Chess (Act 2) or What Happened to Florence in the Second Half?

Okay, so a quick review, Chess is the story of Florence, who has to put up with Freddy, the awful dudebro, and Anatoly, the less awful Nice Guy™. There's some Cold War politics in there too.

Bonus Highlights: So it turns out that I missed out on a few songs the first time around...

Someone Else’s Story - so this is Svetlana’s first song and her character song. It makes me sad that we don’t have more Svetlana--I would take more of her than Freddy and Anatoly (though I do like Molokov, he’s so delightfully evil). In fact, a Svetlana/Florence spin off musical where they manage to be fulfilled and happy (with or without partners) would be lovely. The song itself serves as a narrative foil to Anatoly’s Where I Want to Be. The other side of Anatoly’s narrative about people pretending to care in order to exploit his talent. In his desire to protect himself from false friends, Anatoly also managed to leave Svetlana emotionally bereft long before he abandoned her in Russia. Of course, this does not bode well for Florence’s relationship with Anatoly. In a way, Someone Else’s Story is the end result that Florence predicted in Heaven Help My Heart.

I Know Him So Well - A Florence/Svetlana duet! You knew I was going to have to talk about this one. I feel very conflicted about this song. On one hand, Florence! Svetlana! Love song! On the other hand, I’m also thinking, “you could both do so much better than him!” There’s a lot to unpack here, between two women who feel like they’re inadequate because they can’t be everything to a man. To start with, no one can be everything to anybody--that’s why we have multiple people in our lives. Not all of our needs can or should be met by one person--and, almost invariably, the person who feels the most pressure to be everything is a woman (or two women in this case). And then there's the fact that they're feeling this way over Anatoly, who is...not the best. I just want these two wonderful women to dump this guy and be happy. Despite all that though, this song has a special place in my heart, and I always enjoy singing along with it.

Plot Specifics: The differences between Black and White in the first half were mostly cosmetic. There were a few added scenes that contributed to clarity, a few slightly altered lines, but no really significant deviations. Act Two is almost an entirely different animal.

Act Two opens a year later at the World Chess Championship in Bangkok. Freddy opens the act with One Night in Bangkok and there’s an interesting thematic contrast between Merano and Bangkok. Merano (both the song and the town) is mostly light hearted commercialism. They’re interested in selling things to tourists, but you get the feeling that it’ll return to being a sleepy little town after everyone leaves. Bangkok is a whole different kettle of fish, with sex workers catering specifically to oriental fetishism, colonialistic repurposing of temples as brothels, and multiple genders of sex workers. Bangkok takes the gentle commercialism of Merano, cranks it up to eleven, and makes explicit the commodification of human beings.

This is where the first big plot deviation between Black and White occurs. This is where we hear that Svetlana--you know, Anatoly’s wife, the one he left behind in Russia when he defected--will be attending. Naturally, this sets off some relationship discussions between Florence and Anatoly.

In Black, we get the excellent Argument. This is not a song that shows Florence at her best--and that is awesome--she’s angry, unsupportive, and (I would argue) selfish--the opposite of what we expect the hero’s love interest to be when a new challenge appears. Florence refuses to be the Supportive Girlfriend™ Trope. Instead, she follows the path she laid out in Nobody’s Side by putting her emotional well being before Anatoly’s career ambitions. At the same time Anatoly isn’t being entirely unreasonable, stating that Svetlana is just there to disrupt his game and that Florence’s outrage is helping to do that. On one hand, I love this messy, complicated tangle of needs and ambitions, emotions and logic--that’s how real life works sometimes. And I love that Florence gets to have faults. On the other hand, I hate that Florence is the emotional one and Anatoly is the logical one. Way to promote gender essentialism, Black. That being said, I like it head and shoulders above the song White uses instead.

White gives us an entirely different song--in both words and emotional content. One More Opponent is...not my favorite. Plot wise, we find out that Freddy is back and working for Global Television (this is a non-issue in Black but White needs this particular plot twist for The Interview and subsequent events). Unlike in Argument, White Anatoly is insecure and emotionally needy. He starts off by implying that Freddy might try to entice Florence to return to him, which Florence shuts down much more politely than I would (in my headcannon, Florence is giving Anatoly the side-eye here). Anatoly goes on to whine about the Russian player (whose name is Viigand, not that it matters, since he gets no lines), and Florence (again) has to provide emotional reassurance. She follows this up with letting him know about Svetlana, to which he expresses shocked disbelief (and here, I always think: “Anatoly, you abandoned her, in Russia, with your children. What did you think was going to happen?”). Florence, of course, continues to provide emotional support in the form of more ego stroking.

