Chess: The Musical Reviews

Tony the Tiger from Home by the sea

WE GOTTA GET SOMEONE WHO KNOWS...

This was a West End hit? Where’s that? When people face east? Tim Rice loved it? Who’s he and what does that guy know about musicals anyway? Who do these five-star people really think they are? My five stars go to the woman playing the Black Queen.

Ros from Toronto

WASTED OPPORTUNITY.

What a disappointment – not only the fact that it all appeared to be the "Village People" sponsored by "The Garden" via some sort of macabre Circus! Musically Shona White has a belting chest voice but didn’t seem able to connect with her head voice which lost all power. More light and shade needed in her singing; shouting does not compensate for lack of dynamics! Anthem is glorious but much of the other singing lacked phrasing and is coupled with poor diction and weak acting, making it difficult to understand what is being sung and attempting to be conveyed. leaving you the theatre goer searching for possible sub texts and looking for hidden meanings behind the overload of imaginary, this isn't challenging it screams this production is a confused mess All in all, more than vaguely disappointing: too much shouting, too little singing and generally too weird for its own good. A terrible pity, Such a wasted opportunity.

London Theatre hack, from London , SW6

CHESS ACTOR/MUSICAN PRODUCTION,

Where to start? The choreography is messy and distracting and partly obscures the main protagonists from the audience most of the time it all looks like a badly rehearsed marching band! The boring lightweight plot and unbelievable two dimensional characters of this production sent many people during the Uk tour either to the exit or asleep. Bizarre production values, muffled sound, weak musicianship coupled with poor acting especially from leading man James Fox (not surprising he is actually a failed reality TV star). Makes this one to miss

Lucy from Toronto

WOW

I was very exicited to get tickets to see Chess, I checked out many videos on line including the show reel to this production it looked awesome. I was shocked at the reality. the acting was poor lots of hands in the air pointing and shouting, the drums over powered the rest of the orchestration, the choreography is imaginative and bold but the dancers are awkward and clumsy, the singing is good but I couldn't understand many of the lyrics because the actors diction was so poor propbably down to the attempted accents,the result was I struggled to follow what was going on I wasn't alone.

Miles \'Maddy\' Petit from Rosedale, Toronto,

CHESS A BIT TOO MESSY

A smaller cast of actor musicians (some of them could easily be banished to the traditional orchestra pit - it's there for for good reason!) To allow the story Chess/love triangle to be more accessible both visually and audibly would be a major improvement as would some better choreography, I liked the touches of comedic irony especially of One Night in Bangkok,the bratty, camp, shaven headed American singing "I get my kicks above the waistline buddy" and " A show that has everything except for Yul Brynner " Hated Chess loved the Arbiter a total hunk.

MDThreatre Critic from Toronto

FRANKLY RIDICULOUS.

There are impossibly huge demands made of the performers. While some of the singing voices on stage are strong, in quality and range, there’s a trade-off against the acting, which can be patchy to put it politely. Exception to this is Shona White, a real musical star who somehow almost makes sense of the difficult and dysfunctional character Florence, a master stroke in its self given none of the characters are granted any substance by the director. There are sound problems too, and when so much of the narrative is reliant on Rice’s clever and complex lyrics, it’s a major failing not to be able to hear them properly. The production is epic, overblown and more than slightly bewildering. There’s no denying the money and effort spent on putting it all on stage. But in the end, it’s full of sound and fury while, for me, it signified nothing very much.

Glenn Harrsion from Toronto

ODD

Odd show, not sure what it is trying to be, it is very showy without being a proper show, I couldn't hear what was being sung, the drummer drowned a lot out and other passages of singing didn't seem to be in English more noises than actual words? so because I could not pick up a lot of what was being sung, or see who was singing it, far too many people on stage! I soon got lost in terms of the story and got bored, I started to look around saw others doing the same and some people sat in front of me walked out, the couple who were beside me failed to return after the interval, I stayed the course hoping it would all come together at the end it didn't.

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