Flower Mound's 'Chess' holds the score:
Knowing Björn, knowing Benny, this wasn't the best they could do
01:54 AM CDT on Saturday, April 17, 2004
By LAWSON TAITTE/ The Dallas Morning News

FLOWER MOUND – Sometimes a musical you write on purpose doesn't equal the one you didn't know you were writing.

ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus penned the score for Chess years before Mamma Mia! was a gleam in anyone's eye. Tim Rice wrote the lyrics, Richard Nelson the often-revised book. As rock operas go, Chess exhibits a certain restraint and sophistication. But it isn't nearly as much fun as the later show compiled from old ABBA songs.

Despite a huge advance, Chess ran only a couple of months on Broadway. Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre's new version, which opened Friday, seems to be the first professional area production since its Casa Mañana premiere in 1991.

Strangely, one of the show's weakest songs, "One Night in Bangkok," holds the honor of most recent new show tune to make a pop hit. The video, issued before Chess ever opened, hit the top of the charts. Its staging here looks particularly dispiriting, sadly.

In the plot, two chess players square off for the world championship as the Cold War is cooling down. Their conniving governments and their personal entanglements ultimately influence the tournament more than the individuals' actual talent.

Flower Mound's Chess boasts a terrific cast, led by the two stars of last autumn's dynamite Kiss of the Spider Woman at Uptown Players. Skie Ocasio plays Freddie, the paranoid, money-grubbing but hip American – a less geeky Bobby Fischer. Donald Fowler is his Soviet challenger, Mary Gilbreath the woman caught between them.

Unfortunately, the leads don't consistently perform at their best. They sing their own numbers well, but when they pair off for duets everybody seems to get off pitch. The acting tends to be generic, too, with Ms. Gilbreath especially inclining toward stiffness. Director Corey Ranson should have been more help.

Carrie Slaughter, in little more than a cameo role as the Russian's abandoned wife, makes the strongest dramatic impression. She conveys a subtle air of mystery, a depth of suffering that is all the stronger for not being overstated.

E-mail ltaitte@dallasnews.com