Oxford Playhouse, Mon November 24th - Sat November 29th 2008

At these prices, entrusting a show to such an inexperienced director was a mistake. Dave Crewe is capable of satisfactory peformances..but this wasn't one of them. Why didn't the MD transpose his songs?

Oxford Operatic is a good company: they are prepared to take risks, unlike many others. However, they need a much more experienced director and musical director to pull off shows like this.

James Weston 3 Dec 2008

As a huge fan of Chess, and having seen a very polished touring production that went to Bradford and Manchester some years ago, I was looking forward to this producton. Clearly I was not expecting a show on that scale, as there wouldn't be a revolving and hydraulically-operated chessboard (static floor design in the Playhouse), life-sized chess pieces and dancers performing the history of chess and the moves of the games themselves (nothing to note in the Playhouse).

However, as several people have already mentioned, the actor playing the American role was simply dreadful vocally. I couldn't work out if he had been suffering from a cold that had affected his range or that he was simply singing way out of his upper range. If it was the latter, than this was unexcusable. It is a large role with a lot of stage time and some huge numbers - the musical director should have transposed the songs down several tones, or had a different singer. Many of the upper notes were just spoken (fine for One Night in Bangkok, of course) or, at worst, sung in a croaky rasp that was way off. I really worried for Pity the Child, which has a lot of upper notes.

The chorus did their best, but were often insufficiently miked, so you never got the full sound that you should have done. Staging, as others have said, was often unintentionally funny - the ribbon twirling, the big candles, the capes, the Bangkok dancing - and as much as you didn't want to laugh there were several titters in the audience.

So, a brave attempt, and good to have a show on again that deserves to be seen, just more adventurous group choreography and a better American lead would have made this an excellent amateur production.

London fan 2 Dec 2008

I am a Musical Director who came to watch Chess on Saturday evening together with my partner who is a Director. We will be both producing Chess in the near future and travelled down to support the company and look at the performance from a professional stand point. I don't particularly want to comment on the production other than to say I thought that, overall, the performance reached a high standard and let us not forget how difficult Chess is to produce. Well done!

I went online before the Saturday evening performance to get details about the Oxford Playhouse and came across this page of reviews. Although some comments were encouraging some, I thought, were downright rude. Let us not forget that these performers work really hard to entertain us, their audience, and to add our armchair criticism in the middle of a run for all to read is, I think, quite unacceptable. I will certainly try to visit Oxford Operatic again and look forward to paying £22 to see Captain Pugwash (see the comment below) have a go at entertaining the audience.

A Supporter 1 Dec 2008

I travelled a long way to see Chess and was bitterly disappointed. Its all very well to say well they are an amateur group and gave it a good try but when you are being charged professional prices you expect something near good performances.

The directing of the piece was badly thought through and the sense of what can only be described as a complex plot was totally lost. Why on earth Svetlana sang Someone Else's Story was beyond me. As for the ribbon dancers, flame dancers and podium dancers....just comical, as a number of other unknown audience members agreed. Stick with Rodgers and Hammerstein. Easier vocally and you can get away with standing in a straight line!! No one wants to hear singers straining and watch Acorn Antique style acting...

Disgruntled 1 Dec 2008

Right I am going to be impartial so no bleating on about hurting peoples' feelings when I give an honest opinion.

OK, as a directorial debut goes excellent,some flashes of inspiration for a first timer with some good set scenes which made me forget they're amateurs.

Some excellent performances too, including David Staines, powerful voice and wonderful stage presence, A delightful turn by Andy Blagrove, snazzy Jazz hands and apart from Mr Staines the only one I could understand (please fix his mike - went quiet at one point. I still heard him though). Catherine Evans was wonderful and so was was Rob Bertwistle with his hypnotic moustache.

Now the bad news, Firstly if you realise that one of the lead males can't hold a tune either give him a bag or give it to someone else: it made his otherwise competent performance a little weaker I am afraid. I can say this because I paid £22 to watch the bleedin' thing!!

Secondly the extras would more often than not bring the show into the realms of comedy genius - either play to that or hide some of them with the scenery. Finally and I am being hugely pedantic, "Top Gun" released several years after 1983 I am afraid so Maverick was well ahead of his game.

