Terrace Theatre
October 4 through 21, 1990
Long Beach Civic Light Opera
Barry Brown, Producer
Pegge Logefeil, Executive Director
presents
CHESS
Music by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Based on an idea by Tim Rice
Book by Richard Nelson
Broadway Production Presented by
The Shubert Organization 3 Knights Ltd. Robert Fox Ltd.
Directed by Trevor Nunn
Directed and Choreographed by David H. Bell
Musical Director Rob Bowman
Conductor Jeff Rizzo
Production Manager Jon Christopher Carroll
Production Stage Manager Jill Johnson
Costume Designer Sylvia Moss
Lighting Designer Kim Killingsworth
Sound Designer Jonathan Deans
CAST
Florence Vassy..................Jodi Benson
Anatoly Sergievsky...............Robert Yacko
Freddie Trumper...................Kim Strauss
The Arbiter...................Eddie Mekka
Ivan Molokov...................Frank Kopyc
Walter Anderson....................Jeff Austin
Svetlana..................Ann Morrison
The Company: John Anthony, Valan Cain, Nick Cavarra, Francis Cruz, Glen Fretwell,
David Jahn, Tina Johnson, William T. Lewis IV, Mary Jo Mahaffey, Harrison McEldowney,
Jo Montelbone, Dan O'Grady, Tina Paradiso, Kristy Roy, Michael Albert Simms, Janis Thomas,
Scott Wedkind.
Review
Long Beach Civic Light Opera was (it is now defunct) plagued by two things. First,
a policy of star-driven shows and second, a theatre with a stage so vast and wide,
it swallows even lavish scenery. There are also major acoustic dead spots in the
house and a balcony which is very distant from the stage. For Florence, they hired
Jodi Benson, who had starred as the voice of Airel in Disney's hit animated film,
The Little Mermaid. The production was directed by David H. Bell, fresh
from his triumph at the Marriott Lincolnshire. The sets and costumes were late
of the American tour and rented from another CLO company. The cast was excellent,
the direction competent, but the small cast and road tour-sized sets were lost on
the Terrace Theatre's enormous stage. In addition, the costumes were designed for
a production set entirely in Bangkok, while the script version was the Chicago one,
with the second act set in Budapest.
Jodi Benson, despite being the star of a current movie, was only a voice-over in the
film and the CLO's celebrity-hungry audience didn't know who she was. And there was
simply nothing else in the show to distinguish it in any way. The production had
only limited success.
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