A Story of "Chess"

For those unfamiliar with Chess, it is a musical with lyrics by Tim Rice and music by former ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Throughout its many incarnations it has remained the story of a romantic triangle between two players at a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.

One of my professors in college claimed that productions of the musical Chess were like snowflakes. No two stagings of the musical are alike.

A look at Wikipedia backs up his hypothesis. The original concept album was created in 1984 without a traditional Broadway musical “book” and with only a vague outline of a story. People all over the world have fallen in love with music, and it seems everyone has struggled to hang the songs onto a story in an effort to bring the show to the stage. The London production bears little resemblance to the Broadway show, which has little in common with either the Des McAnuff national tour or the Australian version.

As Wikipedia puts it, Chess is “fertile ground for those seeking to ‘get it right.’” So of course it calls out to me. Through the same college professor I have had the opportunity to read a number of different versions of the show, and came to feel that I needed a crack at creating a book for Chess.

I worked off and on creating my own marriage of the previous incarnations of the show and combined it with my own research into the personalities of the real life chess masters that inspired the musical.

Like the Australian and Des McAnuff scripts, my version has both acts take place at a single chess tournament in a single city (Bangkok). Also like those scripts, this version takes place in 1990 as the Cold War has thawed, and the Berlin Wall has fallen.

Act 1

The Arbiter of the upcoming world chess championship explains the history of the game of chess, as we move to Bangkok where the championship is being held. The brash American champion, Freddie Trumper arrives with his second, Hungarian orphan Florence Vassy and Walter Anderson, his manager. The current Russian champion, Anatoly Sergievsky, and Alexander Molokov, his second (actually a KGB agent), watch with curiosity and disdain on TV, before Anatoly laments as to how he has got to be the top Russian player. It turns out that Molokov has brought Svetlana, Anatoly’s wife, to the championship to keep the pressure on, because the Russians fear that Anatoly has become restless. In their hotel room, Florence has become dissatisfied with Freddie showboating for the press, and feels that she has lost her love of the game.

The opening ceremony features an arbiter insisting on holding the proceedings together, US and Soviet diplomats vowing their side will win, and marketers just looking to make a buck. During the match Freddie accuses Anatoly of receiving outside help via the flavor of yogurt he is eating, and Freddie storms out, leaving his second, Florence, in an argument with the Arbiter and the Russians. She later scolds him, but he insists that she, a child émigré who escaped Hungary during the 1956 uprisings, should support him. She reflects that "nobody's on nobody's side," before heading off to the meeting between East and West.

The attempt to smooth things over goes badly and ends with Anatoly and Florence together, where they quickly develop feelings for one another. Freddie doesn't turn up, leaving Anatoly and Florence to eventually embrace, before being interrupted by Freddie. Enraged by Anatoly and Florence’s kiss, Freddie agrees to resume the match. That night Anatoly returns to his hotel room to find Svetlana waiting for him. Unable to offer her husband any comfort she reflects on “Someone Else's Story.”

As the matches continue, Freddie flounders, finishing the act with 1 win and 4 losses; he blames Florence’s actions for his poor showing at the championship. Florence tries once again to apologize to Freddie before finally quitting as his second. Anatoly surprises everyone by defecting.

Act 2

Upset by Florence’s defection to Anatoly’s side, Freddie throws himself into the Bangkok nightlife, One week later; championship has been delayed while Anatoly’s emigration is sorted out. Florence worries that after the initial heat of her affair with Anatoly that things are suddenly beginning to cool. Molokov uses Svetlana in an attempt to blackmail Anatoly into returning to the Russian side. Florence approaches Freddie about a second postponement of the championship in order to allow Anatoly to get his head back into the game.

Molokov approaches Freddie with a plan to help him win Florence back, by offering to feed Freddie with information about Florence’s father’s fate. The Arbiter denies the request for a second delay in play, and the championship resumes. The stress impedes Anatoly's ability to play chess, and Freddie starts winning games and pulls into the lead.

Anatoly is further rattled when he sees an interview with Svetlana on television, where she pleads for his return. The Russians attempts to get Anatoly back strain Anatoly's relationship with Florence, and she shares her woes with Svetlana.

The next day Anatoly is able to tie up the score 5-5. Freddie has become more interested in winning back the love of Florence than winning the game. He approaches her with the information that Molokov has provided regarding her father, seeing though the ploy she storms away.

During the final game Anatoly realizes that his defection and his personally life have distracted himself from his true love, chess, and he again devotes himself to winning the game. He chooses to recant his defection, and makes a tactical error. Freddie immediately takes advantage of the blunder and proceeds to win the game and the tournament, becoming the new world champion.
As the curtain closes, Florence completely breaks tie with Freddie, Anatoly returns to Russia and Svetlana.

