Chess - The Making of the Musical (gnv64).pdf

CHESS T H E MAKING OFTHE MUSICAL

WILLIAM H A R T S T O N

I N T R O D U C T I O N BY TIM R I C E

CHESS T H E

M A K I N G

OF

W I L L I A M I

N

T

R

O

D

U

C

T

I

A

M U S I C A L

H A R T S T O N O

N

B Y

PAVILION MICHAEL JOSEPH

T I M

R I C E

First published in Great Britain in 1986 by Pavilion Books Limited 196 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JL in association with Michael Joseph Limited 27 Wrights Lane, Kensington, London W 8 5TZ Text (C) William Hartston 1986 Introduction ((' Tim Rice 1986 Lyrics ((') 3 Knights Ltd - Union Songs 1984, 85, 86 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Rice, Tim Chess: the making of a musical. I. Musical revue, comedy, etc. Writing and publishing I. Title II. Hartston, William R. 782.81028 MT67 ISBNT 1-85 145-006-8 Designed by Peter Bridgewater and Lawrence Edwards Filmset by BAS Printers Limited, Over Wallop, Hampshire Printed and bound in U.K. by W. S. Cowell Ltd, 8 Butter Market, Ipswich

Introduction by Tim Rice A C T

O N E

T H E

O P E N I N G

1 The Chessmen 2 The Rice Gambit

10 13

3 The Swedish Variation 4 The English O p e n i n g

16 19

ACT TWO 5 6 7 8

• THE

MIDDLEGAME

Strategic Plans Positional Play Combinations Exchanging Pieces

22 26 29 32

9 Time-Trouble ACT 10 11 12 13

THREE

35 • THE

E N D G A M E

Sacrifices Endgame Technique The Final Attack Checkmate

CHESS • THE S O N G S

38 41 44 47

50

The following illustrations are reproduced b y kind permission of: Chapter 1 p. 11 Top right Popperfoto, p. 11 Top left Popperfoto, p. 11 Centre left Popperfoto, p. 11 Centre right Chester Fox (Camera Press), p. 11 Bottom right Chester Fox (Camera Press), Chapter 2 p. 14 Bottom centre Syndication International, p. 14 Bottom left Michael le Poer Trench, p. 14 T o p Zoe Dominic, p. 14 Bottom right Dewynters, p. 14 Far right Dewynters, Chapter 3 p. 17 Centre left Michael le Poer Trench, p. 17 Anders Hanser (Polar Music), Chapter 4 p. 20 Centre left Alan Davidson (Alpha), p. 20 Anders Hanser, Chapter 5 p. 23 Top right Blair Seitz (Camera Press), p. 23 Bottom left Chester Fox (Camera Press), p. 24 Centre left Syndication International, p. 24 Top Associated Press Ltd, p. 23 Centre Left Associated Press Ltd, Chapter 6 p. 27 Stillrook Photography, Chapter 7 p. 30 Bottom left Associated Press Ltd, p. 30 T o p left John Haynes, p. 30 Top right John Haynes, p. 30 Centre right David Crosswaite, p. 30 Bottom right David Crosswaite, p. 30 Michael le Poer Trench, Chapter 8 p. 33 T o p left John Haynes, p. 33 Centre right John Haynes, p. 33 Bottom right John Haynes, Chapter 9 p. 36 David Crosswaite, Chapter 1 0 p. 39 T o p left John Haynes, p. 30 Bottom left and right David Redfem, Chapter 1 1 p. 42 John Haynes, Chapter 12 p. 45 Bottom left M o n i t o r Press Features, Chapter 1 3 p. 49 T o p Alan Davidson (Alpha), p. 49 Rex Features Ltd. Chess: The Songs Photographs by Suzi Gibbons (C) David Redfern The following pictures in The Songs section were reproduced by kind permission of John Haynes: p. 52, p. 53 (bottom), p. 54, p. 55 (top), p. 58, p. 59, p. 60 (middle, bottom), p. 61, p. 62, p. 63 (bottom), p. 64, p. 65 (left), p. 66, p. 72 (top left and right), p. 78, p. 79, p. 81, p. 82 (top), p. 83 (top), p. 86, p. 87, p. 91 Endpiece Photo David M o n t g o m e r y / S u n d a y Times Magazine Additional photographs supplied courtesy of 3 Knights Ltd Pencil drawings in Chapters 1 - 1 3 by Chris Smedley

