Albert Hall Chess Eyes West End Transfer???

According to Friday’s Daily Mail, the previously announced upcoming concert version of Chess (See News, 11 Jan 2008) may head into the West End if successful at the two-night run in the Royal Albert Hall in May. Tim Rice, who wrote the book and lyrics for the musical, commented, “Rather than set up a £20 million production, we want to see how it holds up at the Albert Hall before we move ahead for an incredibly expensive production in a theatre.”

And it’s unlikely that the casting process for a new West End production of Chess would follow in the footsteps of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s searches for a Maria and a Joseph. Rice remarked that, “If it was cast on television it would be called ‘I Want To Know Him So Well’ or ‘One Night In Shepherd’s Bush’. I don’t think so.” Thank goodness some common sense has prevailed before the idea has been milked dry!