Okay. The basics, anyway. The production was done in the round, with a stage in the center that was set up as a chess board, with sections that rose and fell to become set pieces. The characters were often followed by people dressed as abstractions of chess pieces. Sylvia Stoddard liked them, and commented on how they seemed to be a driving part of the action. Other reviewers have said they were unsubtle. I suppose it's a "You had to be there" sort of thing.
It was a Broadway variant of the Compromise Ending sort. So, really, what it was doing was to soften the blow of the sad end to Chess by giving Florence her father back. And you know what? They set it up; they worked it; they didn't do a "fake father" scene; and it worked. It really, truly, gloriously worked. Listening to the audio confirms this. It wasn't perfect, it still had the Broadway book as its basis, but it was going somewhere.
-Weird plot stuff. Still in tact; the Secretary of State gag, for
instance, remains.
-Florence doesn't win audience over. She was rewritten subtly, built up
as a character overall, and directed to be more of an independent, modern
woman; I think she manages it. Point for Chicago.
-Anatoly impossibly noble. I don't know; I saw the cracks in the wall
with this Florence & Anatoly much earlier than any other pair, and his
help in the very end was touching. He seems more human, closer to the
ideal London Anatoly than in other versions. Point.
-Freddie a loudmouthed jerk. Well, of course! But - but! - he was
redeemed to some extent in the new scene before "Pity the Child," where he
tries to get Florence to get back together with him. I would love to
rewrite it, reincorporating "Silly Boy" from Sydney, and man...so strong.
Also, the fart joke and the snoring gag and the "The Secy of State can go
f*** himself" line are gone, which makes a difference. The new "Pity"
scene gets rid of his naivete with regard to Walter, which was
refreshing.
-Songs not following logically. Well, "How Many Women?" is in the same
context; so is "No Contest." The pre-"Heaven Help My Heart" scene is
shorter, and seems weird sans the Molokov is Florence's father
thing. But it's okay; in general, stuff like "The Arbiter's Song" and "US
vs. USSR" play naturally off of each other, and the songs seem a little
more in place here. The abbreviated book helps to keep the songs more
vital.
But overall, it has a stronger feel, and leaves audiences with a better taste in their mouths than the Broadway production. A lot of it was more focused character-based rewrites and direction; I'd personally love to direct a production of this version, with only the rewrite before "Pity the Child" and the crucial move that Bell made taking "One Night in Bangkok" from before the Duet to after it - a brilliancy in one stroke that changed the song's context entirely. (This was done for an Atlanta production, not Chicago, but it was the same director.)
Actually, that brings up another point: this is, happily, one of the most influential scripts out there as far as American Chess goes. It was toured around a lot by David H. Bell and others; Kim Strauss did a lot of work in Bell's versions, and later Sean McDermott in Atlanta. I hope it keeps getting produced. As I said, I'd direct it in a heartbeat (as long as I had somebody to assist me in the process of, you know, directing a musical.)
So...it didn't fix it all, but it fixed enough. Chicago Chess got the show off the ground and running again...which is the best we can say for anything after the debacle of Broadway, and the subsequent American tour.
-Wayne