6

My work on C H E S S has been going on for the best part of ten years to date, and I am still at it. It has been the dominating element of my work for the past four. I used to think that the longer one is in the musical game, the easier and speedier the writing and production of shows would become, but, alas, this is not the case. The process by which my earliest efforts such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar reached record and stage now seem effortless and uncomplicated compared to the sometimes tortuous route taken by C H E S S to reach similar destinations. But in the end we finally made it and Bill Hartston's entertaining account of some of the trials and tribulations reveals as much as w e can without too much blood-letting. The important thing is that in the end we succeeded in producing a major hit musical, At the time of writing it is a red-hot ticket and looking set to remain that way for a long time to come. There were moments during the run-up to the show when I was by no means convinced that this would be the case, and I find it extraordinary how many people unconnected with the project, now that it is doing so well, are saying (in some cases, criticising us for it!) that it was an inevitable hit from the word go. There is no such animal, and those who accuse writers of hits of manufacturing them to order are, as I believe a popular saying goes, out of their tree. Anyone who reads Bill's story herein will soon discover that no success can ever be guaranteed. The principal pleasures of C H E S S as far as I am concerned have been the people 1 have worked with. Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson would have needed to have done nothing more than their amazing work with ABB A from 1973 to 1982 to have left a most substantial mark on the history of popular music - they have now added the great achievement of the score of a hit musical to their list of credits. They show no signs whatsoever of losing their great gift for sophisticated yet accessible music that touches many generations and nearly all nationalities. O n top of this they are delightful, relaxed gentlemen to create with. I hope C H E S S will not be our only collaboration. I believe that the constant realisation that I was working with such distinguished composers (and Bjorn is also no mean English lyricist in what is still - just - his second language) acted as a great spur to me to come up with the very best lyrics I could muster. From time to time I had enormous help such as Bjorn's 'nonsence' lyrics for a chorus of One Night In Bangkok which were so strong that I had only to make minor alterations to produce a gripping lyrical hook for what turned out to be the biggest world-wide hit single I have enjoyed to date. Having had a few near-misses attempting to work with Trevor Nunn over the past few years, it is a joy to report that at long last we became part of the same team with C H E S S . This collaboration (which I believe Trevor was as keen to achieve as I was) nearly failed to happen this time around as well, but for once the gods relented and we got the chance to co-exist in the same pressure-cooker. I will forever be grateful to Trevor for taking control of a directorless show just three months before a sold-out opening - his achievement in bringing together the many and vast elements of the production in such a short time, shaping them in his own style into a copper-bottomed smash is perhaps an even greater one than are his many directional strokes of genius that distinguish the final production. Then of course there are the singers and actors who have made such a great contribution, the enthusiastic supporters from the world of real chess (Ray Keene and Bill Hartston himself in particular), the army of workers, on stage, off stage and backstage. (Whatever the odd geriatric critic may think of big contemporary musicals, he cannot deny that they do their bit for the unemployment problem). This is not meant to be a thank you note, but I do thank them all. Thanks to their efforts, I am almost thinking about writing another musical some day, I hope this book does not discourage others from having a go too!

TIM RICE London, July 1986

7

SECTION

ONE

MAKING THE M U S I C A L

C H A P T

THE CHESSMEN iiIt is only natural that men gifted, with intellectual abilities will favour a mental pastime that exercises the highest qualities of mind. )) WILHELM STEINITZ, BORN 1836 First Official World C h a m p i o n 1886-94 Certified insane 1899 Died 1900

IN 1962 THE EYES OF THE WORLD were on the island of Cuba, w h e r e President K e n n e d y and Premier Khrushchev w e r e eyeball t o eyeball over a little conflict a b o u t nuclear missiles. T h e g e r m of an idea for a musical about East-West c o n f r o n t a t i o n w a s s o w n in the mind of lyricist Tim Rice. There w e r e just a few problems in finding a w a y t o stage a plot in which the major characters n e v e r meet.

RIGHT Khrushchev how to thump

shows

a

FAR RIGHT Kennedy nation

Gromyko

table. addressing

the

Cuban

missile

after the 1962

In 1972 the eyes of the w o r l d had shifted their gaze t o w a r d s Iceland, w h e r e B o b b y Fischer and Boris Spassky were eyeball to eyeball o v e r a little conflict about chess pieces. It w a s the US versus USSR all over again, and Tim Rice k n e w it w o u l d make a g o o d idea for a musical. W i t h m a n y other projects d e m a n d i n g his attention, h o w e v e r , it was another eight years before Tim had completed a plot outline and was ready to think a b o u t looking for s o m e o n e t o write the music. So the story really begins in a hotel in Adelaide in 1980 w h e r e Tim Rice first s u g g e s t e d the idea of a chess musical to A n d r e w Lloyd W e b b e r . T h e pair were t o g e t h e r for the Australian launch of Evita, but A n d r e w was t o o deeply involved in Cats (directed b y T r e v o r N u n n ) to resume the old partnership, so the search b e g a n for a n e w collaborator to c o m p o s e the music for the p r o p o s e d show.

BELOW Two

beards and a hat

keep the writers Lenin's

tomb

warm

in

in front

help of

Moscow.

O v e r the next year, Tim Rice broached the topic of C H E S S with several composers, but the project remained firmly stuck to the d r a w i n g board until the end of 1981. T h e next m o v e in the g a m e was played b y N e w York theatre producer Richard Vos, w h o p r o v i d e d the introduction which w a s to lead to the w h o l e project finally taking off. A t first, I didn't k n o w w h a t he was talking about,' Tim Rice explains, ' w h e n he asked m e if I'd heard of Arbour. I t h o u g h t it must be some sort of tree. But w h e n he m e n t i o n e d ' W a t e r l o o ' and 'Dancing Q u e e n ' it all became clear.' W h e t h e r y o u p r o n o u n c e t h e m with a long or short A, it was intriguing n e w s that A B B A were interested in c o m p o s i n g a musical. Richard Vos, then Director of Creative Affairs for the N e d e r lander Organisation, had heard of their desire to write for the stage, but the idea of coupling A B B A with Rice w a s an inspiration he later described as 'Minerva flying out of the heavens'. O n her return flight, M i n e r v a had c o m p a n y , because Tim Rice for once lost n o time in setting off t o S t o c k h o l m t o meet his potential collaborators. Several plates of s m o r g a s b o r d and dried herring later, the n e w partnership was forged. A t this stage, C H E S S w a s only o n e of m a n y potential subjects for a musical on which Tim Rice

10

ABOVE RIGHT The other confrontation Reykjavik

- Spassky in

1972.

East-West and

Fischer

RIGHT An arbiter

takes details

position as the game five hours'

play.

of the

is adjourned

after

wanted to work, but it was the idea which most appealed to Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Logically explain ing the fascination of this theme Tim says, 'Chess is w o n d e r f u l because it's politics written small.' For Bjorn and Benny, the attraction ^ was more straightforward: 'It was really weird.' In N o v e m b e r 1982, w h e n ABBA came over to England to p r o m o t e * their Greatest Hits album, the deal