportionate Retribution|Wipe him out, humiliate him! ]]

''[[Disproportionate Retribution|Wipe him out, humiliate him! ]]

We don't want the whole world saying

''We don't want the whole world saying

'They can't even win a game!'

''"They can't even win a game!"

We have never reckoned on coming second;

''We have never reckoned on coming second;

There's no use in losing!|''[[Yanks With Tanks|U.S.]] [[Cold War|versus]] [[Reds With Rockets|U.S.S.R.]]''}}

''There's no use in losing!''|''[[Yanks With Tanks|U.S.]] [[Cold War|versus]] [[Reds With Rockets|U.S.S.R.]]''}}

⚫

A [[Rock Opera]] with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of [[ABBA]] and with book and lyrics by [[Tim Rice]]. Widely considered to be the latter's [[Magnum Opus]]. It was originally produced as a successful [[Concept Album]] in 1984, then became a West End production, and eventually reached Broadway. Each version of the show underwent changes in story and music; Rice considers the version performed in concert at Royal Albert Hall in 2008, which both restores excised early material and includes some of the later changes, to be the official one.

⚫

A [[Rock Opera]] with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of [[ABBA]] and with book and lyrics by [[Tim Rice]]. Widely considered to be the latter's [[Magnum Opus]]. It was originally produced as a successful [[Concept Album]] in 1984, then became a West End production, and eventually reached Broadway. Each version of the show underwent changes in story and music; Rice considers the ~~most recent~~ version, performed in concert at Royal Albert Hall in 2008, to be the official one.

The plot of each version has about this much in common: it concerns the World Chess Championships set against the backdrop of the [[Cold War]]. There's the brash American champion Freddie Trumper, the reserved Russian challenger Anatoly Sergievsky, the American's second ([[Word of God|and not at all girlfriend]]) Florence Vassey who switches her affections to the Russian, the Russian's wife Svetlana, KGB and CIA agents (Alexander/Ivan Molokov and Walter de Courcey, respectively) working behind the scenes, and an Arbiter presiding over the tournaments.

----

=== This show contains examples of: ===

* [[Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder]]: Sort of. Freddie shows up in Bangkok after a year without any contact with Florence. Anatoly suspects he's in town because of this trope, but it turns he's working {{spoiler|for Walter.}}

* [[Album Title Drop]]: Subverted in the [[Concept Album]] when the only number that's specifically called ''Chess'' doesn't have any lyrics.

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{{quote| '''Chorus Member:''' For no one really likes their offspring fighting to the death.}}

* [[The Chessmaster]]: Molokov and Walter. Ironically, both of the ''literal'' chessmasters are just, well, pawns.

* [[Cold War]]: While the musical is called ''Chess'', the Cold War and all the ploys and posturing of the US and USSR dominate much of the plot. Interestingly, they mostly do away with the whole "West good, East bad" bit that characterizes most Western stories set during the time period. Both sides have some pretty despicable people working for them and will go to any lengths to get what they want, even if it means {{spoiler|cooperating with the other side to screw over Anatoly.}}

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: In the Royal Albert Hall version. America is coded as white, and the USSR as black. Freddie wears solid white, Anatoly wears a black jacket and a white shirt (and is the only chess-player to switch sides during the play), and Viigand wears solid black. Fits for some of the other characters too -- Svetlana, the Russian, wears black; Molokov, a Russian who collaborates with the Americans, wears a gray-ish suit; Florence starts off wearing black (just before and during when she's dissatisfied with Freddie) but then switches to white after the act break (just before and during when she becomes dissatisfied with Anatoly); and Walter wears dark clothes in the first act (when he helps Anatoly defect) but white in the second (when his concerns are mostly with recovering American spies).

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: In the Royal Albert Hall version. America is coded as white, and the USSR as black. Freddie wears solid white, Anatoly wears a black jacket and a white shirt (and is the only chess player to switch sides during the play), and Viigand wears solid black. Fits for some of the other characters too -- Svetlana, the Russian, wears black; Molokov, a Russian who collaborates with the Americans, wears a gray-ish suit; Florence starts off wearing black (just before and during when she's dissatisfied with Freddie) but then switches to white after the act break (just before and during when she becomes dissatisfied with Anatoly); and Walter wears dark clothes in the first act (when he helps Anatoly defect) but white in the second (when his concerns are mostly with recovering American spies).

