Licensing Company: Concord Theatricals
Chess (London Stage Version)
At the height of the Cold War, two chess masters meet in Bangkok to battle for the world championship, but their greatest contest is for the love of one woman. In this groundbreaking rock musical, the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super-power politics, and international intrigue. From Bangkok to Budapest, the players, lovers, politicians and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental score that includes “One Night in Bangkok” and “Heaven Help My Heart.”
Chess (London Stage Version)
PROGRAMMED INSTRUMENTS
Keyboard 1
Keyboard 2
Keyboard 3
$275.00
At the height of the Cold War, two chess masters meet in Bangkok to battle for the world championship, but their greatest contest is for the love of one woman. In this groundbreaking rock musical, the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super-power politics, and international intrigue. From Bangkok to Budapest, the players, lovers, politicians and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental score that includes “One Night in Bangkok” and “Heaven Help My Heart.”
PROGRAMMING NOTES
This licensed version of Chess is based upon the Original West End Production (1986-89) which expanded the storyline of the concept album, adding considerable new recitative. The London Stage Version is different than the available US version and the 2017 UK version licensed by MTI so double check your orchestration to ensure you are ordering the correct programming for your production. KeyboardTEK offers the programming for all available orchestrations and we cannot offer a refund or exchange if you order the wrong one.
There are 3 separate keyboard chairs in this show, all of them integral to the sound of the show. Concord does require that the keyboard programming be purchased in order to obtain a performance license for this show. The materials provided are typeset and have been cleaned up tremendously from the original handwritten books.
Keyboard 1 is the main piano book but it also contains many of the iconic 80’s synth sounds from the score (leads, pads, and bells) as well as orchestral padding with strings, harp, celeste, and brass just to name a few. And of course who can forget the ever popular “Spiro” patch? Although this book is not as difficult as many other Keyboard 1 books in the musical theater canon, it will require an advanced player who can navigate the various patches as well as the many keys and time signatures.
Keyboard 2 is more of the “String” padding book and it includes a few more synth elements to augment Keyboard 1 and 3. Some of the orchestral sounds include strings, woodwinds, guitar, xylo, harp, and percussion. The synth elements are unique and important as well and include patches such as ‘Spiro”, “Finessel”, and “Torim”.
Keyboard 3 is primarily a synth book that includes many elements from the 80’s synthesizers that were used in the original production. These patches include synth brass, bells and pads, synth marimba, glass strings, synth guitar, and bass, and the ever present Spiro polysynth just to name a few. There is even some B3 Organ and plenty of harp moments as well.
ORIGINAL MUSICAL EQUIPMENT USED
Yamaha DX7
Roland Juno 106
KEYBOARD PROGRAMMER
Keyboard Programming: Ethan Deppe
ORIGINAL MUSIC TEAM
Music by: Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus
Lyrics by: Tim Rice
Based on an idea by: Tim Rice
Musical Director: John Owen Edwards
Assistant Musical Director: Roger Ward
Music orchestrated by: Anders Eljas
ORIGINAL 1986 WEST END ORCHESTRA
Conductor: John Owen Edwards
Keyboards: Peter Adams, Bill Worrall, Roger Ward
Violins: Brian Brookes, Margaret Faultless, Alex Gascoigne, Daven Randell, Peter Dale, Caroline Balding
Celli: Frank Schaefer, Tamsy Kaner
Flutes: Richard Blake, John Wheelan
Oboe: Chris O’Neal
Clarinets: Lee Stephenson, Chris Craker
Bassoon: Bob Porter
Trumpets: John Thirkell, Simon Gardiner, Ian Bennett
French Horn: Peter Francom
Trombone: Peter Beachill
Bass Trombone: Brian Lynn
Guitar: Mitch Dalton
Bass: Steve Pearce
Percussion: Joy Powdrill
Drums: Graham Ward
SHOW DESCRIPTION
The collaborators on Chess are giants of rock music and rock musicals, and here they have created a complex rock opera that played to full Broadway houses and standing ovations. In this musical, the ancient game becomes a metaphor for romantic rivalries, competitive gamesmanship, super-power politics, and international intrigue. The pawns in this drama form a love triangle: the loutish American chess star, the earnest Russian champion, and a Hungarian American female assistant who arrives at the international chess match in Bangkok with the American, but falls for the Russian. From Bangkok to Budapest the players, lovers, politicians and spies manipulate and are manipulated to the pulse of a monumental rock score that includes “One Night in Bangkok” and “Heaven Help My Heart.”