Chamber of Awesome, maybe

I revealed myself as a total geek to some coworkers today. Most realize that I'm a total geek, but these were coworkers I didn't know very well. The topic? Harry Potter. I could not be more excited about the new movies if I tried. I make little squeaking noises every time I see a new trailer (like here).

It's amazing how well those stories hold together. I caught most of Chamber of Secrets on tv this weekend and it really drove home how important that book is in the overall story. I remember the first few times I read it, I wasn't blown away. I enjoyed it, sure, but thought it was basically just a rehash of Sorcerer's Stone. Entertaining enough, but I wasn't bowled over.

But then the saga continued. And the elements of CoS started to resonate throughout the other books. The house elves. The history of Voldemort. So good. The more I read the books, the more I watch the story, the more I'm impressed by what Rowling did.

Anyway...just a few weeks left! Yay!

Happy 70th

I wish I had been older than 2 when he died. I wish the world could've known what John Lennon would have done with the past 30 years.



And also...just because I love this scene from Hard Day's Night

Also, great songs for my "Angst" playlist

I always wind up in something of a funk after I see a show I really like. I'm not sure why; maybe it's that because it’s a play, I can't have that experience again (much as I inevitably want to see the show multiple more times). If I don't stop myself, I wind up listening to the songs over and over...which really doesn't help. I ran into a problem with Arcadia--because it's a straight play, I had no cast recording. I did have the script, but reading the scene multiple times doesn't really help. And I wonder if I'm more affected by shows I don't know incredibly well; on the one hand, I remember this vividly from the first time I saw Miss Saigon (surprisingly, no, I wasn't familiar with it beforehand; at that point, I didn't even know Les Mis, if you can imagine); on the other, familiarity didn't stop my obsession with Jesus Christ Superstar (which was aided by the fact that it was videotaped, so I could watch over and over and over and over).

I saw Chess at the Signature the other night and it was phenomenal. I was vaguely familiar with the story, and I knew a few of the songs quite well ("I Know Him So Well" is one of my absolute favorites; I have multiple versions of "Pity the Child" and "Anthem", and of course everyone knows "One Night in Bangkok") and had watched the preview video and listened to the concept album to have an idea of what to expect. Plus, it was a show at the Signature. I knew it would be great.

And wow, it didn't let me down. Chess is the story of a chess match between an American, Freddie (Jeremy Kushnier), and a Soviet, Anatoly (Euan Morton). Each has a second; for Anatoly, it's Molokov (Christopher Bloch), a KGB agent; for Freddie, it's Florence (Jill Paice), a Hungarian who grew up in the U.S. after the 1956 uprising. Freddie is clearly based on Bobby Fischer; he's loud, brash, doesn't care about the rules. Anatoly is quiet, controlled. And Florence is being pushed to the limit by Freddie's antics. So when she meets the level-headed Anatoly, there's an instant attraction.

The music is by the B's of ABBA and the lyrics are Tim Rice (whose bio in the program alone is worth the price of admission), so there's a definite rock edge to it. Kushnier winds up with the majority of the rock songs, and does them fabulously. Paice has to balance ballads and rock numbers—sometimes in the same song ("Nobody’s Side" has elements of both, and she absolutely kills on it; she practically got a standing ovation at the end of the number). Morton gets mostly quieter numbers and does them wonderfully; honestly, the cast as a whole were great. A friend commented that he found Chris Sizemore as the Arbiter a bit too "musical theater" but I didn't have that problem at all.

And the acting. Oh, the acting. Kushnier is just absolutely riveting. Freddie is a character who's hard to like; throughout the show, he's amusing, but doesn't do anything likeable. At all. To anyone. And yet, I wanted him to be on stage the entire time. Kushnier was great when strutting around stage for photographers, but probably my favorite moment of his was near the end of the play, while waiting for Anatoly to arrive for the final chess game. He's just sitting in a chair, staring at a chess board...but it was fabulous.

Anatoly, more than the other characters, goes through a real journey, particularly in the second act. Florence is the character screwed over at the end, but Act 2 is a methodical crushing of Anatoly. Morton goes from happy at the top of the act to being completely broken at the end--and the transformation is clearly visible. The whole range of emotions he has to portray come across perfectly. If Kushnier's moment was waiting for Anatoly at the final game, Morton's moment is at the end of the reprise of "You and I" when he grabs Florence and kisses her. There's a desperation there that was undoubtedly part of the reason that half the women in the ladies’ room at the end of the show were in tears.

Florence is really the heart of this version of Chess. I had expected the two men to be the leads--which they are, of course, but Florence is the glue and gets the last curtain call. As well she should. Jill Paice's vocals just absolutely blew me away (for serious, watch the preview video and listen through to the end).

Which is not to say that the show is perfect. I'm still not sure of some of the characters' motivations (including a fairly large plot point), and though I enjoyed the choreography for the most part, there were moments when it felt a bit off. I'm still not sure how I feel about the sort of goth look for the ensemble, though the show did come off otherwise as wonderfully 80s.

Obviously, this was a fabulous production. I've heard rumors that higher-ups in the theater world watched how it fared--a Broadway revival in the works? One can only hope. And, if so, please bring this cast.




Photos by Scott Suchman