Director: Jonathan Burgess
Starring: Conor O’Kane, David Mulhern, Elizabeth Lane, Rachel Harkin
Essentially “Romeo and Juliet” over a Cold War Chessboard, the musical “Chess” was given a vibrant, always interesting and sometimes quite powerful turn from the Millennium Forum Youth Theatre Group.
The lighting, choreography and set design were all excellent, especially during the upbeat “One Night In Bangkok” sequence and during the chess matches themselves. I especially liked the use of a life size chessboard – a la the first “Harry Potter” film – to depict the movements of both the American and Russian chess challengers to the audience.
The undisputed star of the show was Elizabeth Lane, from Portrush. She took a little bit of time to find her footing, but from the moment she belted out “Nobody’s Side”, she grabbed the show by the scruff of the neck and didn’t let go until the final curtain went down.
Her breakdown near the end was entirely believable. Whenever her character, Florence, wasn’t on stage, the show found itself missing that extra bit of power. It was just unfortunate that she and Conor O’Kane, who played her Russian lover Anatoly, never really clicked on stage.
Truthfully, the female leads definitely upstaged the male ones. Both O’Kane and David Mulhern, who played the American challenger, were solid, although neither O’Kane’s rendition of the magnificent “Anthem” nor Mulhern’s fine leading of “One Night In Bangkok” could quite compare to Lane’s best moments or the entrance of Rachel Harkin, who played Anatoly’s wife Svetlana, in Act Two. Harkin’s rendition of “Someone Else’s Story” was really something to behold, as was Harkin and Lane’s duet, the classic “I Know Him So Well”.
The talent of the four leads, the determined chorus and the fine production values transcended the rather limited source material. As a musical, “Chess” does have its fair share of memorable and iconic numbers, but it suffers from both an uncertain tone and a comparably uncompelling narrative.
It lives and dies by its music, which unfortunately tends to fluctuate between inconsistent ABBA-esque rock and poignant ballads. Indeed, if this production of “Chess” was a film, it’d be “Jurassic Park” – mostly excellent in execution, always watchable, but let down by lacklustre source material.
Nevertheless, the industriousness of the cast, crew and orchestra, and the goodwill of the relatively packed Forum audience, helped to carry this through the rough spots. In the end, this production of “Chess” succeeded both by being quite enjoyable and by opening our eyes to yet more of the developing musical talent of the North West.
Congrats Lizzie and Conor!
I personally found that the chemistry between ‘Anatoly’ and ‘Florence’ was exceptional and very believable and I think that it took the show to another level, as did O’Kane’s performance of ‘Anthem’ – incredible to say the least; I am in no doubt that he will do extremely well at drama school over the next few years! An excellent show, well done to all involved!