Chess

by Richard Nelson

Book by Richard Nelson. Lyrics by Tim Rice. Music by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson

Musical / 9m, 2f, 1f child, plus ensemble / Scenery: Var. sets.

The collaborators on Chess are giants of rock music and rock musicals and they have created a complex rock opera that played to full Broadway houses and standing ovations. Here the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super power politics and international intrigues. The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion and a Hungarian American female assistant who arrives at the international chess match in Bangkok with the American but falls for the Russian. From Bangkok to Budapest the players, lovers, politicians, and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental rock score that includes "One Night in Bangkok" and "Heaven Help My Heart."

"One of the best rock scores ever produced. This is an angry, difficult, demanding and rewarding show."- Time

Genres: Fiction, Musicals, Drama

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Artep · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all the flak the Broadway book gets, this... actually... reads pretty well? I know, I was as surprised as you are.

Highlights:
- Snarky deadpan Florence (Anatoly: "Beautiful night." / Florence: "Every night's been beautiful for two months."), which is to say Florence in every scene except for the romantic ones because Richard Nelson apparently can't write love scenes. Idk.
- "How Many Women" because I enjoy literary puns
- Act 1, Scene 5, aka "The Yogurt Scene"
- "Nobody's Side" because I enjoy grammar puns
- Act 2, Scene 8, aka "The Trout Scene". (Molokov: "How's the trout?" / Walter: "Very nice, Ivan. Very fresh." --yes, this is an actual quote)
- "[MUSIC #25A: GOING INTO FREDDIE'S PITY ROOM]"
- Act 2, Scene 12, aka "The One in Which Florence Is Melodramatic and Uses Too Many Exclamation Points" ("Did he?!!!!!!" --another actual quote)

Damn it, Chess, I wish I knew how to quit you...

[shinji · Rating 3 out of 5]

this isnt a very good book, but it is a good *time*. the plot changes in this version are really odd. but regardless, a good t i m e? the changes are so weird. idk if it was an attempt to retain some semblance of realism, because chess truly shines in being unabashedly absurd. for example, ‘press conference’(such a fun number) is altered & shortened significantly(because of differences in plot???) so theres not fun dialogue between freddie & the reporters ...the number is just... empty. also, ‘commie newspapers’ is just absent entirely....like ok?? why remove it? ‘how many women’ is just... embarrassing.
people critique the original having separate matches in different acts, does it make any sense to have a single drawn out chess match in different places? like WHAT???
weird scene with florence and her dad too. all weird

pros:
-chess

cons:
-what is happening
-freddie??? caricature in a BAD WAY
-florence & antoly are painfully unlikeable

in conclusion, 10/10 epic chess

[Chloe Ourada · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this after seeing the recent revival and discovered I much prefer the book of the original Broadway production. I felt like it read as more of a satire while the revival was too serious for the source material (or at least it took itself way too seriously). But both plays seem slightly disjointed, like they were cut up and put back together again (which they were), so I look forward to reading the West End rendition. Maybe “Someone Else’s Story” is the better version.

[Sela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this version of Chess vs the revival and concert versions… I love that Florence is actually the main character here but at the same time it makes way more sense to me if Freddie quits chess in act 1, it makes Pity the Child more emotional idk

Also icb The Arbiter takes place in JFK airport in this version (this version is objectively worse bc The Arbiter is optional and Merano doesn’t exist)

[Matt Chan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can we talk about the music first? It's like Abba/Momma Mia but like trying to be serious. There might be one song I like in the whole show (it's the obvious one). Plot rather overwrought, and I guess you can say it's timely again with all the Russians shenanigans, but some weird stuff with justifying/romanticizing having an affair (dude, divorce your wife first before you go canoodling with the American chick, good lord), and just, I don't know, a lot of melodrama even for a musical. Meh.

[Maity Careaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having seen the 2025 revival, I can understand the changes. There are so many things that make so much sense on the new version, the characters develop and grow so differently, you get to actually empathize with them.
Loved this version though, specially the songs

[bella rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

so crazy seeing the changes this show has been through! my favorite is the current revival (2025), and this one is completely different! it’s so insane to me how two different versions of the same show can be so different.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange musical play, indeed.

I had recently discovered a community theater, and the musical they were putting on was in its last days. Therefore, Best Friend and I did what we are famous for: doing an activity on the spur-of-the-moment.

Why not? We had a day free from appointments and obligations, so Best Friend went ahead and bought the tickets online.

The day arrived.

We headed to the community theater. When the doors opened, and we were seated in our front row, we were ready for some entertainment.

Basically, this is a story of an American chess player and a Soviet one, a woman who falls for the American first, then the Soviet. Enter the Soviet’s wife, add each player’s coach for intrigue, and you have an odd story that just doesn’t cut it. Then add on really poor music compositions by Abba (Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus) and Tim Rice. It was bad.

But the oddest, strangest character in this play was The Arbitrator, whom I renamed “The Domimatrix.”

She was a cross between Grace Jones and Ayanna Pressley and built like a tank. She had high leather boots, skin-tight tights, a bustier, and an attitude that would make a man quake while answering, “How high?” when she’d demand him to “Jump!” She had all the attitude of the angry black woman you can imagine. "Imma git you, sucka!"

And, of course, The Arbitor let some vulgar language fly out of her mouth. The audience gasped; it was unexpected, but maybe should be expected in this new world of vulgar language, because it seems that is so chic today.

Anyway—

Truthfully, the actor playing the Soviet chess player was the best in his craft that afternoon, but this Arbitor/Domimatrix is the only one I remember clearly.

She was scary.

🗑 Pas pour moi. Abandoned.
Review from my blog ©2022 Colcannon Metropolis, excerpt from my book, “Painting the Town Red,” due out in 2023