Maybe it's best to love a stranger...
Agh, tomorrow is my least favorite day of the year. Yes, it's dentist appointment day. I LOATH going to the dentist. It always takes forever. And thank you, health care costs, when was the last time my dentist actually did the dental work? Yeah. Good question. Sometime in 2001, or maybe even 2000. I don't remember. I always hated the dentist, and now I hate it even more. I live in constant fear that they are going to once again discover that my filling is loose. That was painful. Very, very, very, VERY painful. Anyway, enough whining about the dentist. Seriously though, who doesn't hate the dentist? :)
So today, I was feeling especially dorky (i know, what's new??) and raided my CDs for all the musicals I've aquired over the years (no movies...just musicals! wheeeeeee). Stretching back to May 1995 (about a bazillion years ago, or so it seems), SHS Drama presents Chess. I absolutely love that musical! Despite it's extreme depressing themes, plots, filled with the undertones of politics as well as history, and a great musical score...does it get much better?? Ahh, inner history geek! I've never played chess, I must confess, but an entire musical...anyway it's more about the Cold War than the actual game of chess, and is loosely based on the American chess player Bobby Fischer, and the race between the Americans and the Soviets to be the winner in chess. Of course the story is romanticized, as Freddy (the American)'s second (Florence) falls in love with Anatoly (the Soviet), and consequently leaves the American side (even though she's Hungarian, and was driven out of Hungary and separated from her father by the Soviets at a young age, but, whatever). In the meantime, there is heavy involvement by the KGB and CIA, as well as Anatoly's somewhat-estranged wife, and an appearance by Florence's father (who was miraculously found by the CIA). In the end, Anatoly loses the final game, the Americans now dominate the chess world, Florence and Anatoly are separated because she cannot be with her father and Anatoly at the same time, so she picks her father, only to find out that it was all a CIA plot to destroy her relationship with Anatoly...so she not only lost the love of her life, but she was betrayed by the US. Happy, no? Actually, the musical was released in both the United States and Britain, and had different endings, with the British ending being much happier, as (if I remember right) Florence and Anatoly end up together, even though he loses the chess match. I would just like to say that Gensler (SHS drama director) thought the American ending to Chess was depressing, so she changed it to have Florence reunited with her father for real. Yay. Happiness. Anyway, I didn't understand like, any of the plot when I actually saw the musical....uh, 10 years ago, but at the age of eleven, I don't think it was really expected of me to understand the politics and history of the cold war...at least I hope not. :) It's one of those things that kind of dawns on you like, five years later, and you're like wow, that sucks.
Um...
Interesting mini-rant on one of my favorite musicals. I have no idea why Gensler ever picked that musical, it's not, um, very well-known, but whatever. I got to be in the kid's choir for that! We sang a song in Hungarian. Like I remember it now...:) Well, I do, but only because I know all the lyrics and such backwards nowadays....since I'm a huge geek! Yeah for being a music geek!
Anyway, I'm either going to go watch The Birdcage or go to bed, I haven't decided yet.
Incidentally, if anyone remembers the 80's....and knows 80's music...the song "One Night in Bangkok" is actually from the musical Chess. :)
P.S. the title quote is from Chess, amazingly enough! Heehee.

- posted by L. @ 11:54 PM