By the late 1970s, Rice had become inspired to tell his Cold War story through the prism of the long-standing United States-Soviet Union chess rivalry; he had earlier been fascinated by the political machinations of the 1972 "Match of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky.
The music on the album was described by The New York Times as "a sumptuously recorded... grandiose pastiche that touches half a dozen bases, from Gilbert and Sullivan to late Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Italian opera to trendy synthesizer-based pop, all of it lavishly arranged for the London Symphony Orchestra with splashy electronic embellishments".
On 27 October 1984, a concert version of the album was premiered by the original cast in London's Barbican Centre and then performed in Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Paris with final presentation on 1 November in Berwaldhallen in Stockholm.
[citation needed] In 1985, music videos were filmed for the songs "One Night in Bangkok", "Nobody's Side", "The Arbiter", and the ballads "I Know Him So Well" and "Pity the Child", featuring the performers from the album, directed by David G Hillier and produced by Nick Maingay.
Barbara Dickson was unable to appear, and Siobhán McCarthy played the part of Svetlana, and the cast also featured Anthony Head, Grainne Renihan, Ria Jones, David Burt and Peter Karrie, during its three-year run.
[citation needed] In addition, Michael Ratcliffe wrote in Observer that the "operetta plot which would have delighted a mature Lehar is dramatised in a buoyant, eclectic and stirring theatre-score" and called Körberg "the indisputable star of the show".
During the increasingly intense match, Freddie suddenly throws the chessboard to the floor and storms out of the arena ("Chess #1"), leaving Florence to negotiate with Anatoly, Molokov, and the Arbiter ("Quartet").
Florence later scolds Freddie, and they fight about the politics of the tournament until he viciously turns the argument toward her missing father, believed captured or killed by Soviet forces during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution ("1956: Budapest is Rising").
[citation needed] Many critics panned the show, most notably Frank Rich of The New York Times, who wrote that "the evening has the theatrical consistency of quicksand" and described it as "a suite of temper tantrums, [where] the characters ... yell at one another to rock music".
William A. Henry III wrote an exceptionally sympathetic review in Time: "Clear narrative drive, Nunn's cinematic staging, three superb leading performances by actors willing to be complex and unlikeable and one of the best rock scores ever produced in the theater.
His sentiments were echoed by William K. Gale in Providence Journal: "A show with a solid, even wonderfully old-fashioned story that still has a bitter-sweet, rough-edged view of the world ... exciting, dynamic theater ... a match of wit and passion."
Anatoly discovers that Molokov is threatening his brother's family to get him to return to Russia and begins to break down, losing a string of matches and leaving the score tied at five games all ("Freddie Goes Metal").
In September of that year, Judy Kuhn, and two principals from the West End production (Körberg and Head), gave concerts of the musical in Skellefteå, Sweden, during the finals of the 1989 chess World Cup tournament.
The production starred Steve Blanchard as the American, Judy McLane as Florence, Keith Rice as the Russian, David Cryer as Molokov, P. J. Benjamin as Walter, John DeLuca as the Arbiter, and Susan Dawn Carson as Svetlana.
The cast included Zubin Varla as Frederick, Emma Kershaw as Florence, Stig Rossen as Anatoly, Simon Clark as Alexander, and James Graeme as Walter, Gunilla Backman as Svetlana, and Michael Cormick as the Arbiter.
[45] A 2002 Swedish-language version, Chess på svenska, with lyrics and book by Björn Ulvaeus, Lars Rudolffson, and Jan Mark, attempted to streamline the story back to its original form and eliminate political aspects.
Cast members included Tommy Körberg, reprising his role as Anatolij, Helen Sjöholm as Florence, Josefin Nilsson as Svetlana, Anders Ekborg as Freddie and Per Myrberg as Alexander.
The cast included Adam Pascal as Frederick, Julia Murney as Florence, Josh Groban as Anatoly, Norm Lewis as Molokov, Jonathan Dokuchitz as Walter, Raúl Esparza as the Arbiter, and Sutton Foster as Svetlana.
The cast included Susan Egan as Svetlana, Kevin Earley as Anatoly, Ty Taylor as Freddie, Cindy Robinson as Florence, Thomas Griffith as Alexander, and Matthew Morrison as the Arbiter.
The cast included Adam Pascal as Frederick, Idina Menzel as Florence, Josh Groban as Anatoly, Kerry Ellis as Svetlana, Marti Pellow as the Arbiter, David Bedella as Molokov, and Clarke Peters as Walter.
The cast included Alberto Putignano/Emanuele Nardoni as Frederick, Irene Vavolo/Alessandra D'Onofrio as Florence, Piercarlo Ballo as Anatoly, Ilaria Bongini/Giulia Gazzeri as Svetlana, Riccardo Andreoni as the Arbiter, Maurizio Capuana as Molokov, and Matteo Gazzeri/Marco Davide Toci as Walter.
[59] The cast featured Martin Crewes as Frederick, Michael Falzon as the Arbiter, Silvie Paladino as Florence, and Simon Gleeson as Anatoly,[60] It was staged at the State Theatre, backed by Orchestra Victoria.
East West Players staged a revival of the UK version of Chess with a multi-cultural cast in 2013 at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Los Angeles, California, directed by Tim Dang.
[73] The cast included Michael Ball as Anatoly, Phillip Browne as Molokov, Alexandra Burke as Svetlana, Cedric Neal as the Arbiter, Tim Howar as Freddie and Cassidy Janson as Florence.
The cast included Raúl Esparza as Freddie, Ramin Karimloo as Anatoly, Karen Olivo as Florence, Ruthie Ann Miles as Svetlana, Bradley Dean as Molokov, Sean Allan Krill as Walter de Courcey, and Bryce Pinkham as the Arbiter.
The ensemble included Megumi Iino, Hiroaki Ito, Takashi Otsuka, Kana Okamoto, Naoki Shibahara, Tatsunori Senna, Kota Someya, Tomohiko Nakai, Nanaka, Ai Ninomiya, Ami Norimatsu, Maaya Harada, Kan Muto, Daisuke Moriyama, Sayaka Watabiki, and Kiyoka Wada.
It starred André Søfteland as Anatolij, Espen Grjotheim as Freddie, Karoline Krüger as Florence, Marion Ravn as Svetlana, Øystein Røger as Molokov, and Elisabeth Andreassen as the Arbiter.
The show starred Samantha Barks as Florence, Hadley Fraser as Anatoly, Joel Harper-Jackson as Freddie, Frances Mayli McCann as Svetlana, Ako Mitchell as the Arbiter, and Craige Els as Molokov.
The cast featured Jessica Vosk as Florence, Jarrod Spector as Freddie, John Riddle as Anatoly, Taylor Louderman as Svetlana, Rodney Hicks as Walter, Tally Sessions as Molokov, and Phillip Johnson Richardson as the Arbiter.
On 10 January 2022, on his podcast "Get Onto My Cloud", Rice stated that in addition to a possible Broadway revival happening soon, he hopes for a film adaptation to follow suit, in part bolstered by the recent success of the chess-focused Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit.