Baldwin-Wallace College and PlayhouseSquare will partner to present the Chess – The London Stage Version at PlayhouseSquare’s 14th Street Theatre Friday, April 30 – Sunday, May 2.
With music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and lyrics by Tim Rice, this intimate rock concert will feature current students in the Baldwin-Wallace Music Theatre Program under the direction of nationally acclaimed director Victoria Bussert, head of music theatre program at B-W. This is the third year for the collaboration between PlayhouseSquare, the Baldwin-Wallace Music Theatre program and the Arts Management Program.
In 2008, Bussert and PlayhouseSquare brought the regional premiere of Brooklyn to Cleveland, and in 2009, the first production of [title of show] outside of New York. This version of Chess is rarely performed in the United States!
The musical develops the ancient and distinguished game of chess into a metaphor for romantic rivalries and East-West political intrigue. The principal pawns, a loutish American grandmaster, an earnest Russian champion, and a Hungarian-American woman who arrives at the chess championships with the American and falls for the Russian, form a romantic love triangle. The players, lovers, politicians, CIA and KGB make their moves to the pulse of this monumental rock score, featuring the international hits "One Night in Bangkok" and "I Know Him So Well."
Chess premièred in the Prince Edward Theatre in London May 14, 1986 and closed on April 8 1989. A massive hit in London, the production won the 1986 London Critics' Theatre Award for Best Musical, and received three 1986 Laurence Olivier Award nominations: Best Musical, Outstanding Performance by an Actor and Outstanding Performance by an Actress. The creative team reimagined the show before it reached Broadway. However, the drastically altered production never caught on in New York and closed after 68 performances.
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PlayhouseSquare performances of Chess are scheduled for:
Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, 7 p.m.
Tickets are available by calling 216-241-6000,
online at playhousesquare.org or at the PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office.
275 Eastland Rd.