Chess The Musical

I adore musicals. Old ones, new ones, popular ones, obscure ones ... doesn't matter.

One of my all-time favorites is Chess. Written by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (yes, the guys from ABBA), the concept album was released in 1984 and I first heard it about 5 years later (... except for the "big hit" that came from it -- Murray Head's "One Night In Bangkok."

In 2008 (and broadcast on PBS in 2009) a revival concert was staged in London with some of today's biggest musical names like Josh Groban, Adam Pascal & Idina Menzel.

I will always prefer the original.

The part of Florence is one of the greatest female roles ever and while I adore Idina, Elaine Paige just kicked serious ass singing it (which you can see after the lunch!).

In the bottom compartment is a copy of the concept album's cover made out of dyed mashed potatoes and monterey cheese for the letters and squares. I painted 2 flattened hard cooked eggs with natural food colors to look like American & Soviet flag chess pawns. Those are each sitting on grapes.

And now, my favorite promo clip from back in the day. The video is cheesy (as most from the mid-80s are), but the song still kicks: