Previous Shows:
Chess The Musical

Romantic and political rivalries are set against a cold-war background in a story as intricate as the game of Chess itself. The ill-mannered, arrogant American Champion thinks only of himself, whilst his Hungarian- born female second falls in love with his Russian opponent, resulting in a defection to the west. Tim Rice's intelligent lyrics combine with classical and rock scores by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus (of ABBA fame) to tell the story of players, politicians, lovers and spies competing on and off the chess board in this fascinating story with gutsy songs such as "One Night in Bangkok", "Heaven Help my Heart", "Anthem" and the favourite "I Know Him So Well".

Rolling Stock Theatre Company's new production presents an intimate and original view of this much loved musical.

The Rolling Stock Version

As a musical, Chess is probably unique in having no 'definitive' version. Every production to date has sought to re-evaluate and reshape the story in search of a new or varied interpretation.

As Tim Rice says in the introduction to the script of the London stage version: "There have been so many alterations to the structure of Chess during its turbulent history that we are reluctant to present any variation of the work to the public as the definitive one". He goes on to exhort those thinking of mounting a production to "not be afraid of making cuts or of changing the order of some of the songs and scenes".

Rolling Stock Theatre Company have taken this advice to heart and present a new and unique interpretation of the show; a version which sits somewhere between the 1984 concept album and the original London stage version. Remaining true to the concept album was of great importance; it is, after all, the most popular and familiar of all incarnations of the show. The last words on the subject belong to Tim Rice in the London stage version script: "first thoughts are often best and in many respects I wish we had never changed a note of it!".