Captain Pugwash 27 Nov 2008

I have seen around a dozen productions of this show, professional and amateur, over the years, and must say that last night's performance was as good as any I can remember.

It was boldly directed and cleverly choreographed, and the lighting was also very good.

Dave Crewe as Freddie, I found quite excellent. A devlishly difficult part vocally, but Mr Crewe came very close to nailing it, and acted it wonderfully - whether swaggering through the early scenes or breaking down in 'Pity the Child'.

Catharine Evans was outstanding, bringing out the strength and the fragility of her character beautifully. She has a voice that is very easy on the ear, and her heartbreak (and tears) at the end of the piece were totally believable.

Libby Holcroft, and all of the male principals shone in their 'moments'. Ms Holcroft's 'Someone Else's Story' was beautifully played and David Staines was, as has been said elsewhere, remarkable. Not just a terrific voice, but a measured and very natural actor. His 'Endgame' was mesmerising, and 'Anthem', as definitive a version of this great song as I can recall. This was helped by Edward Blagrove's imaginative and evocative staging of the song, which brought a lump to the throat, and matched the soaring vocal perfectly.

The plot is sometimes disjointed, but even Tim Rice will tell you this show is still a work in progress. The sound balance too made some lyrics difficult to catch, but that is not to criticise the excellent band, led by Edward Longhurst.

I'd thoroughly recommend this as an enjoyable evening and a chance to catch some splendid performances.

Gottlieb 27 Nov 2008

Astonishing!

That was the comment from of my guest for the evening, whom I had dragged to see yet another Am Dram show! However they were glad I did. I have been involved in amatuer theatre in Oxfordshire for around 30 years and I have never seen such a bold, powerful and cleverly devised piece of theatre. I have seen Chess performed in Abingdon and Newbury before Oxford Operatics' take and this is the clear front runner.

I remember it being close to 3 hours long before and the extensive cuts were a master stroke, also the reimagining (as the Director, a very talented young man with bags of vision and flair) of the beginning and end tied the show up a treat!

Dave Crewe joins the list of other brave souls to take on the 'American' and while I conceed it does not sit comfortably in his range he does an admirable job, despite the narrow and overly harsh crits on this page.

David Staines and Catherine Eans are indeed marvellous as is the Arbiter (played by Andy Blagrove) and Walter (Jeremy Dwight) and Molokov (Rob Bertwistle) with a wonderful cameo from James Stidds as Florences Father (I have seen Studds perform before and it was a treat to see him again). Some great routines, toungue in cheek humour and lighting that blows you away - this is amatuer theatre Jim, but not as we know it!!

Thomas Rendwick 26 Nov 2008

Sirs, I think Paul Robinson and I must have been at different shows! I was certainly at the one which was greeted by huge applause and greatly acclaimed by the 30-40 people I knew in the large first night audience. I find it sad that after only two performances out of six, an amateur society has to face such a critique which apparently found only one performance to praise roundly.

On the carrot and stick approach, there is a marked shortage of carrots. It will be difficult for this talented cast to raise themselves further for a wary audience. Mr Robinson feels that OOS could not imitate the professional London show,which he has never seen. That is intriguing. I urge everyone to go and enjoy themselves. These are gifted amateurs with day jobs and you will leave the theatre smiling and humming the tunes.

Weston fan club 26 Nov 2008

My party thought Dave Crewe acted the role extremely well with the swagger that the role requires. It is true that the music was much too high for his vocal range at times but in our opinion the musical director should have dropped this by a couple of tones. 

Secondly it is unfortunate that more praise for the direction of a new young director was not forthcoming. It is impossible in an amateur society to ration the number of people who wish to take part and crowd scenes thus may be congested. We thought the direction contained some inspired touches. To conclude we felt that this very difficult show and very testing music was accomplished admirably with many marvellous performances.

Weston fan club 26 Nov 2008

There are many successes in this production, especially the wonderful voice of David Staines who plays the Russian grandmaster Anatoly. However, our enjoyment was dampened from the start by a very poor performance by Dave Crewe - as the American grandmaster, he takes part in most of the songs but he had real problems hitting any of the higher notes - often embarrassingly so.

