While driving to rehearsal one day I was listening to Seth Rudetsky and he mentioned how the musical Chess could be adapted into a movie if there is a stronger script and then segued into a song from Chess… but it got me thinking if Chess could actually be adapted for film? Particularly with the (arguable) success of Les Miserables.
So I decided just for the hell of it to listen to the Chess in Concert at Royal Albert Hall featuring the vocal talents of Josh Groban, Adam Pascal, Idina Menzel and Kerry Ellis.
If there were ever a song that really drove the point of this musical home it would be “The Deal (No Deal)”
Paying close attention to the lyrics you can’t help but notice how every character within the piece is their own version of chess for whatever their own reasons are.
Chess the musical wasn’t just about the chess game, but the game of life and how everyone was trying to manipulate everyone else to get what they want in the end… from front to end everything was a chess game.
Perhaps none so much as the life surrounding that of “Florence Vassy” as represented by Idina Menzel… whether it is her love, her life, her past, or her future… she is the who is being picked at and pulled into all sorts of directions for everyone else’s game.
“Anatoly Sergievsky” as voiced by Josh Groban is another who was picked and pulled apart (perhaps far before the events of Chess) and eventually conceded defeat in the face of insurmountable odds.
Whileas “Frederick Trumper” (Adam Pascal) who tried to manipulate the world around him for his own means only to find himself being manipulated by others for some other plans.
In fact we could say that the above three were the three major pawns in the game of Chess, each trying to reach to the other side of their lives only to find themselves slain in the middle of the board.
But what is the bigger game at stake outside of the chess board? The media / press? The swapping of prisoners between USSR and the US? Perhaps all of the above.
One thing is for certain, if I intend to use this as my next writing practice project… there is a lot that has to be thought through in regards to each of the main characters and how their individual lives were manipulated by everyone around them… and perhaps that is the true meaning of Chess…