Songs:

Act I

The Story of Chess
What a Scene! What a Joy!
Smile You Got Your First Exclusive Story
Anatoly and Molokov/Where I Want to Be
Freddie and Florence
Chess Hymn
Merchandisers
The Arbiter’s Song
US vs. USSR (Diplomats)
Quartet (A Model of Decorum and Tranquility)
Argument / Nobody's Side
Cocktail Chorus
Terrace Duet
Who’d Ever Think It?
Someone Else's Story
No Contest
Florence Quits/A Taste of Pity
Terrace Duet Reprise
Anthem

Act II

One Night in Bangkok
Heaven Help My Heart
You and I
Where I Want to Be Reprise
Freddie Goes Metal
Let's Work Together
The Arbiter’s Song Reprise
Argument
I Know Him So Well
The Deal
Endgame
You and I (Reprise)

The thing that I enjoyed most about my revision was an embrace of the complexity of the characters. The love story between Anatoly and Florence always rings false to me in other versions. They come together too fast and separate too easily. In this script we see them at the beginning feeling restless in their roles and looking for something to which they can commit, and bring passion back into their lives.

I think that Svetlana is too interesting a character to be used simply in act two to bring pressure on Anatoly. By brining her into the story at the very beginning we see that the Russians are aware of Anatoly’s restlessness probably even before he is.

Finally in an almost Chekhovian fashion, by the end it seems that almost no one has gotten what they want. Freddie commits himself to getting Florence back and fails. Anatoly reconnects to his love of chess and loses the championship. Svetlana doesn’t have her husband’s love, but at least has managed to keep the status quo. Florence like the American version of the script, finds herself for the first time truly on nobody’s side, and perhaps has the most optimistic of endings, as she is in a place to build a life that is undefined by being someone else's second.

About ten years ago I was applying to grad schools and in support of my application to Northwestern I had the opportunity to interview with Robert Falls. Mr. Falls had recently opened another troubled Tim Rice show on Broadway, Aida. I happened to speak about my revised script for Chess during the interview. Mr. Falls told me that it was easy to fix some else’s work. At the time I had felt embarrassed and a little ashamed of the months I put into the project. Of course, I’m not sure that I believe in the truth of his assertion. It wasn’t easy for me for me to fix the show. It certainly hasn’t been easy for anyone else to come up with a successful script. And based on having had the chance to see Aida, I suspect that Robert Falls didn’t have such an easy time fixing the work from its Atlanta premiere.

I obviously never had any intention that the show would be seen on stage. And unlike scripts I have worked on since, I never even put together a table reading to see if it needed any additional work. I have long since stopped asking people to take a look at it, and tell me what they think. It was very satisfying mental exercise for me to, and I feel that it helped me learn a good deal about the structure of a musical.

I know my script is certainly not definitive. Looking at it again after sitting on a shelf for almost ten years, I still have many problems with my revisions. In trying to build four strong lead characters, the musical doesn’t have a clear character for which the audience can root. I think the London version wants Anatoly to be the lead, and the American script wants the show to be the story of Florence. My script never settles on anyone. Also I worry that the script is still book heavy and long. I have read the streamlined American book edited by David Bell used in many regional productions, and while I appreciate how focused it is, the characters lack complexity.

The exciting thing about Chess is the fact that it will never be fixed. It is clear that after a twenty-year history, there will likely never be a single book for the show. Perhaps that is why now it seems that if it is produced at all, it is presented as a concert.

Theatrical Piracy: Beautiful Stories

NOTE: This was originally published on the Playlab NYC Playground Blog on July 13, 2008.

So over the Fourth of July weekend my wife Jessica and I took the girls to my parents’ house in Ohio. A visit Gran’ma and Gran’pa sort of thing.

I was in the basement looking though my warped water stained comic collection. A side note to comic collectors: Don’t store you comics in the basement, especially basements prone to flooding during summer rainstorms. Fortunately the “important” comics, the Daredevil Born Again arc, Watchmen, Electra: Assassin, and Ronin had long since left my parents’ house. So I was left quietly mourning for my Spiderman issues of the Kraven’s Last Hunt storyline, and Secret Wars. It was a pity about the loss of GI Joe issue 21 though.

It was in the basement that I reconnected with the inspiration for one of my first forays into the dark underbelly of theatrical plagiarism: Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children. Written by Dave Louapre and drawn by Dan Sweetman, BSFUG was not a very traditional comic. The two dozen or so issues published in the early 1990’s were self contained short stories with illustrations, published in comic book form.

It has probably been fifteen years since I looked at those comics. Looking back on them, I see that what appealed to me about the stories were that most of the issues felt like little one acts. Single set, and only a couple people. So that is exactly what I did with an unauthorized (Do I have any other kind?) adaptation of a couple of issues of the comic back in college.

Issue #12: “Beneath the Useless Universe” was a variation on Death Takes a Holiday. With Death becoming a houseguest who over stays his welcome in the home of an elderly African-American man with the weathered face of a Delta Blues musician. Death learns to use a yo-yo and tries to name the old man’s pet goldfish.

Of course we didn’t have any male African-American students in the theater department let alone elderly ones, so you would have had to use your imagination watching the show.

Issue #14: “Dangerous Prayers” was the story of a woman who wakes up one day and decided that she isn’t going to get out of bed anymore because the world is too…well, I don’t really remember why she didn’t feel like getting out of bed.

