CHESS the musical!

On my random internet travels, I recently discovered that there is - in fact - a chess themed musical. It's sort of a re-telling of the Spassky/Fischer match with a Susan Polgar analog serving as the love interest for both players.. And the American is named (I sht you not) "Trumper".....

This is legitimately one of weirdest chess related things I've ever dug up. Behold the madness!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OutDgLmx-SQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Apparently I'm not capable of embedding video after the year 2010.....my tech skills are now irrelevant!

Your code was good. I just pasted it into their video widget.

Oh...do websites just no longer trust you with HTML? <strong>Dislike</strong>

It was written by Benny and Bjorn from ABBA: I loved the original soundtrack and listened to it heaps. Was super excited when it came out to Australia... except it wasn't until the ending that I realised that THEY'D CHANGED THE ENDING!!! I was absolutely pole axed.

I Know Him So Well is probably the best known song, but my personal favourite is One Night in Bangkok.

This show has so many great songs. Two of my favs are Nobody's Side and Heaven Help My Heart.

Murray Head was in the original cast!? He was Judas in the OBC JC superstar.....I mean....I don't know anything about musicals and I hate them all.

"Chess" the musical, has been around since 1984 and contains some great music, written by the two Bs of ABBA with lyrics and story by Tim Rice, who usually works with Andrew Lloyd Webber. The overall concept was by Rice.

The role of "the American" was patterned after Bobby Fischer, while the role of "the Russian" was patterned after Victor Korchnoi. The role of "the girlfriend" was NOT patterned after Polgar, as Polgar was not prominent at that time. However the girlfriend was supposed to be the daughter of a prominent unnamed chessplayer. And then there was "the wife" of the Russian.

The role of the American was sung by Murray Head, who also sang the role of Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Neither the Russian nor the American were given names, so you ought to check your sources about the name "Trumper" The girlfriend is named Florence, the wife is Svetlana.

The most popular song from the musical is "One Night in Bankok" sung by Head, which received a lot of air time back in the day. "One town's very like another when your head's down over your pieces, brother."

I can't say all this without mentioning the song "Pity the Child", sung by Head and is a heart wrenching portrait of the neglected child and fits Fischer to a "T". It ends with one of the best guitar solos ever.

Chess saw limited success, but is still performed as a musical stage play. I think it suffered from the lack of a defining ending. In the end everybody is miserable and there are no warm fuzzy feelings. Also there is a lot of negativity throughout, spitefulness, that sort of thing, nasty people doing nasty things.

But really good music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88LMCbke6lw

I liked the UK ending: the US version that we got here in Australia makes the completely opposite choice, which also messes with the lyrics of the original final song. 

my favorite rendition

Ok, I stand corrected. Yes, according to Wikepedia the name of the American is Freddie Trumper.
But I will add that I have been an avid fan of this musical since 1984 and until now I never saw any reference to the American having a name.
Also, until now I have seen no reference to a book by Richard Nelson which was mentioned at Wikepedia.
I think the failure of this musical is due to it's lack of definition. Things keep changing, especially the ending. And the promotional videos have a real low budget look to them.
But honestly, my initial feeling towards it (back in 1984 and ever since) was that it was a work in progress; unfinished, and I think that has hindered it's success. And I always felt the song at the end about the history of chess should have been the opener.
But the music is great!  

You're right about Susan Polgar, Wormy. Somehow thought Susan had gotten her GM in the mid 80s, but I turns out it was several years after this musical. It's just one of those weird coincidences that they wrote a Hungarian female Master with a politically active father....and less than ten years later, we have not one but three.

I love how much love there is in this thread. Keep singing along, you wonderful dweebs <3 <3