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Make A Move With East Lansing's 'Chess - A Staged Concert'

By BTL Staff

East Lansing's Wharton Center will host the inaugural "imaGen project" production this month: "Chess – A Staged Concert." Jen Werner, the associate director of "The Book of Mormon," has been hired to direct the work.
Broadway lyricist Tim Rice had long wanted to create a musical about the Cold War. He was fascinated by the political intrigues of the 1972 Chess "Match of the Century" between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky. Typically he would work with his famous collaborator, Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Evita," but at the time (1979) Lloyd Webber was already working on "CATS." American producer Richard Vos suggested Rice work with Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, formerly of the rock group ABBA. The three hit it off and created "Chess."
The story is about two great chess masters, one American and one Russian, who compete to be the best in the world. But, their greatest contest is for the love of the same woman. This cult rock musical explores love, loss and betrayal, and features the hit "One Night in Bangkok," along with songs "Heaven Help My Heart," "I Know Him So Well," "Pity the Child" and "Nobody's Si de." "Chess has a monumental score that will challenge students and entertain audiences," says Wharton Center's Associate Education Director Kris Koop Ouellette. "This is all very exciting. There's no program like it anywhere else in the country, and we are proud to offer it in Michigan first." "Chess" is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.
The project behind Wharton hosting the play is imaGen. A key part of both the Wharton Center's and the MSU Department of Theatre's missions are focused on creative collaboration. This idea has sparked a new artistic endeavor called the imaGen project. imaGen partners with the MSU Federal Credit Union Institute for Arts & Creativity at Wharton Center with the MSU College of Arts and Letters' Department of Theatre and local high schools. Kirk Domer, chair of the MSU Department of Theatre, says, "It's a revolutionary program for MSU and high school students! It will allow them to work with Broadway professionals who regularly visit Wharton Center, and it will attract the highest-quality students providing them exposure to the discipline, focus and creative strength needed to nurture and sustain a thriving performing arts career."
"Chess – A Stage Concert" plays at 7:30 p.m. on March 27 and 28 at the Wharton Center's Pasant Theatre in East Lansing. Tickets are $15 plus applicable fees. For more information, call 1-800-WHARTON or visit http://www.whartoncenter.com.

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