Such is the case with the musical Chess, the current production of the RPI Players. Chess was first performed in London in 1986 and was written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from the pop group ABBA and Tim Rice. While the music is distinctly ’80s (think a lot of flute, keyboard, and guitar), it does not inspire one to wear neon colors or use excessive amounts of hairspray. Although, my one strong complaint about the show is related to the music, specifically the volume. The small pit orchestra was so loud at times that I could not hear the actors sing or speak their lines. Thankfully, the plot was not as intricate as the games of chess that were being played in the musical, and I could follow without hearing chunks of conversations.

As for the plot itself, it clearly had a Romeo and Juliet theme mixed with the obvious symbol of chess masters playing "chess" with their own lives. This went to the extent of the floor of the stage being checkered in black and white like a chess board, as the main characters made moves against each other to control their own lives.

The protagonists of the story are Hungarian immigrant Florence Vassy, the second to American chess champion Freddie Trumper, and Anatoly Sergievsky, the Soviet chess champion pitted against Trumper in the world championships. Kimberly Waldin, who played Vassy, was exceptionally suited to her role and had a very powerful singing voice. Indeed, Douglas Anthony DiPietro and Ken Eitelman, who played Trumper and Sergievsky, respectively, were also impressive in their acting and vocal skills. The actors worked well with each other and presented believable and enthusiastic representations of their characters.

The other lead characters—Ivan Molokov (Patrick Leathem), Svetlana Sergievsky (Jessica Bailey), and Walter Anderson (Brian Baum)—also showed solid performances.

The main weakness with the on-stage performance could be found with the chorus. While many minor characters were acted well, and no one individual stood out in a chorus song as exceptionally poor, the ensemble was still missing something. Many times, entire songs or conversations were drowned out by the pit, or were just not quite intelligible. Also, the one song most people would recognize from the musical, One Night in Bangkok, left something to be desired. The ensemble sang the piece well and certainly wore the correct "clothing" for a Thai skin club, but the ambience was off. The energy in the voices of the artists we’ve all heard sing the song on the radio was not quite there.

Also, for many of the group numbers the choreography was lacking. All the players knew the correct steps at the correct time, but they were not always in unison and often had the appearance that they were concentrating on what step to make next instead of knowing the choreography so cold it appears spontaneous and effortless. This is a very difficult thing to achieve, but it still shows in the performance.

On a more positive note, although one could see movement during set changes, the set was well-suited for the play. Besides the checkerboard floor, there was a rotating piece of stage on the right that gave the impression of changing rooms. The cityscape backdrop added to the scene without being distracting, and the many steps and platforms were well used in the choreography. Also, on either side of the stage were projections from the "news crews" that "filmed" parts of the musical in scenes where the press was involved. This, along with the "news updates" before the performance and at intermission, was a nice touch and made the musical seem more like a current event that was being reported on.