The illustration that really drove the shape of the “Dangerous Prayers” script was a picture of the woman in bed surrounded by a bunch of men with leaf blowers. The illustrations made the outside world such an intrusion in her interior world. I conceived of a Greek chorus that was ever present in her bedroom acting as her answering machine, her radio, the people at her job, etc…

BSFUC was the first and last directing effort, to the best of my knowledge, of Playlab NYC's Managing Director, Jennifer Wilcox. The show’s ensemble cast included in its numbers Playlab NYC Artistic Director, Kevin Hale, who gave up acting shortly after the show. Come to think of it, in retrospect it seems to have nearly driven both Jennifer and Kevin right out of theater all together.

The show ran for two performances, and there doesn’t seem to be much incriminating evidence that survives. Nothing I could find, no pictures, no scripts. I did come across a program though…written on a typewriter.

I recall toying with doing a second night of one-acts the next year. I was pretty keen to tackle Issue #10: “Where the Tarantulas Play.” A love story set against a failing petting zoo in the desert was a personal favorite. But it wasn’t to be.

Gosh looking back at these I wouldn’t mind tackling the adaptations again…

It's a Rocky Horror Christmas, Charlie Brown!

Note: This was originally published on the Playlab NYC Playground Blog on April 26, 2008.

Have you always wanted to shout insults at some poor Blockhead? Always wanted to allow friends to trash your living room? Maybe you should throw your very own “It’s a Rocky Horror Christmas, Charlie Brown!” party.

RHXCB was born out of a mistaken belief that everyone in America, nay in the world (!) knew the perennial Peanuts holiday special. Backwards AND forwards. I have since been surprised to learn that I am the only one with the cartoon dialogue on vinyl, and the only one who spent their childhood listening to it year round much to the chagrin of my sister, who to this day won’t even let her own children watch the special for fear that they’ll want an aluminum Christmas tree.

I also have a strong belief that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” has a number of things in common with The Rocky Horror Picture Show; a dance number that everyone knows, a floor show, and most importantly slowly paced dialogue with odd pauses that were ideal for audience partici—pation.

Looking at RHPS it always seemed to me that there were essentially five different kinds of audience participation.

1. The use of props
2. Talking back to the screen
4. Some mild virgin hazing
5. Acting out the action in front of the screen

So I took these five points and applied them to Charlie Brown. Throwing foam packing peanuts and pine needles, reciting the story of the first Christmas with Linus, decorating a virgin as a Christmas tree at the finale, and a lot of yelling at the TV.

Because I figured he would get a chuckle out of it I shared my audience participation with a friend of mine. He ended up asking if he could use the Charlie Brown mash-up as a kind of party game. His idea was the TV special was just short enough for the joke to not wear out its welcome.

To say my friend takes everything way too seriously, would be an understatement. One of the things I point to as proof of him over-thinking everything is that he actually did a workshop of my "script," and then gave me notes!

The first year my friend, Kevin hosted the party, he told me eight people were there. And four of them lived in his apartment at the time!

This is, I think, a picture from the second year Kevin and his wife Jennifer tried to host the party.

They sent me a copy of this when they wanted to convince me to come out and help them host the party. If I remember correctly there is a picture from a different angle showing them watching Food Network? Needless to say after I got done laughing at them, I agreed to come help them with the party.

Now I don’t want to brag, but this is what the party looks like when I am there to help out.


So if you run into Kevin or myself ask us about getting the instructions on how to host your own party!  Also if you are a member of Facebook, you can check out the "It's a Rocky Horror Christmas, Charlie Brown!" fan page.

Welcome!

As the blurb at the top of the page says, Adaptive Theatricality will discuss issues and ideas related to translating a work from one artistic medium (e.g., novel, painting, poem) into another form, such as a film or a stage play. Adaptive Theatricality will also explore other derivative works of art, such as mash-ups, fan-fiction and parody.

Like anyone who starts a blog, I am putting this together out of love. I love multiple versions of works of art. I am the reason that you can buy a box set with five different versions of Blade Runner. I am the sort of person who is excited by the fact that not only can you read Nabokov's Lolita, but you can see the Kubrick movie, the Adrian Lyne movie, read Nabokov's screenplay, read Edward Albee's play, and take a look at The Enchanter which is a sort of first draft of Nabokov's famous novel.

Tasha Robinson created a column called "Book vs. Film" on the AV Club website. She describes the posts on the AV Club Blog as "a column comparing books to the film adaptations they spawn, often discussing them on a plot-point-by-plot-point basis. This column is meant largely for people who’ve already been through one version, and want to know how the other compares."

I am just the nerd for whom she was writing. However I have become frustrated by the basic compare and contrast approach she takes. I believe that adaptations have so much more to tell us. Adaptations can teach us about the needs a various art forms, a book's needs versus a play's needs. They can teach us about the time period in which the adaptation was created. What does the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers tell us about the 1950's, or what does 1993's Body Snatchers reveal about the presidency of Bush the First?

I also hope to explore adaptations of the same work, for different purposes, e.g., to work with a smaller cast, in a smaller venue (or on the road), or for a different audience (such as adapting a story for children). Such as the various versions of Frank Wildhorn's Scarlet Pimpernel musical, or Tim Rice's Chess.

I hope that you will check in from time to time, and I hope you will find something of interest.