I have never seen the original London production but caught glimpses of why this musical was so acclaimed. Unfortunately the Oxford Operatic Society couldn't quite imitate it on the night and the combination of a poor leading character and some supporting actors clearly not knowing their lines left this production a bit of a disappointment.

Paul Robinson 26 Nov 2008

Chess - the Musical was originally written and performed for £12m, a budget that Oxford Operatic Society admits is a little outside its reach! This version attempts, so it says, to get closer to the real people and situations. But is it a good show? Well, there was a suitably impressive sized cast, a wonderful orchestra and some rousing performances. The stand out for me would have to be David Staines playing Anatoly, the Russian grandmaster. His voice was tremendous, hitting the high notes with ease and commanding the stage whenever he sang, raising the roof with the soaring music. He performed the climax at the end of both acts, with his ‘Anthem’ sung to a background of a slow-motion press mob and his performance at the centre of the entire company during ‘Endgame’, where he stole the show.

He was accompanied by the extremely talented Catherine Evans, playing Florence, who gave a fierce and emotional performance. Her best scene was in the nightclub as she contemplated leaving the American grandmaster Frederick, got drunk and danced lasciviously with a muscled male dancer. It was a shame she was never stretched to these heights again as most of the rest of her solo or duet performances left her performing stationary love or lament songs. These were solid songs and well performed but I would have liked to see her let loose a bit more. It was a shame Edward Blagrove as the director didn’t give the stars much to do other than stand and sing. I was impressed also with Libby Holcroft who made an excellent impression despite far less stage-time than the other stars. The one star who I would criticise was the American himself, played by Dave Crewe. This was a shame as he had the most stage time next to Anatoly. I got the impression that he was capable of far better but on the night he was unable to make it. Perhaps this was due to the American accent he was attempting, which caused him to struggle throughout every song.

The show wasn’t just about the stars though. Chess still retained much of the big set pieces from the original West End hit. I was greatly impressed with some, showing a good choreography and direction, especially the opening of the second act, in a Bangkok street scene which was impressively busy. The music wasn’t quite as memorable as some other scenes though, such as the Delegates who performed two very good pieces, the first one a battle of negotiations as they sang ‘US vs USSR’, two groups of stamping, forceful men trying to bully their point across with sharp suits and phones. The Russian Delegates returned for the second act with ‘Soviet Machine’, an extremely well put together piece that was solid, busy and creative. My favourite scene though has to be the ‘Embassy Lament’, a hilarious take on British bureaucracy, the civil servants unimpressed with the CIA badge thrust before them, singing their disapproval and performing a maypole dance around their visitors with red tape. Brilliant idea!

There was a problem with some of the larger crowd scenes however, the director loading the stage with performers who had a discordant mix of talent. This unfortunately opened the show with an Italian town crowd scene consisting largely of lines of singers facing the audience. This was unoriginal and this and other celebration style scenes sometimes appeared too large for the director to control. At one point two groups of cheerleaders whooped their way onto stage and fumbled their way through a pyramid before whooping and yipping off again. This was irritating and detracted from the quite imaginative and powerful scenes elsewhere.

On the whole, I enjoyed the performance and considered it, despite its faults, a success. Each separate scene was performed well, there were some quite excellent moments, there were some very good songs and some extraordinarily powerful performances by David Staines and Catherine Evans. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it for anyone who enjoys musicals.

Michael Hawkes 25 Nov 2008

ABBA fans will be delighted by the rare opportunity to see Chess performed this week on the Oxford Playhouse stage, by the nationally recognised Oxford Operatic Society.

The Benny Anderson, Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus musical Chess is a difficult piece to pull off successfully, combining bizarre music and theatricality in an ABBA esque Lycra clad format based on the slow drama of the 1970’s Cold War Chess matches of the American Bobby Fischer and the Russian Anatoly Karpov.

It is a credit to this Oxford Society that from a somewhat discordant and unfinished score they have produced a musical that has within it some delightfully moving and beautiful songs combined with outstanding choreography, particularly when least expected. The daft and slightly camp Embassy Civil Servants are worth the price of a ticket alone. As a group they ought to go on tour.

The outcome of the winning game between the well hung American and the dry uptight Russian defender will only be revealed to those who go and see this highly amusing and enterprising musical spectacular. A good distraction from the Winter blues.

Preview, from Jet Black 24 Nov 2008

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