Choreographer Lorin Latarro created a stunning pas de trois for “Chess.” A trio of dancers — shadows of the three principal characters — physically manifested the precarious love triangle between Freddie Trumper, Anatoly Sergievsky and Florence Vassy atop a pillar that rose from the stage’s floor. It was delicate, lithe, technical and strong. And then, in Broadway previews, Latarro cut it.
“It was just at the moment where you’re ready to go into the 11--o’clock number, so the Broadway rhythm doesn’t want to stop and slow down,” Latarro told Broadway News of her and director Michael Mayer’s decision to remove the ballet. “We were running at almost three hours, and it was the one moment in the show that there wasn’t a narrative need or [movement set to] a famous song.”
Knowing when to dance and when not to dance is as crucial to storytelling as how to dance. With the first Broadway revival of “Chess,” Latarro picked her moments.
The movement of this production is — in some ways — the first Broadway has seen for this musical. Famously, the original “Chess” bowed in London in 1986. It was set to be directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett, the Tony Award-winning choreographer of shows like “Follies,” “Ballroom” and “A Chorus Line,” the latter an ode to Broadway dancers which he also created. Back in the ’80s, Bennett had recruited some of theater’s finest dancers to the cast of “Chess.” Then, due to health issues, Bennett pulled out of the production. Director Trevor Nunn and choreographer Molly Molloy took over, and for the 1988 Broadway transfer, Nunn reworked the entire production, employing Lynne Taylor-Corbett for “dance staging.” Infamously, Nunn populated the stage with dozens of chairs (to sit in for chess matches) as well as towering, oversized game pieces that were operated manually from the inside by stage managers. There was little room for theatrical dance. The Main Stem production ran for only 68 performances.
Since then, “Chess” has been performed often — but typically in concert form, eschewing both its difficult book and any choreography. Just as writer Danny Strong has had his chance to reenvision the script, Latarro has been granted the opportunity to imagine the role and style of movement for the musical.
Latarro developed her “Chess” choreography by combining on-the-ground cultural research, the East-West tension at the core of the musical’s story and the bodies of the ensemblists in her company to convey and support the narrative about an American grandmaster, his Russian rival, the woman who loves them both and the politics ensnaring them all.
