It might be argued that lyricist/librettist
Tim Rice does not so much collaborate with composers as compete with them. His early successes with
Andrew Lloyd Webber, notably Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, were content-heavy efforts with often wordy songs and complicated characters, and
Lloyd Webber fled to the relative simplicity of practically libretto-free shows about cats and train engines, never again granting a lyricist co-billing with him.
Rice had another set of complicated ideas for Chess, on which he worked with
Benny Andersson and
Björn Ulvaeus, late of
ABBA, setting two interlocking romantic triangles against the backdrop of world chess tournaments during the Cold War. The work was represented first by a 1984 concept album, followed by a successful 1986 London stage production that did not spawn a cast album and an unsuccessful 1988 Broadway stage production that did. All during this period,
Rice and several directors tinkered with the plot, and the songwriters added and deleted songs. In 1994, a third recording appeared in Sweden taken from a concert production overseen by
Andersson. Not surprisingly, this album, featuring Scandinavian singers singing in accented English, tilted more toward the music over
Rice's lyrics and story. And not surprisingly, this 2008 London concert version overseen by
Rice tilts the other way. The recording has been mixed so that the vocals are up front, making it much easier to understand what's going on and to comprehend
Rice's witty, idiomatic lyrics.
The leads include two stage veterans who both got their starts in Rent,
Adam Pascal (also of
Rice and
Elton John's Aida) as the American chess champion Frederick Trumper and
Idina Menzel (also of Wicked) as Florence Vassy, who begins with Frederick and then switches allegiance to the Soviet chess champion Anatoly Sergievsky. Anatoly is portrayed by classical crossover star
Josh Groban. The part is really the starring role. (If Chess has a hero, Anatoly is it; Frederick isn't exactly a villain, but more of a troubled mercenary in the mold of
Rice's Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar.)
Groban has the vocal chops to handle the part, but not the dramatic ability. He croons his way through the songs and speaks his bits of dialogue woodenly. Thus, in this performance, Anatoly is upstaged over and over again by Frederick and Florence, if only because
Pascal and
Menzel are able to use their stage experience to inhabit their characters far more effectively. The plot has been tweaked yet again, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense. (Not only is the Soviet champion the hero, but, having defected to the West, he returns to the Soviet Union at the end, the sort of action that would have earned any real defector a one-way ticket to the gulag.) Yet this recording is an improvement over both the compromised Broadway album and the hard-to-follow Swedish one, making it the best version of
Chess since the 1984 original. ~ William Ruhlmann