Chess

[distantcousin]

Mar 22, 2018 19:14:30 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

Wasn’t that toe curlingly cringe?

Is there ANYthing that The One Show can’t trivialise and make look cheap and naff?

The show is dire and an embarrassment to the BBC. Mystified as to why they continue to show it. 

[theatreian]

Yes, they were in costume. Chess is to be set in a wild west saloon.
Yee haa
On a separate note I'm not familiar with Phillip Browne.

There was a fairly sizeable ad for Chess in todays Daily Mail on the Baz double page. Presumably to hopefully shift some more tickets!

[Tibidabo]

Mar 23, 2018 18:25:09 GMT theatreian said:

I'm not familiar with Phillip Browne.

Neither am I. But I'd like to point out that I saw him first.  

[Deleted]

Mar 23, 2018 18:10:37 GMT theatreian said:

So Phillip Browne is Molokov.

SAY THAT AGAIN...!!!

[shady23]

Mar 23, 2018 18:16:49 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

A festival of denim and blazers.

B*Witched and Friends new album cover.

[BurlyBeaR]

Mar 23, 2018 18:37:53 GMT Tibidabo said:

Mar 23, 2018 18:25:09 GMT theatreian said:

I'm not familiar with Phillip Browne.

Neither am I. But I'd like to point out that I saw him first.  

It’s taken them that long to tell us I really couldn’t care less either way. 

[oxfordsimon]

For such an important role - more important that the Arbiter (or Svetlana), it is very low profile casting.

[carmella1]

Stupid picture. And where is Freddie?? Already being replaced? No one gave him the memo to wear denim and he showed up in sweats?

[Deleted]

And why is Benny running off? 

Anyway...

(Over the weekend Laurence Connor has been working with Mickey and Cassidy around the piano. Murray’s on the side, doing a crossword. Enter Alexandra looking flushed.)

Murray: Y’alright, love?

Alexandra: Yeah. Just been doing some more promotion for the show...

Murray: Yeah? Where’ve you been?

Alexandra: I took a karaoke CD and a boombox on the tube and been singing my bits from that Endgame song up and down the Central Line.

Murray: Yeah? Any luck?

Alexandra: I sold four tickets to a Spanish family who were lost at Theydon Bois and a couple of access tickets to a man with a hearing dog near Chancery Lane. (Pause.) I hope they let his dog in...

Murray: Yeah...

Alexandra: (Pointing to the piano.) What they doing?

Murray: “The American and Florence”.

Alexandra: (Quietly.) I don’t really get it...

Murray: Sorry, love?

Alexandra: I mean... I don’t really understand half the songs in this show to be honest.

Murray: That makes two of us.

Alexandra: But... I thought you was in it back in the 60s or 70s.

Murray: Summat like that, yeah...

Alexandra: And...?

Murray: (Shaking his head.) Not a bloody word of it...

(Enter Alfie.)

Murray: Y’alright Alfie, mate? Still hanging around?

Alfie: Yeah, I’m first cover Mickey.

(Murray nods.)

Alfie: Been practising winking in the mirror in the green room downstairs.

(Murray goes back to his crossword.)

Alfie: Got a couple of dodgy looks so went into the Gents.

(Long pause.)

Alexandra: D’you know, when I signed up for this I thought I was gonna be in Mamma Mia. (Pause.) My agent said it’s the Abba one, so I thought that’s the one with Meryl Streep and I thought, like yeah, I can do that...


(Next time Phillip Browne keeps coming in late during Quartet, giving Laurence Connor little option but to scrap his part and rename the song.)

[Oleanna]

Phillip Browne was wonderful in Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent’s Park.

A great rock belt at the top of his voice, and resonant and operatic at the bottom.

For my money, there’s not much chance for the former in Molokov’s material, but definitely for the latter.

I’m sure he’ll be great.

[lou105]

So there's now a full cast list but no mention of who is playing Walter De Courcey.

[lou105]

Or am I making assumptions that the character will be present? (I notice his name varies).

[distantcousin]

At this stage, I have it on good authority Svetlana is scheduled to sing TWO solos: Someone Else's Story (with alternate lyrics unearthed from the 1990 Sydney production) AND the translated Swedish Chess number "He Is A Man, He Is A Child" - as well as her regular roles in I Know Him So Well, The Deal (No Deal) and Endgame.

[Being Alive]

Mar 26, 2018 21:11:03 GMT distantcousin said:

At thing stage, I have it on good authority Svetlana is scheduled to sing TWO solos: Someone Else's Story (with alternate lyrics unearthed from the 1990 Sydney production) AND the translated Swedish Chess number "He Is A Man, He Is A Child" - as well as her regular roles in I Know Him So Well, The Deal (No Deal) and Endgame.

Ah jeez.

[Deleted]

Mar 26, 2018 21:11:03 GMT distantcousin said:

At this stage, I have it on good authority Svetlana is scheduled to sing TWO solos: Someone Else's Story (with alternate lyrics unearthed from the 1990 Sydney production) AND the translated Swedish Chess number "He Is A Man, He Is A Child" - as well as her regular roles in I Know Him So Well, The Deal (No Deal) and Endgame.

Woohoo! Five trips to the bar!

Note to Coliseum: Stock up on Gin.

[chess]

If only Helen could have been cast. I have travelled to Stockholm several to see her in stage shows. She is fantastic.

[sf]

Mar 1, 2018 11:21:52 GMT @sharpe12 said:

I really dislike the Coliseum as the circles don't start until the back of the stalls, as opposed to overhanging them. Means that dress circle is extortionately priced when you are already miles away from the stage. Huge orchestra pit extending from the stage doesn't help.

So basically to see faces you have to be in the stalls - which for Chess are obscenely expensive.

I am also one of these people that like's aisle seats. Frustratingly though although most nights it looks half empty, all the stalls aisle seats seem to have gone. Makes you wonder if ENO holding them back. Which is in nobody's interest. Nobody's on nobody's side. Etc.

There are a (very) few relative bargains in the dress circle that for some bizarre reason don't appear on the original booking website, but that are bookable in person at the box office or probably over the phone (and via some agencies, but that makes them less of a relative bargain). Seats in the dress circle slips are £50 - those are the seats at the extreme sides of the dress circle in front of the boxes in the diagram below. The auditorium is more or less semicircular, so they're a side-on (and therefore slightly restricted) view, but they are significantly better value than the £50 seats in the upper circle and they're one of the relatively few locations in the Coliseum apart from the centre stalls where you'll be close enough to see faces clearly.

I know there are still some of these seats available because I booked one myself the other day. The way they've structured the prices for this, it's probably the best value for money in there - with this casting, £50 was my ceiling.

[BurlyBeaR]

What’s really annoying is that they still havent said if this is a concert, semi staged or (least likely I know) fully staged. I imagine people would be more inclined to take a seat on the sides for a concert on the basis that there’s no “action” as such to follow.

[sf]

Mar 31, 2018 17:18:04 GMT BurlyBeaR said:

What’s really annoying is that they still havent said if this is a concert, semi staged or (least likely I know) fully staged. I imagine people would be more inclined to take a seat on the sides for a concert on the basis that there’s no “action” as such to follow.

I'm working on the assumption that there'll be at least some staging, simply because if there wasn't I doubt they'd be in rehearsal now, but the point of going, for me, is mostly to hear the music with a big orchestra, and in any case factoring in train fares and all the rest of it means £50 is the top of my budget - and as I said, for £50 the slips are better value than the seats at the extreme sides of the upper circle.

[richey]

Ooh looks like you'll get an actual Chess game on stage. Mickey has just said on his Radio 2 show that he spent all yesterday learning 83 chess moves to music.
He's managing to drop in mentions for the show as often as possible

[Deleted]

This is the production of the year that makes me feel very nervous about my seat. I could only justify a balcony seat at the end of an aisle, and from what I understand the venue isn’t exactly renowned for good balcony sight lines/legroom.

[Deleted]

Never mind his bloody chess moves... he could move the bits any which way he likes and I'm sure none of us'd be any the wiser. More importantly, has his opponent turned up for any rehearsals yet?

Strange (but true) fact- at the evening performance of Pinocchio yesterday, there were some people playing chess across those long tables in the Lyttleton foyer. Also at the table was a couple of loud girls, all the louder for two bottles of cheap but expensive plonk, who were spotted by a couple of young Italian chaps. One nervously approached: "My friend... he a like you..." Louder girl: "Yeah? Come and join us!" And the two young gentlemen made their move ( ) and it turned out that the Italians were here for some kind of chess tournament. The girls, like us, didn't know a thing about chess, but they liked the look of the guys, got louder, asked them to join them for a drink. From the two empty plonk bottles. Rather sweet, we thought. We hope someone found their mate ( ).

[theatreian]

Here's the latest picture from rehearsals showing the fabulous set built for the massive Chess production.

[Deleted]

Wow! That set looks incredible! And massive!

Unlike Tiny Tim’s feet... wow, they are tiny, Tim!

[theatreian]

Yes hadn't noticed Tim's feet before! Have seen him several times in musicals concerts too. What do they say about the sixe of a mans foot?mmm