Stage: Someone else's story

Chess
The Musical in Concert
music Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
lyrics Tim Rice, Björn Ulvaeus
director-choreographer Nick Winston
with Samantha Barks, Hadley Fraser, Joel Harper-Jackson, Frances Mayli McCann, Ako Mitchell, Craige Els, Vas Constanti, Trevor McDonald
musical director Freddie Tapner
lighting Ben Cracknell
video design Duncan McLean
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London • 1-2.Aug.22

Originally staged in 1986, following the 1984 concept album, this musical has had a bumpy history as a Cold War romantic thriller that opened just as global politics were shifting dramatically. While it is packed with belting anthems (including one titled Anthem), it's an intricately plotted tale of chess players navigating a thorny political landscape with added forbidden love. And because it's almost entirely sung, the complex twists and turns are often lost in muffled lyrics. Still, it carries a proper emotional wallop, even in a concert staging like this one.

An enormous orchestra and choir fill the stage, while the action takes place on risers around and in front of them. It opens on Freddie (Harper-Jackson), a bad-boy American chess champion who is defending his title against the Russian master Anatoly (Fraser). The hotheaded Freddie has simmering flirtation with his second Florence (Barks), who is exasperated by his swaggering image. As a Hungarian, she finds some affinity with Anatoly, blossoming into a romance when he defects to the West. But he has a wife, Svetlana (McCann), and children back in Russia, and the powers that be are making underhanded deals to bring him back under Soviet control.

Fraser & Harper-Jackson

The show's first half features a string of huge numbers, performed at full-voice by Barks, Fraser and Harper-Jackson, plus Mitchell as the Arbiter and Els as Anatoly's second Molokov. Barks gets the two best songs, the furious Nobody's Side and plaintive Heaven Help My Heart, while Harper-Jackson registers beautifully with the soaring Pity the Child. But with everyone singing their heart out, there's no perspective to the show that might bring the audience into the story. We are merely observers of each person's separate journey, so it's difficult to get very deeply involved.

Things get more textured in the second act, shifting from Harper-Jackson's riveting One Night in Bangkok to the show-stopping duet I Know Him So Well, gorgeously rendered by Barks and McCann. Each performer is on top of his or her game, creating vivid moments even if the show never coalesces into a compelling narrative. So it seems confusing that Florence emerges as the protagonist, simply due to Barks' powerhouse emotive presence. Costumes and lighting make clever use of colour, although the staging further blurs the focus with far-too-busy background dance choreography and persistent video projections that seem overly pointed and a bit random.

Barks

It's great to see this show on a big stage like the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, mainly because the songs are so triumphant and passionate. But even as a first-rate concert production, there could have been more nuance in the sound mix and choreography. And while the show's lack of a point of view will always be a thorny problem, attempts to restage it and perhaps make it more engaging will always be welcome. 

Harper-Jackson

McCann

See also: 
Kinky Boots - The Musical in Concert (8-9.Aug.22)
Treason - The Musical in Concert (22-23.Aug.22) 
For information, visit THEATRE ROYAL DRURY LANE >

photos by Mark Senior • 1.Aug.22

33rd London Critics' Circle Film Awards

It wasn't just another Critics' Circle ceremony for me: this year I was chair of the awards committee, so the whole evening was my baby. And it was odd to see every tiny detail I've agonised over for the past few months slot into place so nicely, despite some significant obstacles. We lost four nominee attendees at the last minute due to the snow (Tom Hooper) and the flu (Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter and Jacqueline Durran), and others couldn't come because they were working far, far away. But everyone who made it had a great night.

The day started on Sunday morning as I looked out the window to see snow falling. It's been a snowy week in London, with the usual travel chaos any change in the weather brings. But we were in motion, and couldn't be stopped. I headed from home via replacement bus (my Tube line was helpfully closed) to the May Fair Hotel in Mayfair, where the production team ran through the show in the theatre at noon. Then there were fine-tuning adjustments, printing up the winners cards for the envelopes, collating the speeches from those who couldn't be there to accept their award, and of course changing into our finery for the show. The critics who were presenting awards arrived at 5pm to run through their parts of the presentation with our host Richard Herring (who has blogged brilliantly about his experience).

