Chess to be re-staged at Theatre Royal

By Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

GEORDIE theatre producer Michael Harrison is to take on a mammoth task, re-staging the smash hit musical Chess, to premiere in Toon. He tells Entertainment Editor GORDON BARR about it.

MICHAEL Harrison has been the brains behind many a major theatre production.

His pantomimes at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal get unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike.

But even he admits his latest project is bigger than most.

Michael has decided to re-stage the smash hit musical Chess, as exclusively revealed in yesterday’s Chronicle.

Written by ABBA’s Benny and Bjorn, with lyrics by Tim Rice, it will premiere at the Theatre Royal in August for a two-week run, before embarking on a major national tour.

Chess is widely regarded as having one of the finest musical scores ever, but it has been dogged by controversy over the years.

Despite a hugely successful three-year run in London’s West End in the late 80s, a reworked version flopped on Broadway, and watered down touring versions failed to ignite audiences.

Last year, the Royal Albert Hall hosted a sell-out concert performance, widely regarded as one of the best Chess stagings to date.

Now Wallsend-born Michael is determined to make his vision of the musical, which includes the likes of I Know Him So Well, One Night In Bangkok and Anthem, the best yet.

“The interesting thing for me is that there has never been, in this country, a major revival,” he tells me.

“There’s been tours, but there has never been a brand-new production. It has always been a replica of that Trevor Nunn-directed production in the West End.”

Michael will produce the show, which will be directed by Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood.

“Craig and I had been talking for some time about doing something together,” continues Michael, 29. “He did a lot of the things at the Watermill in Newbury – Hot Mikado, Spend, Spend, Spend, Sunset Boulevard and won awards.

“I said it would be great to do something with him. Everything he did at the Watermill was done in the actor-musician style. It was always done with 12 people.

“I had spoken to Tim Rice about looking at Chess again. He said he didn’t want to look at Chess again if he was ‘just going to look at Chess again’ and do a standard production.

“He said it needed reinventing, a new twist. I thought Craig’s the man, and the two things came together.

“I said to Craig to think about the shows he does with 12 people, all playing the instruments, all playing the characters. What would happen if those 12 people suddenly became 25 to 30 people on stage, where you had the sound of a 25-piece orchestra coming from the company?

“Tim got very excited about that. He said this is the way I want to do this and have a go at re-looking at the whole thing.

“So he called Benny and Bjorn. They have had so much success with Mamma Mia!, but I don’t think they ever thought there would be a major production in the UK of Chess so soon after the gala concert they did at the Royal Albert Hall.

“I saw that and it was fab and it really got me excited about the whole thing again.

“Benny and Bjorn just went for it, they were so enthusiastic, Tim’s got right behind it, Sarah Travis, who won the Tony for orchestrating Sweeney Todd, is going to do the musical arrangements. It feels very exciting.

“Tim has looked at the book and reworked it to be the version that he wants to be done.

“There have always been comments that the score is fantastic but the book has never worked. This version is going to the version that Tim himself wants to be done and Craig has directed a production of it before – a very successful production in Denmark, which real musical fans regard as one of the greatest recordings there has been of the show.

“The minute I knew we could get something together, I called the Theatre Royal and asked what they were doing in August.

“We will launch in Newcastle followed by a big UK tour going through to 2011, and if everybody likes it and it works, who knows, it could be something that could have a West End life, which would be really exciting.”

Chess involves a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.

It happens in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes.

A highly successful concept album of Chess was released in 1984. One Night In Bangkok became a global smash for Murray Head, while I Know Him So Well gave Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson 1985’s second biggest selling single in the UK.

“It is a great score. They all have to be spot-on singers. It doesn’t matter who you have got in it, it just needs to be fabulous. On the night they need to be able to deliver and sing those songs. This isn’t a cut-down version, it’s a brand new interpretation.”

Rehearsals start July 19, with the premiere on August 27, followed by a two-week run. Tickets go on general sale on Saturday.