Music Doesn't Lie - Part 18 (I Know Him So Well)

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world,
then it can only happen through music." – Jimi Hendrix

I think it's been well-established that I am a theatre geek - particularly musical theatre. If I could have spent my entire life doing nothing but musical theatre that would have been a dream come true. For a long time, I kept a wishlist of all the roles that I wanted to perform.  Maybe I'll post that list one day. But suffice to say that it's a long and impossible list. One of the shows that I had always wanted to perform in was Chess. Now there are only two roles for women in this show (Florence and Svetlana) and I'm so not physically right for either one, but that didn't stop me from wanting to perform either role - but especially Florence.

First produced in London's West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1988, Chess (music by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (yes, of ABBA fame) and lyrics by Sir Tim Rice) "involves a romantic triangle between two top chess players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman (Florence) who manages one (the American) and falls in love with the other (the Russian); all in the context of a Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union, during which both countries wanted to win international chess tournaments for propaganda purposes."  (Wikipedia)  Svetlana is the estranged wife of the Russian chess master.

As all good performers know, personal pain can be incredibly useful to enhance a performance. Many of the roles on my wishlist are ones that I could play but might not necessarily have an real-life emotion that I could tap into. Chess used to be one of those shows, but experiences over the past couple of years has changed that. If I were still an active performer and had the chance to play the role of Florence, I would blow the roof off of the theatre with my emotional connection to this material as I discovered today after listening to the cast recording. Below is the Broadway recording of Judy Kuhn and Marcia Mitzman performing "I Know Him so Well" - which I think is quite possibly the best recording of any available (although the Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson version is pretty darn good too). This song in particular now has a strong emotional connection to my life and I will never be able to listen to it with emotionless ears again. Lyrics can be found here. 

One of the reasons I love music is its ability to acts as a catharsis, so much so that I'm in the process of creating a "catharsis" playlist.  Many of the songs that I've highlighted in my blog will be on that list, including this one.  Now I just need the perfect name for the playlist:  "Liar, liar, pants on fire" or "Not worth my tears" or "Lies (Are Breaking My Heart)" are all in consideration.  :-)  

I thank the songwriters of this world for bringing music into my life!  (Yes, it's an ABBA song! I thought it fitting with Chess.)