This will eventually be a complete (or as complete as possible) list of all the many productions of Chess from around the world, with as much info about each as I can find. This is just a basic list at the moment (mostly found on Wikipedia and Square One) which I will expand over the coming months. If you know of any production not listed please let me know.
1984 Premier Concerts Barbican Hall, London 27th Oct CCH, Hamburg 28th Oct Concertgebouw, Amsterdam 29th Oct La Salle Playtel, Paris 30th Oct Berwaldenhallen, Stockholm 1st Nov
1986 London - Prince Edward Theatre see Chess London
1989 Carnegie Hall Concert: 8th January 1989 Less than a year after the Broadway production closed, David Carroll, who played Anatoly in that production organized a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, New York. He managed to convince the entire original cast (bar two ensemble members) to travel from all corners of the country to take part in the performance.
1989 Concert, Skelleftea Sweden: 3rd & 4th September 1989 A while after the London production of Chess closed a new concert version was staged in Sweden. It was scheduled to coincide with the 1989 chess tournament held in Skelleftea. There were three sold out performances with over 10,000 people attending.
1990 US Tour Jackie Gleason Theatre, Miami Beach, Florida see US Tour 1990 9 January - 13 May 1990
1990 Chicago - Marriott Theatre see Chicago 1990 28 January - May 1990
1990 Long Beach- Terrace Theatre - Civic Light Opera See Long Beach 1990 4 - 21 October 1990
1991 Concert: Denmark Performed in English and broadcast with subtitles on Danish television. It was basically the concept album version with the addition of Someone Else’s Story. Grania Renihan reprised the role of Florence, which she had played in London for most of the final year of the show.
1992 Budapest ??
1992 New Zealand Tour 27 Jan - 25 April 1992 see New Zealand 1992 Auckland, Aotea Centre. 27 Jan – 29 Feb Christchurch, Jams Hay Theatre 3 – 21 March 1992 Dunedin, Regent Theatre, 24 – 28 March 1992 Wellington, 31 March – 25 April 1992
1992 Off Broadway - The Master Theatre - The Artist's Perspective February 1992
1992 Concert: Toronto, Royal Alexandra Theatre 12th April A benefit concert for Equity Fights Aids/Actors Fund. The staging had no sets, but rear projections of various scenes from the chess games, news reports from the Hungarian uprising and newspaper headlines added atmosphere and drama to the scenes. The cast were in costume and some dance sequences were used. It was broadcast on Canadian television.
1994 Concert: Gothenburg In August 1994 the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra were opening a new concert hall in Eriksberg and chose Chess as the opening attraction. The concert was recorded and released as a double CD. The ensemble included Tommy Korberg, Karin Glenmark and Anders Glenmark. Anders Eljas was the conductor. Benny Andersson played both piano and accordion for the concert.
1994 Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Amateur) This fringe production of Chess had many innovative ideas both in staging and plot structure.
Act one was set in ‘An anonymous western town’ no doubt as they had needed to keep the running time down, they cut Merano and decided not to name the location for act one. Act two was in Bangkok as per the original.
The show started with ‘Champions’ from Endgame then went straight into Freddie’s arrival. It then followed the original fairly closely, but relocated Nobody’s Side to the end of Act one. Anatoly’s Anthem was moved right to the end of the show after he has decided to return to Russia (if he does??) You and I was cut completely and then a reprise of Nobody’s Side ends the show.
The staging used various interesting theatrical elements, such as the press appearing from behind newspapers to make their comments, Freddie singing part of Pity The Child while in bed – pillow, sheets etc being held in place by chorus members while he remains standing.
1995 Los Angeles - Hudson Theatre - Blank Theatre Company 19 May - 25 June
1996 UK Tour (Slightly different to first UK Tour) See UK Tours 1990/96
1997 Melbourne: 19 Feb - 8 Mar 1997
1998 Concert: Broadway Cares / Equity Fights Aids On the 10th and 17th May 1998 two benefit concerts were held at the John Houseman Theatre in New York. The cast consisted of performers who were appearing in various Broadway productions at the time. Including Robert Evan, Christiane Noll and Raymond Jaramillo McLeod who were starring in Jekyll and Hyde. Michael Cerveris and Brian D'Arcy James who played lead roles in Titanic.