Pawns of War and Love

Back when Yvonne A.K. Johnson, Civic Theatre’s executive artistic director, first saw Chess as a teenager, it was ripped-from-the-headlines relevant. Wunderkind Bobby Fischer had risen — finally, an American hero able to best Soviet grandmasters at their own game! But today, it’s an archeological artifact. Its plot is Cold War, its music ABBA (Mamma Mia!).

Despite the lyrics of Tim Rice (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), the American version was a financial and critical failure. The one legacy of Chess is the hit single “One Night in Bangkok,” which recently received a brief resurgence in the form of David Carradine jokes.

But Johnson has remained an ever-vigilant fan.

“It’s always been the music,” Johnson says. While Richard Nelson’s script itself has problems, the music remains inspirational. Two sounds face off — the pop rock ballads of the American, and the dramatic choral operas of the Russian.

At first, the story seems like basic East vs. West, black hats vs. white hats. Freddie and Anatoly (the script just calls them the American and the Russian) even wear crisp white and dour black.

Freddie is brash, swaggering, arrogant — typically American. He’s a crowd-pleasing lunatic in front of the chessboard or the press pool. Anatoly is more sorrowful, serious, pained that his game has become a circus show.

But as the musical progresses, the board becomes muddled. Black and white bleeds into gray. Nobody’s a hero. 

Both Freddie and Anatoly are pawns, manipulated by the CIA and KGB, both with national pride at stake. Freddie’s assistant, Florence, meanwhile, dives into a love triangle between the two chess masters.

There, the human drama, is where Johnson chooses to focus. Many care little for gambits and forks and en passant — but love, ah, that’s another matter. The themes echo beyond Cold War — it’s about the loneliness of fame, the pain of expectation, regret, loyalty and, yes, love.

“It’s love of the game, it’s love of country, and true love itself,” Johnson says. “Thematically, ‘chess’ is boring… any good show is about relationships.” There was the mistake the original script made, she says: too much about pawns and politics, not enough about people.

But as an “In Concert” production (a shortened show, lightly staged) — that’s where the strengths of Chess come to the forefront: the music, the lyrics, the character dramas.

“I’ve wanted an opportunity to produce this for 20 years,” Johnson says.

“Chess, in Concert” revives the Cold War at Spokane Civic Theatre, 1020 N. Howard St., on Friday-Saturday, Oct. 30-31, at 7:30 pm. Tickets: $30. Visit spokanecivictheatre.com or call 325-2507.