* [[Concept Album]]: Did rather well in that it produced two hits and that garnered press attention for the show.

* [[Crazy People Play Chess]]: And how. Freddie's obviously nuts, and Anatoly may not be far behind by the end.

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* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: World chess championships apparently attract emotionally crippled [[Jerkass]] manchildren, women with abandonment issues, and self-absorbed adulterers. As Svetlana characterizes them: "Esoterics, paranoids, hysterics."

** This is, to a degree, [[Truth in Television]] -- the roster of chess champions is not exactly a list of the emotionally balanced. See [[Crazy People Play Chess]].

* [[Europop]]: The [[Concept Album]] definitely falls into this trope, although it's been progressively toned down over years. [[Pragmatic Adaptation|There's only so much you can do with a thirty piece orchestra.]]

* [[Europop]]: The [[Concept Album]] definitely falls into this trope, although it's been progressively toned down over years. [[Pragmatic Adaptation|There's only so much you can do with a thirty-piece orchestra.]]

* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The Arbiter. It makes sense that he doesn't have a name since he doesn't really care about everyone else's problems unless they're interrupting the game, making him pretty one-dimensional.

** In the Broadway version he was explicitly named Constantine Stannos, and was a Greek businessman. In Sweden he was a Frenchman named Jean Jacques Van Boren. The US Tour made him a Nigerian named Kobe Obe. But again -- none of these names has actually stuck. Also see [[No Name Given]] below.

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* [[No Accounting for Taste]]: Florence and Freddie. [[Word of God]] confirmed this at the album stage, however by the time the production rolled round, the need for [[Adaptation Expansion]] means that Florence ''says'' she loves him. Also implied for Anatoly and Svetlana.

* [[No Name Given]]: Anatoly and Freddie are simply "The Russian" and "The American" in the original [[Concept Album]]. Also, The Arbiter only has a name in a few versions (Jean Jacques van Boren, Constantine Stannos, Kobe Obe), [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"|though nobody calls him that anyway]].

* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: "Embassy Lament". The song is so dryly witty that it turns into [[~~Anti~~ Villain Song]], if it was ever a [[Villain Song]] to begin with.

* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: "Embassy Lament". The song is so dryly witty that it turns into an Anti-[[Villain Song]], if it was ever a [[Villain Song]] to begin with.

* [[Only Friend]]: Florence is Freddie's (or at least says she is -- given his behavior, it's not hard to believe), although by the end of the first act even she gets fed up and leaves him.

* [[Opening Ballet]]: "The Golden Bangkok"

* [[Pyrrhic Victory]]: Anatoly considers his entire chess career thus far to have been one big one. {{spoiler|He suffers another one at the end, winning the chess championship so as to prove to himself that he's free from Molokov's manipulations - but then returning to the Soviet Union anyway because he lost everything he had in the process.}}

{{quote| Now I'm

{{quote|''Now I'm

Where I want to be and who I want to be

''Where I want to be and who I want to be

And doing what I always said I would and yet

''And doing what I always said I would and yet

I feel I haven't won at all! }}

''I feel I haven't won at all!''}}

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: On occasion, but they're fake since this is an unnecessary expense even in a professional production where a faux would do.

* [[Rage Quit]]: Freddie does this in the first game we see him play.

* [[Sanity Slippage Song]]: A variation in the [[Concept Album]], when at the end of "The Deal", everyone else comments on Freddie's descent into his own crapulence:

{{quote| Let him spill out his hate till he knows he's deserted.

{{quote|''Let him spill out his hate till he knows he's deserted.

There's no point wasting time preaching to the perverted. }}

''There's no point wasting time preaching to the perverted.''}}

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The first London production with the bank of TV screens. Since then staging, even in professional productions, has been pretty basic.

