Title: Disappointing
Product review: While I hope more people are introduced to this musical, I found this production a disappointment. Josh Groban was surprisingly good singing musical theater, I hope he does more in the future. Adam Pascal's performance was also a treat; I had only seen him in Rent and thought his performance as The American was really outstanding.This musical has been a "work in progress" since the mid-80's. The original concept album is outstanding - if you haven't heard it, I strongly suggest you get it. When the production was brought to the US, they tweaked it - ugh. And they've been messing with it constantly since then.The result - what was a reasonably streamlined, musically gorgeous story has been chopped up and - I think - overengineered for the masses. Kind of dumbed down (and uglied up) in the process.Bottom line: if you want to own a musical performance of Chess, get the original concept album with Tommy Korberg, Murray Head and Elaine Paige. They got it right the first time.
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