Cold War-era musical Chess hopes to captivate Moscow audiences Russia

In a week in which Moscow and Washington argue over arms treaties and Europe imposed new sanctions on the Kremlin, Russia has offered yet another fall back into the Cold War: the first production of the Abba and Tim Rice musical “Chess” from the 1980s Years.

The story, inspired by real events, tells of the professional and romantic rivalry between two chess grandmasters, a Soviet and an American. It spawned hits I Know Him So Well and One Night in Bangkok, and performed in the West End and Broadway.

Given the musical’s chorus of evil Soviet ghosts and a hero threatened after leaving the KGB, the show seems unlikely for Moscow audiences.

However, the producers made a number of changes, including the “humanization” of the hero’s KGB handler and the removal of the role of an American spy.

“In our interpretation there are no heroes and no villains,” said Dmitry Bogachev, who produced the show, which opens on Saturday in the Moscow Youth Palace. “All of them are lifelike and complicated. There is much good and bad in all of them. “

He pointed out the role of the head of the Soviet chess delegation, Molokov, who also works for the country’s espionage agency and who annoys his top player’s room. “You probably think he’s the bad guy. But he’s a man who’s just doing his job. “

The new production shows events from the perspective of the Russian player Anatoly Sergievsky, who is loosely based on the chess grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, who fled the Soviet Union in 1976. A scene in Moscow was added with Walter playing the role of Molokov’s American counterpart, Bogachev said that all changes were approved by Tim Rice to prevent the musical from becoming a “story about politics.” The lyricist visited Moscow in February with Abbas Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, who wrote the music.

Bogachev said the goal is not just to adapt the musical for a Russian audience, but to reflect the realities of the new Cold War.

“It seems to me that things were clearer in the 1970s and 80s. There were two systems, there were ideologies, there were socialist and capitalist values. Now the struggle has ceased to be ideological. It’s a geopolitical and economic struggle. And in that sense everything has become much more complicated. There are no two sides as in chess. “

The high-octane high-tech production has earned a standing ovation in the previews, but does not expect full houses: the theater will be limited to 65% capacity as part of Moscow’s coronavirus measures, during which the audience will also have to wear masks subjected to temperature tests on entry.

Chess opened to good reviews in London in 1986, but bombed when it was relocated to New York two years later after major rewriting. Rice – who also wrote the lyrics for Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and The Lion King – once said that chess is “as good as anything” he has ever done, but “maybe it takes too much brain power for the average person to follow it “. .