* [[Self Plagiarism]]: Some of the music borrows from previous compositions written by Andersson and Ulvaeus for [[ABBA]]. In particular, the chorus of "I Know Him So Well" was based on the chorus of "I Am An A" and the chorus of "Anthem" used the chord structures from the guitar solo from "Our Last Summer".

* [[Self-Plagiarism]]: Some of the music borrows from previous compositions written by Andersson and Ulvaeus for [[ABBA]]. In particular, the chorus of "I Know Him So Well" was based on the chorus of "I Am An A" and the chorus of "Anthem" used the chord structures from the guitar solo from "Our Last Summer".

* [[Serious Business]]: What the Arbiter describes as "a simple board game" ends up being very serious business for all the parties involved. In "Difficult and Dangerous Times" the US and the USSR both make it very clear early on that it's much more than a game to them.

{{quote| '''Chorus:''' We don't want the whole world saying "They can't even win a game."}}

{{quote| '''Chorus:''' ''We don't want the whole world saying "They can't even win a game."''}}

* [[Sex Is Boring]]: During "One Night in Bangkok," Freddie shows no interest in the ladies -- or gents -- and says, "I get my kicks ''above'' the waistline, Sunshine!"

** The Arbiter claims he cannot be bribed because, [[Straight Edge|among other things]], he believes this.

* [[Shout-Out]]: [[Tim Rice]] named Florence after his [[Cool Old Lady|gran.]]

* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Puts the "sliding" in the sliding scale. It starts out a touch on the idealistic side, then takes a hard right into cynicismville. "Nobody's Side" is a bit cynical, but {{spoiler|Anatoly's decision that he is his one true obligation takes the cake.}}

* [[Smug Straight Edge]]: The Arbiter can come across this way, with his insistence that he (and, by implication, he alone) cannot be bribed by anything from women to drugs, or in any other way swayed from his loyalty to [[Serious Business|the rules of chess]].

* [[The Stoic]]: Viigand, whose most notable scene is calmly practicing chess as the entire Soviet delegation breaks into raucous song and dance around him. Molokov even calls him a "chess-playing machine."

* [[Triang Relations]]: Depends on the adaptation, but version 4 features in most of them in at least some manner. One possible combination has Svetlana as A, Anatoly as B, and Florence as C. Alternately it can work with Freddie as A, Florence as B, and Anatoly as C.

* [[Unwanted Spouse]]: Poor Svetlana.

* [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]: Sort of. The story has some elements that mirror real life, such as Freddie (in reality Bobby Fischer) being an ass {{spoiler|who concedes after losing five games against Anatoly (Anatoly Karpov).}} Even the 5:1 to 5:5 ~~come back~~ between Anatoly (now mirroring Viktor Korchnoi, particularly in his defection) and Viigand (Anatoly Karpov) is pretty close to what actually happened, only reversed in who was doing the coming back. The retcon takes two forms, the first being of course the love triangle. The second is the switching around of who exactly Anatoly is representing at any given moment. He starts out as Karpov {{spoiler|when he beats Bobby Fischer}}, becomes Korchnoi {{spoiler|when he defects}}, then goes back to being Karpov {{spoiler|by winning after his opponent had made a comeback.}}

* [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]: Sort of. The story has some elements that mirror real life, such as Freddie (in reality Bobby Fischer) being an ass {{spoiler|who concedes after losing five games against Anatoly (Anatoly Karpov).}} Even the 5:1 to 5:5 comeback between Anatoly (now mirroring Viktor Korchnoi, particularly in his defection) and Viigand (Anatoly Karpov) is pretty close to what actually happened, only reversed in who was doing the coming back. The retcon takes two forms, the first being of course the love triangle. The second is the switching around of who exactly Anatoly is representing at any given moment. He starts out as Karpov {{spoiler|when he beats Bobby Fischer}}, becomes Korchnoi {{spoiler|when he defects}}, then goes back to being Karpov {{spoiler|by winning after his opponent had made a comeback.}}

** And then there's the [[Reality Subtext]].

* [[Villain Song]]: "The Soviet Machine," where Molokov relates to his compatriots exactly how dirty they will be playing in order to ensure Anatoly loses.