42nd Street Moon WELCOMES BACK LIVE IN PERSON THEATRE WITH AN EXCELLENT CONCERT VERSION OF ‘CHESS’
‘CHESS’ IN CONCERT IS A POLILTCAL POWERHOUSE
FEATURING THE BAY AREAS BEST TALENT
The award winning 42nd Street Moon kicked off their return to in-person musical theatre, with a powerful production of CHESS. With a book by Richard Nelson, lyrics by Tim Rice and music by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. CHESS In Concert is currently on stage at the Alcazar Theatre in San Francisco, for a short run that ended September 26, 2021.
“This production will be unlike any other CHESS in Concert you have ever seen,” says Co-Director Daren A.C. Carollo. “We used six versions of the script to create 95 minutes of non-stop rock! We have 17 of the strongest voices in the Bay Area and 20 talented musicians who will be jamming through the most “80s" music you have ever heard. Our version of CHESS is all about love, the game, and the East-West political struggle of the late 1980s.”
This concert version of CHESS was very impressive, and I agree, featuring some of the Bays best talent including the powerful Cate Hayman and Jaron Vesely. The principal cast for CHESS In Concert features Hayman* as “Florence,” Jaron Vesely as “Anatoly,” Kamren Mahaney as “Freddie,” Will Giammona as “Molokov,” B Noel Thomas* as “Arbiter,” Trixie Aballa as “Svetlana,” and Jillian Bader, Faustino Cadiz, Sean Doughty, Nathanael Fleming, Katie Francis, Lauren Jiang, Christopher Juan, Jennifer Martinelli, Nick Rodrigues, Johann Santos, and Katie Trim in the full force ensemble.
CHESS is an intelligent musical that develops the ancient game of chess into a cold war for romantic rivalries and East-West political intrigue. The principal pawns include an American Grandmaster, a Russian champion and a Hungarian-American woman who form a romantic love triangle.
The players, lovers, politicians, CIA and KGB make their moves to the beat of the show’s monumental rock score, featuring the international hits “One Night in Bangkok” and “I Know Him So Well.”
The staging is impressive and all of the Moon concerts the company is dressed in formal black. In this theme the black is perfect for this cold war chess game as one character is dressed in white. The main leads are all phenomenal with show stopping solo’s from Brandon Noel Thomas, Kamren Mahaney, and Christopher Jaun. Hayman, Veresly and Will Glammona also blow the roof off the Alcazar in this stellar concert.
42nd Street Moon’s CHESS In Concert was co-directed by Daren A.C. Carollo and Danny Cozart, with music direction by Daniel Thomas who also conducted a 20-piece full size orchestra. This was just a short weekend run and I hope you have time to add or attend Moon’s 2021 - 22 season listed below - Tickets for MOONS new season are at the links below - To see any performance in SF you must show your vaccination card and be masked. This was a beautiful concert of CHESS.
Your move
42nd Street Moon Presents
CHESS IN CONCERT
Book: Richard Nelson
Lyrics: Tim Rice
Music: Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
Directors: Daren A.C. Carollo
and Danny Cozart
Music Director and Conductor:
Daniel Thomas
Executive Artistic Director: Daniel Thomas
Producing Artistic Director: Daren A.C. Carollo
Closes Sunday Sept 26th
Alcazar Theatre 650 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
RUNNING TIME: About 95 minutes. No intermission.
Photos by Ben Krantz Studio
TICKETS https://42ndstmoon.org/chess/
42nd Street Moon’s 2021-2022 season
beings with full productions with
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
(November 4 – 21, 2021)
FUN HOME (February 3 – 20, 2022)
A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING (March 10 – 27, 2022),
THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS (April 21 – May 8, 2022)
and THE PAJAMA GAME (June 2 – 19, 2022).
