It’s true to say that ABBA can sometimes play a big part in our house, and although I consider myself a fairly comprehensive fan, there was still one musical part of the fab four’s story that was missing – the ‘80s musical Chess. With music by Benny and Björn, and lyrics by Tim Rice, it’s often lauded with praise as much as the group’s classic happy and tragic songs. So, on Thursday night, we experienced the missing piece of our ABBA jigsaw at the Cliffs Pavillion, perched high above the sea at Westcliff.
Craig Revel-Horwood of Strictly Come Dancing fame has staged the latest version, and we enjoyed his spin on US and Russian relations, set against a backdrop of two chess matches, entwined with strands of love stories, tales of deception, and of course, those unmistakable and ABBA-like songs. Containing classic numbers such as One Night in Bangkok and I Know Him So Well, the stage was cleverly minimal, with just 25 LED squares which made up a small chess board, along with a projection backdrop.
Almost all of the 30 actors played an instrument or sung, too, and it was refreshing to see the musicians actually play incidental characters and become part of the show, rather than being hidden away in either the wings or pit. The songs and music were performed well, the story well-acted, but the volume was too high at certain intervals, bending and merging the music and voices of the principal actors into one not altogether harmonious whole. All in all, very good though, and a good night out at a fraction of London West End prices.
That didn’t mean it was a cheap night, though. Risky, but the Polo provided transport down to the Essex coast, and probably to be expected, let us down on the way home at Rayleigh. The first signs were a whining fan belt and stuttering lights, and we got as far as the Southend Arterial Road, before the interior lights dimmed proper, the car jumped forward and we rolled to a stop in, thankfully, a layby. One call to the RAC and a 45-minute wait later, we were talking technical matters with the orange-vested repair man, who was convinced he could get us going again.
An hour later we were on our way, though not before Nik had bought a more comprehensive RAC membership (mine only covered me for 10 miles away from home). Turned out that the car’s new alternator that had been fitted the week before was faulty, and so we had to be jump-started by the RAC chap every five miles or so. We came to rest twice more; once in a layby on a roundabout, and again at home, an unceremonious push getting the car on the drive. It took us two hours from the repair man arriving to getting home, and we were exhausted. I don’t know about One Night in Bangkok, we almost had one very tiring night in Southend.
[Image: chess-the-musical.co.uk]
