CHESS remains one of the most unique musicals ever produced... with an unforgettable score by Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, and lyrics by Tim Rice(in this version, it's redundant as it's performed in Swedish, with NO subtitles), what's fascinating is that this show never seems to be performed in a standard version. From London to New York to European tours, the score and characters and plot are constantly shuffled around. This staging is definitely one of the better framings of the story and score. The cast retains Tommy Korberg, who's played Anatoly(The Russian)forever...Helen Sjoholm as Florence is absolutely brilliant as a singer and actress, and Anders Ekborg does fine as The American. The only totally offensive performer is Rolf Skoglund as The Arbiter, who can neither sing nor act- and destroys an important role. The only other problem for me was the age of the two male leads... somehow, the romance aspects of the story come off as less passionate as they might have been by younger performers. Lars Rudolfsson should be commended for his amazing staging, and Anders Eljas did a wonderful job on the orchestrations. It's doubtful we'll ever see a film version of this unforgettable musical, so this Swedish stage production will have to do... but again, at least there IS something to represent this show. The one OTHER option you have to to find a copy of the promotional videos done for the original concept album(for info on IMDb check under CHESS MOVES...to find one of these out-of-print videos, check eBay), starring Elaine Paige- five of the shows' hit songs are featured, and convey the basic flavor of the show.
