Stage Review
'Chess' musical is difficult to categorize

Jade Stice plays Florence in the Diamond Head Theatre production of "Chess," which runs through March 4, playing Thursdays through Sundays. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

‘Chess’ 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays, through March 4 Diamond Head Theatre $10-$40 734-0274

Despite excellent technical performances by its three principal singers, "Chess" - now at Diamond Head Theatre - is not an easy production to embrace. Nor is it easy to categorize.

With lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from the group ABBA, the show blends operatic elements with popular music, setting a tone that is relentlessly oppressive and ultimately tragic. Expect no high-kicking chorus or hummable tunes from this Broadway musical. Although it did enjoy some success, "Chess" has had mainly a cult following.

The game becomes a metaphor for personal and political manipulation as the two opponents - an angry American and an earnest Russian - vie for championship and a young woman changes her romantic allegiances. Self-serving handlers on both sides mix motives and add complications with the finesse of the Borgia Popes.

Director Andrew Sakaguchi succeeds at sustaining tension through both acts, but his choreography is rigidly layered over the show and calls attention to itself apart from the action. Musical director Jeffrey Cooper squeezes good sound from his orchestra, but can’t get understandable lyrics from the chorus in any of its big scenes.

As a result, three performances carry the production, and all are scrubbed free of distracting human charm or warmth.

Guy Merola carries the biggest load as Anatoly, the Russian. Estranged from his wife and with no clear political bias, he exists solely to play the game - almost unaware that his talent brings him comparative comfort and privilege.

Matthew Pedersen plays the spoiled, bad-boy American. Full of his own importance, he pushes and squanders his talent, oblivious to his supporters, despising his opponent.

Jade Stice takes the difficult central role of Florence. Torn between two lovers in true operatic style, she ends a love relationship with the American and begins one with the Russian primarily because the script requires it. Tragic love engulfs the stage. It’s in the crashing music and the tortured lyrics. It’s in the drowning-victim, staged embraces and wrenched expressions of physical pain.

It’s everywhere but in the hearts of the audience, which largely reject the central relationships.

Nevertheless, there are several excellent dramatic moments when the music is built around sung dialogue, rather than hung on set pieces that are dropped into the action.

Merola and Stice are joined by Mikel Humerickhouse and John Bryan in "Quartet," which brings remarkable stature to the first act. Merola’s solo on "Anthem" and Pedersen’s "Pity the Child" are both moving pieces. Stice’s duet with Renee Garcia, "I Know Him So Well" and Pedersen’s work with Leonard Piggee on "No Contest" are both excellent.

But while the show is poised, mature and compelling, it is also coldly melodramatic and unapproachable, making a musical that is difficult to love.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek is The Advertiser’s drama critic.

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