Chess at Signature Theatre

     I've been remiss about posting lately.  I apologize.  Several weekends ago, I saw Chess at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.   The Signature, as you may know, is one of my favorite haunts and is an amazing part of the DC theater scene, having won the 2009 regional theater Tony award!  I get a little giddy every time I see the Tony in a display case in the lobby.  I went with my parents to see Chess, and I knew very little about the show prior to seeing it.  All I knew was that it was a rock musical about rival chess players and the woman they love.  This production included some big names, like Euan Morton and Jill Paice.  Needless to say, I was excited to see it.
     And how do I feel about it afterward?  In short, I loved it!  It was amazing!  And I'm not the only one who feels that way.  The audiences are loving it so much that they've extended the run a week.  I'm not sure how common that is in regional theater, but I can definitely see why they chose to do it.  The small theater was packed for the Sunday matinee I saw with my parents.  We got our tickets half-price at Signature's Target family fun day, which was amazing and worthy of a blog post in and of itself.  We sat in the third row, almost center.  Perfect seats.  The set was amazing!  I loved the use of lighting, the use of television screens, and the plexiglass in the set pieces.  The songs were phenomenal!  For days afterward I was singing "Nobody's on Nobody's Side," much to the chagrin of those around me, and I also really loved the one that Freddie sings at the end about his childhood.  It was so touching.  Confession: I cried.  Euan Morton's performance was heartbreakingly amazing.  I'm definitely going to try to see it again before it closes, if it's not all sold out and I can get up to DC.  It really made me think about rock musicals (which I love), but more about the ways rock musicals are powerful in the way they can and can't adhere to the traditional standards of musical theater.
   Additionally, it got me thinking about how cool regional theater is, especially when you can see the same actors playing different parts on a consistent basis.  I know that people on Broadway and elsewhere perform in plenty of different roles, but it just seems cool at the regional theater.  During Chess, I was thinking about how interesting it was that I saw Hunter from their production of [title of show] and Anthony from their production of Sweeney Todd in the ensemble.  It's fun to kind of "know" a group of actors like that and get to see them in very different shows.
    Here's BroadwayWorldTV's video about Signature's Chess.  You'll see what I mean about the set.