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Today is our 3rd day of the 2019 A to Z Challenge and for the letter C we present the political Chess with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (ABBA) and lyrics by Sir Tim Rice.
The musical involves a Cold War chess tournament match between the American and the Russian and their fight for the Hungarian woman they love.
Josh Groban and Adam Pascal
There have been numerous versions of the musical but Tim Rice said that the 2008 Royal Albert Hall concert version was the definite version, based on the West End version with the addition of two Broadway songs “Someone Else’s Story” and “Prologue”. Starring Josh Groban (“Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812“), Adam Pascal (“AIDA“), Idina Menzel (“Frozen“), Marty Pellow and Kerry Ellis (“Wicked“), the Royal Albert Hall concert version is available on DVD and part of Stingray Qello on Amazon Prime.
If you are a fan of the West End, you might notice some familiar faces among the ensemble including Leila Benn Harris (“Imagine This“) and Aoife Mulholland (“Legally Blonde“).
Favorite Songs from CHESS
The Story of Chess (Pellow/Ensemble)
Mountain Duet (Groban/Menzel)
Pity the Child (Pascal)
Someone Else’s Story (Ellis)
The Deal (No Deal) (Company)
I Know Him So Well (Ellis/Menzel)
Talking Chess (Pascal/Groban)
Endgame #3 (Company)
Kerry Ellis and Idina Menzel
Kerry Ellis was the original British Elphaba in WICKED and Idina Menzel was the original American Elphaba.
Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson
And if you want a true treat – check out this Youtube video of original stars Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson singing “I Know Him So Well”.
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What musical would you love to see Josh Groban perform in?
The songs from this were hits in the UK – my mother played them endless! Ugh! LOL
haha. repetition of a song can def be a bad thing 😉 the synthesizing that i'm assuming was in the recordings your mum played are gone in the more recent productions/albums so that's nice at least 😉
I haven't heard of this. It sounds really cool. Thanks for sharing!
J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author
CHESS now this one I know well. I lived in Sweden for a few years and I remeber all the talk about it. But when I was finally able to see it … many years later in MIAMI. Of course by then I had memorized EVERY SONG!
Finally! I was feeling so lacking in knowledge! LOL HAPPY A-Z
ANnother one I have never heard of. And with a Hungarian character too! Fascinating 🙂
The Multicolored Diary