Chess is a musical with music by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and lyrics by Tim Rice. Its soundtrack was released in 1984, but the musical was first seen on stage in 1986. Chess was the first musical by the ABBA guys after ABBA had started their record-long break in 1982. The song “One night in Bangkok” was released as a single in 1984 and topped the charts in several countries.
The third ‘ABBA musical’ in a Swedish-language version
In 2018, Chess has had its Broadway and West End revivals, but in addition to that, it also premiered in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The Finnish revival at Svenska Teatern is performed fully in Swedish and with a new orchestration, which allows the musical to be adapted to smaller stages. This is now the third ‘ABBA musical’ (composed by Björn and Benny) at the theatre in Swedish, after Kristina från Duvemåla in 2012 and Mamma Mia in 2014.
Chess is set up in the Cold War era, with a chess tournament between two men – an American grandmaster and a Soviet grandmaster. The political plot is combined with a love story: the grandmasters have a fight over a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other. The main role of Florence is performed by Maria Ylipää, a brilliant singer, who also played the role of Kristina in Björn and Benny’s 90’s musical Kristina från Duvemåla at Svenska Teatern in 2012. In the roles of the two chess players are Alexander Lycke and Glenn Edell.
Happy maestro Benny Andersson was pleased with the show
The premiere for the new Chess på svenska was on the 8th September, the same date as this year’s Eurovision Cruise! Therefore, GEE attended the press premiere the night before, on the 7th September. Benny Andersson himself was present that night and he was just like he always is – friendly, chatty and happy to sign autographs for many fans. Benny seemed very pleased of the show and was in a good mood.
During the interval, Benny quickly disappeared and was nowhere to be seen among the guests. We found out he had been backstage in the orchestra area, and headed behind the mixing desk to adjust sounds – that man never stops making his music sound as good as it possibly can be!
As Benny was interviewed for an evening paper, he was asked what he thought as a suitable subject for a brand new musical today. “Trump and Putin would be great material to a good political musical”, he joked.
The show’s guest list included some Eurovision stars
There were some famous Finnish pop stars seen on the red carpet, many of whom had Eurovision connections as well. Krista Siegfrids represented Finland in the ESC in 2013 but also competed in Melodifestivalen in 2016 and 2017, and in recent years, has hosted UMK (Uuden musiikin kilpailu). There were two Eurovision grand old ladies: Marion (ESC Finland 1962 and 1973) and Arja Saijonmaa (Melodifestivalen 1987 and 2005, Finnish preselections in 1971 and 1990), and the grand old “big D” Danny, who has participated in the Finnish preselections eight times in total between 1966 and 2014.
Video: The cast, the production staff and Benny Andersson after the show
Gallery
Krista Siegfrids Arja Saijonmaa and Krista Siegfrids Chess Poster Svenska Teatern The cast of Chess Benny Andersson
Photo: Riikka Jääskä