Chess Success: Musical Theatre

Slow Burn Theatre’s performance of the musical Chess was impressive. We had the opportunity to see it on Saturday evening in the West Boca High auditorium. It was a good audience with over 370 people in attendance.

Normally a review might focus on the stars of the show, but for starters the production did something unusual. The eight “pawns” had a prominent role, especially in Act I, and they were excellent. We recognized a few of them from past shows, including Ann Marie Olson, Kaitlyn O’Neill and Kaela Antolino from Parade, and Bruno Vida from next to normal.

Amy Miller Brennan had perhaps the biggest role as Florence. Her rendition of Nobody’s Side was outstanding. She worked well with the ensemble and had good chemistry with the two other leads Matthew Korinko (Anatoly) and Rick Peña (Freddie).

Korinko has an endearing quality. We’ve seen him in three of their shows now. His Anthem at the end of the first act was wonderful. He knows when to stand out and when to let others on the stage have their moments. Peña took on the tough task of playing the unpleasant Freddie, whose character is clearly based on Bobby Fischer. I particularly liked how he did on One Night in Bangkok with the ensemble, and in a scene toward the end with Korinko, Talking Chess. Peña also did costume design for the show. We didn’t quite get what he was going for with all the black leather (don’t chess players wear suits?), but it looked good.
Carla Bordonada stunned us with her powerful voice, appearing in Act II as Svetlana and singing Someone Else’s Story, and later performing I Know Him So Well alongside Brennan.

We are starting to get what Patrick Fitzwater and Korinko (co-artistic directors of the company) are doing with Slow Burn Theatre. They take on challenging shows rather than simple crowd-pleasers, and they do them in a way that allows the actors to shine. Chess’ short run on Broadway was criticized as “shrill” and having actors “yell at one another to rock music.” Slow Burn went another way with it. The music was relatively quiet (perhaps too quiet), allowing the singers’ voices to be heard easily.
Chess continues at West Boca High this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and then the following Friday and Saturday. After that they’ll do four nights in Aventura. With the exception of a few swear words and risqué costumes, the show is mostly appropriate for middle school children though they might not understand the story.
In June they will perform another musical, High Fidelity. They also announced their schedule for the 2014-2015 season, with four more musicals, Carrie, Bonnie & Clyde, Rent, and Little Shop of Horrors.
Please note that we cropped Ms. Bramham’s photos to fit with the limited format of this website.