By 5.30pm the first attendees were assembling on the red carpet and facing the press line. The cameramen of course latched on to the glamorous women, including Helena Bonham Carter (recipient of our top honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film), Emily Blunt (nominee for British Actress), Samantha Barks (nominee for Young Performer) and Olivia Colman (last year's British Actress winner, who generously came to help me present the award this year).

Also very popular with the press was young Jack Reynor, nominated as Young Performer, who has just been named as the star of Transformers 4. He had a great night, knowing he was heading home to Dublin in the morning to begin four months of physical training for the film. Although I told him he really needs to take a break to celebrate his 21st birthday this week!

I had a chance to talk to all of our special guests as they arrived, including Ben Drew (nominated for Ill Manors), Charlie Creed-Miles and Dexter Fletcher (nominatees for Wild Bill), and three nominees from the superb British film My Brother the Devil: writer-director Sally El Hosaini, actor Fady Elsayed and cinematographer David Raedeker. At 6.30pm the champagne reception was shifted into the theatre for the awards ceremony, which clipped along thanks to Richard Herring's snappy hosting. Several early winners weren't present: Anne Hathaway's Supporting Actress award was accepted by Les Miserables producer Debra Hayward, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was unable to be here to get his Supporting Actor award, Emmannuelle Riva sent a lovely video message from Paris to accept Actress, and Joaquin Phoenix wrote the thank-you note of the night* to accept Actor.

But most of the British winners were on hand to collect their prizes. Above: The Impossible's Tom Holland with his Young Performer trophy, Rafe Spall turned up to accept the Director award for his Life of Pi director Ang Lee, and The Imposter's Bart Layton took home the award for Documentary. Below: Alice Lowe and Steve Oram were multiple nominees for British Actress and British Actor, and won Breakthrough Filmmaker for their Sightseers script.

Andrea Riseborough won the British Actress award, which I presented, but she'd had to cancel her attendance at the last minute due to illness. So last year's winner Olivia Colman accepted the award and read a message from her. Toby Jones (below) won the British Actor award, and then came back to the stage with sound designer Stevie Haywood (a Technical Achievement nominee) to claim British Film of the Year for Berberian Sound Studio.

There was a warm acceptance video from Bill Westenhofer, who won Technical Achievement for the visual effects in Life of Pi. And Michael Haneke sent two thank-you videos - accepting his awards for Screenplay and Film of the Year for Amour. He's in Madrid at the moment staging a version of Cosi Fan Tutte. 

The highlight of the evening was Mike Newell presenting the Dilys to Helena Bonham Carter: "She's like a kaleidoscope, she is able to deliver these wonderful, vivid characters again and again. They're all full of variety, full of wit and energy and I think people long to see what she's going to try next. She's become an institution. Working with her is always surprising, always harmonious. Not one tiny little bit of foot-stamping or tantrum-throwing."

Her speech was hilariously witty, warm and honest, and she later told the press: "It feels like a rash. It suddenly seems like I've got a contagion of diseases - I mean awards! But it's nice, it's a nice feeling. It's so weird, because I'm only 46. A lifetime achievement award - it feels like 'I'm not over yet'. I hope they're not trying to say it's time to stop. I'm only just getting the gist of it." She clearly had a great evening, and she and Tim Burton were among the last to leave, happily chatting to everyone throughout the after party. I left shortly after them, sharing a cab through the snowy streets to North London with fellow critic and awards committee member Pauline McLeod (that's us below).

I didn't open my goody bag until this morning - quite a haul! I need to thank our charity partner Missing People and our amazing sponsors for making this happen. And now I feel like I need a holiday before I start thinking about 2014....

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Critics' Circle Film Section - top 10 films of 2012:

1. Amour
2. The Master
3. Life of Pi
4. Argo
5. Beasts of the Southern Wild
6. Zero Dark Thirty
7. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
8. Django Unchained
9. Tabu
10. Rust and Bone