Sorry to say...Casnoff sang Freddie beautifully, but acting wise he's been matched and surpased. Not his fault. He just had a very one dimensional Freddie to work with. Same with Caroll, no depth. Plus every scene in the broadway version is people arguing with eachother, which turned a couple friends of mine off from the show when they saw the last one I was in. Tim Rice has a right to feel utterly ashamed of the broadway production's book and choice of musical material despite the talent involved.

Salome, see the *site-not-mentioned*- clips of Helen from the Original Stockholm DVD. Helen is great in the role even though she had a cold during the filming.

btw, care to elaborate on accents in reference to Helen....I don't get it.

i disagree with you. have you seen it on broadway? yes there were some book flaws..but the acting was amazing. and florence and anatoly's characters on broadway were quite well developed. i do agree that freddy was not fully relaized scriipt wise but then again he never has been..before or since. any attepts made to bring freddy to a closure have been ill concieved or trite.

Dude.

Go to the Billy Rose Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center. Watch the video. Casnoff gave a great performance in a poorly written part. Seriously, you have to see it to get it - he worked every ounce of real feeling out of what was basically an assassination of the character. ("The only time you believe an utterance from a Russian..." makes me cringe every time.)

Who's matched or surpassed him? I mean, I liked Kim Strauss in the David H. Bell variations, but not enough to say "surpassed." Certainly not Pascal, although I'd like to see his Freddie in a real production. Anders Ekborg? He's the only person I could see. So many mediocre Freddies on down the line - Michael Howe, David MacLeod, Stephen Bogardus...I thought Tony Head had some good acting points but not near Casnoff. Zubin Varla? Hah, no. So really, who?

You wanted her to sing in Swedish with an American accent??

I really liked Judy Kuhn's Florence - on the album. Her acting mannerisms, which were almost certainly given to her by the director, grate on me. (Especially when they're mimicked by an inferior actress who's seen the Broadway show at the Lincoln Center archive.) I don't fault her for the things I didn't like, but to me she really didn't transcend the limitations of the part as written for Broadway in the same way Casnoff did.

Sjöholm's performance was sublime. You have to see it to fully get it - especially in "Vem kunde ana" ("The Deal") I think the acting in the Swedish show blew the roof off the house. But even her "Lämna inga dörrar på glänt" ("Nobody's Side") on the album is probably the best thing ever recorded for the show. Kuhn's version comes pretty close, but still, that track is brilliant.

I like Caroll...I did say he had a very weak undeveloped Character to work with...never said he and Casnoff didn't make the most of the crap they were given...The book for broadway was terrible...I could take 3 scenes from the show that are good and even then there's still minor line changes to be made. And I'm serious when I say that every single scene has an argument between someone.

... and I have the points so far...

If Tim wants a major movie release done someday..

Story of Chess would probably play out under titles...
Time for Lionel Bart staging for Merano... and WHERE WAS THE ACCORDION TOUCHES etc that were done SO WELL on the concept album?

And - WTF? WHY DID THEY GIVE IDINA THAT SECOND LINE??? Surely the whole POINT of Fred's first number is he is bigging himself up without any concept of anyone else...

Press conference - hmmm.. time to copy handheld camera moves when Trevor Brooks kicked off in Leytonstone...

And.. yes... Groban can't act... I'm crossmatching the better acting in vocal delivery from Korberg and Skifs. Josh was definitely cast for his voice...

(continuing)

Hmm - WHAT? ANOTHER solo for the resident diva? - this fuller version of Dangerous Times - was this tie one Trevor Nunn slipped in?

Seems like the concept album descriptions would allow for a lot more flexibility in a screenplay.. breaking up the numbers with interstitial dialogue...
"Dedicating ourselves to the spirit of chess"? The opening ceremony is played out a bit like a revue - is this how it runs in most productions?

Ahhh - so Tim flipped around the first game and Arbiter reestablishing order?

I see exactly why someone commented re Menzel - "STFU and SING THE SONG AS WRITTEN, YOU F**KING DIVA!"

BJORN ULVAEUS AND BENNY ANDERSSON SWEATED BLOOD OVER THAT ONE!!!!!

*breathe.... breathe....*

Yeah - I got to Nobody's Side...

I've got to One Night in Bangkok - where's the slap bass????

That backing is *pedestrian*!

The re-ordering of the songs that make up the "Opening Ceremony" sequence is exactly how it played in London, redundant extra verse to US vs. USSR and all. My understanding is that the extra verse was written at the behest of Trevor Nunn, who had the brilliant notion to do absolutely nothing with it, just have it sung by a bunch of guys in suits standing around a conference table. There was a dialogue cut made to this sequence in the concert -- a two-minute scene in which the two delegations make various objections to the Arbiter that he summarily...overrules, before Walter's request for a "discrete display of wares" is approved. It's a terrible scene that only serves to repeat what's been said in the first two songs and telegraph what's going to be said in the next two. The Arbiter's "Let us dedicate ourselves..." is the last line of that scene, which can likely be found in full at Sylvia Stoddard's site: http://squareone.org/Chess/

^ Yeah.. if ever Rice authorises a film to be made.. that scene will have to be adjusted massively..

To me - the Concept Album works more..