When I talk about how I prefer Black to White, it’s due in large part to this song. What happened to the Florence from Nobody’s Side? The one who was going to put her needs before her partners wants. Sure, Florence isn’t in an abusive relationship anymore, but a relationship where she’s doing all of the emotional labor isn’t healthy either.

And then Black proceeds to drop the ball by sidelining Florence for nearly the rest of the album. It’s almost like they could only handle one awesome woman at a time, so having Svetlana meant they had to have less Florence.

The one thing I do like about One More Opponent is that it comes paired with You and I, which we only get a snippet of at the very end of Black, but which White expands into a full song. It’s a pretty duet (the only romantic duet we get in the whole musical), the song that encapsulates Florence and Anatoly’s romance, a wistful desire for a happy ending (of course, the fact that this is coming at the beginning of the Act should be a big red flag). I always have to listen to it separate from One More Opponent though, because whiney Anatoly irritates me so much.

Both versions switch up to The Soviet Machine, a Molokov song dedicated, in name anyway, to the mostly characterless Viigand, but really it’s about Molokov’s plots to derail Anatoly through emotional manipulation via Svetlana and Florence. White makes it clear that Molokov isn’t the only trying to derail Anatoly. In The Interview, Walter sets up an on air meeting between Anatoly and Freddy. Freddy, knowing exactly what buttons to push, antagonizes Anatoly over Florence and Svetlana until he storms off. Molokov and Walter agree to throw Anatoly under the bus and force a return to Russia, in exchange the Russians will release some political prisoners--including Florence’s father (I guess he was alive after all? But then, can we really trust anything Molokov says?). Also, I know that Walter’s final line is to introduce Svetlana and her character song, but the way he says, “but he gets the lovely Svetlana” is both creepy and gross.

Fortunately, after all that plot, Svetlana’s Someone Else’s Story is wonderful and gorgeous and sad. Why did they wait this long to give her a song again?

Next is The Deal (No Deal), which contributed to a good chunk of the plot confusion in Black. White does a good job of expanding it into something that's not so much a song as a musical plot montage (plus it brings back the Arbiter to narrate transitions between scenes). I do like it though, because it gives us a look at some of the musical themes from the first act in a new light. Black only includes the conversations between Freddy and Anatoly and between Florence and Freddy, which come towards the end of the song. Without the context of the first 75%, it's a little confusing.

First we start with Molokov threatening Svetlana and her children in order to get her to manipulate Anatoly into losing and returning to Russia, which is evil and awful and, given that Anatoly abandoned them in the first place, probably ineffective. But since Svetlana doesn’t have much choice, she tries anyway, giving us a reprise of Where I Want to Be and confirming that Anatoly is a selfish jerk. Then we transition to Walter, who tries to sell Florence on her father being alive, and Florence (because she’s awesome like that) is having none of it. She simply doesn’t believe Walter, the lying liar, and refuses to try to get Anatoly to lose. We do get a snippet of Florence’s version of Pity the Child, but even so, she's not swayed by memories of her father and turns him down. Of course, Walter, being the lying liar that he is, tells Molokov that Florence totally agreed. Molokov, bless his evil heart, wasn’t any more fooled than Florence. So Walter prompts Freddy to guilt Anatoly into losing. This is where Black picks up.

Freddy tries to cozy up to Anatoly and convince him that losing would be the best thing for Florence. Anatoly, for his part, sees right through him, and Freddy accuses him of being selfish and dedicated only of his own ambition. I think the relevant saying here is: “it takes one to know one.” Certainly Freddy is selfish and self absorbed, but Anatoly is no less so, and less aware of it. Naturally, having failed with Anatoly, Freddy tries to convince Florence to take him back. In White, Florence says something about how she’s moved on and, “Chess isn’t life.” But in Black, she really tells him off: "You still don't understand/Why I loathe you, why I left you" in a crowning moment of awesome that culminates in a reprise of Nobody's Side.

Having been thoroughly (oh so satisfyingly thoroughly) rejected by Florence, Freddy gives us Pity the Child #2, which shares the same melody as the version in Act One. According to this version, Freddy came from a volatile home, with shouty parents. Eventually, his father left, and his mother, instead of bonding with her son, brought in a string of boyfriends. Freddy, then retreated into chess to fill the emotional hole. I get that this is supposed to make us sympathize with Freddy--and I do. Sympathetic or not, though, it still doesn’t excuse his behavior through the whole rest of the musical. In White, this song is really the motivator for his actions in Talking Chess. But first we have the Florence/Svetlana duet!

So obviously I love I Know Him So Well, I just wish I didn’t feel so conflicted about it. The one opportunity for our only two female characters to sing together, and they’re singing about a man (Bechdel-Wallace Test, fail). Not just that, they’re singing about Anatoly as if it’s their fault that he’s abandoned them. C’mon ladies! You can do better than him! Being single is not this bad! At least you wouldn’t have to put up with his nonsense. In my headcannon, after this song they go out for drinks together and leave Anatoly to clean up his own mess. I’m serious about a Florence/Svetlana spin off musical where the boys get sidelined, that would be perfect.

In the meantime, White gives us Talking Chess, which is mostly Anatoly and Freddy talking about the plot. But it’s actually pretty hilarious. So after his epiphany in Pity the Child that he actually loves chess more than anything (or anyone) else, Freddy goes to Anatoly to convince him to win after all. Naturally Anatoly is suspicious, but Freddy really does just want to talk about chess. He can’t stand the thought that Anatoly--the person who beat him--could lose to a player who is mechanically predictable. Now, as little as I like Freddy, this development into a person so dedicated to the game that he would encourage his rival because he is disgusted by mediocrity is actually interesting and I wish we had more of that jerk (even though he’s still a jerk) instead of the king of male entitlement.

Now we’ve finally reached the Endgame, which gives us a brief check in with all of our secondary players. Molokov (naturally) gloats about what he assumes will be a Russian victory. In Black, Freddy bitterly assures him that the fix is in; while in White, a detached Freddy reinforces his message from Talking Chess to stay focused strictly on the game. Florence wanders in with a criticism about being beholden to fame and success, which would have made more sense coming from Svetlana--since she brought it up in The Deal (No Deal)--but since they’re the only lines Florence gets in Black, I’ll take them.

And then we have Anatoly.

Okay, so first things first. Endgame is the only song shared between the two versions where I actually prefer White to Black. All other songs, I prefer Black or am simply neutral. Why? The climax of Endgame (and the whole album) leaves Florence out entirely. Her whole story arc, reduced to a few afterthought lines (that aren’t even recognizable as hers).

So Anatoly wins. Did everyone know that was coming? Good. He then proceeds to take the title of king of male entitlement by declaring that fame for excellence is really the highest achievement one can hope for, and that anyone who thinks that their relationships actually matter is really just trying to pretend that they're not failures. It's an awful gaslighting screed. Fortunately it gets some push back. In White, Florence and Svetlana both challenge his narrative by pointing out that they were the ones supporting his success in a wonderful exchange. I imagine Anatoly trapped between the two of them as they passionately correct his misconceptions and then stalking off while he's left alone with his trophy. Sadly, Black only has Svetlana give Anatoly a piece of her mind, which, I feel, is a disservice to Florence. Also, I just want more Florence.

Afterwards, Black closes with The Story of Chess and a reprise of You and I which I think is supposed to be Florence and Anatoly lamenting over their failed romance, but it's so short that it's not clear. Also, Black never got a full version of You and I, so it seems a little confusing to put a reprise at the end.

White’s end is significantly more extensive. It starts with a conversation between Florence and Anatoly, where he smugly informs her that he won to be free to help her father--even though that's not anything she asked for or even implied that she wanted. This is our reprise of You and I, which should be a tragic end to their romance, but I keep thinking that Florence is better off without him.

Then Walter informs her that Anatoly has elected to return to Russia in exchange for Florence’s father and some other prisoners. Oh, and those assurances that her father was alive--back in The Deal (No Deal)--he was lying. We get an increasingly bitter reprise of Heaven Help My Heart and Walter blithely informs her that it's just a game. And we close with Anthem as Florence is left to pick up the pieces of her life.

Whew, well that was a bit of a downer.

[If you came strictly for the musical, then this is a good place for you to stop. The rest is all analysis.]

Adaptation Corner:

So we covered the major differences between the Black concept album and the White In Concert album, but it’s important to note that there were 20 years in between the two. Today, White is considered the definitive version, but there were at least two performance versions that existed prior to White. Black had a lot of plot holes (being a concept album) that the various performance versions tried to fill. The British production (on stage from 1986-1989) is pretty much the same as White (interestingly, Florence, Freddy, and Anatoly were played by the same people as in Black). There was also a short lived American production (on stage in 1988) that had some pretty significant plot differences. The whole musical takes place over a single game that takes place in Bangkok and is subsequently moved to Budapest. The love triangle between Freddy, Florence, and Anatoly remains the same, however. Sadly, Svetlana is sidelined and only gets a single song which she has to share with Florence (I Know Him So Well). Florence is given Someone Else’s Story to illustrate her relationship with Freddy and Nobody’s Side replaces Heaven Help My Heart. In the end, Freddy wins, having manipulated Anatoly into losing, and Florence is still left alone. Obviously the composer preferred the British production, which kept most of the songs and plot from Black intact, since White was basically the British version with current singers. That being said, the idea of several variant plots with different song arrangements resulting from a concept album is interesting. I just wish one of these versions had treated the women better.

Black also had a few lines in Quartet that were changed in White that I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t address. Black gives us this little gem: “[the Russian]: Comes the ghastly suspicion/My opposition’s a fruit.” To which Florence responds: “[Florence]: For then you’d simply call him/Highly strung and not/Imply that he was one of those.” This is followed up by, in Pity the Child #2, with “[Freddy]: I didn't miss him, he made it perfectly clear,/I was a fool and probably queer.” To which I say, wow, homophobic much? Yes, it’s a product of its time, and the 80s were not known for being friendly to the GSD community (see side note at the end of this section), but still. If you weren't a child of the 80s, “fruit" and “queer" were offensive terms for GSD people at that time. The topic of GSD identity was considered taboo in the 80s, and there weren't any terms considered acceptable for polite company, hence Florence’s euphemistic “one of those.” White is marginally better, scrubbing the homophobia in favor of calling Freddy “a nut.” I recognize that calling someone “a nut” and “off his head” is an ableist slur, but I’m not good about articulating my discomfort with ableism while also navigating the fact that using mental illness as an insult is part of current parlance.

[Side note: GSD stands for Gender and Sexually Diverse. Some people have reported that they prefer it to LGBT, LGBT+, or LGBTQIA because they feel that the current popular use acronym does not include them or is too long and confusing. As a person who is not marginalized by gender or sexual identity, I will always use the labels chosen by those who are.

“Queer" has since been reclaimed by the GSD community, but if you're not a member of that community or haven't been invited to use that term by a member of that community, I would be cautious of its use.

Your milage may vary.]

Themes:

The Two Faces of Male Entitlement (Freddy and Anatoly):  Male entitlement (or male privlege) is the idea that men are given advantages by society solely on the basis of their gender. Freddy is the most obvious example of male entitlement. He dismisses all criticism as mere jealousy (Commie Newspapers/Press Conference) and uses violence as a method of silencing others (Press Conference). When it comes to women, he blames them for his failures and attacks them on the basis of their gender (Florence Quits) instead of accepting responsibility for his own actions and failures. Even by the second act, Freddy has changed very little. His attitude towards women are infantalizing--referring to Florence as “honey”--and then, after the terrible things he said in Florence Quits, he thinks that a mere declaration of love will earn him forgiveness (The Deal (No Deal)). Anatoly is less overtly misogynistic, but he has no less male entitlement. Right from the get go, though we weren’t aware of it at the time, Anatoly professes that his needs and interests were more important than his wife and children--abandoning them without so much as a word (Where I Want To Be and Embassy Lament). Black gives us logical Anatoly in Argument, which is a pretty gender essentialist trope. Men are frequently represented as the more “logical sex” even though there’s not a scrap of biological evidence that this is true. In contrast, White gives us whiney Anatoly in One More Opponent, which is a more subtle gender essentialist trope. There, Anatoly is a successful man who “deserves” to be supported by his partner, Supportive Girlfriend™ Florence. Now there’s an argument to be made that Anatoly sacrificed himself to free Florence’s father...only there’s no point at which Florence ever asked him to do that. He assumes that’s what Florence wants without talking to her--and all evidence points to the fact that Florence is entirely uninterested in sacrificing Anatoly for a father figure she hardly knows (The Deal (No Deal)). On one hand, I'm sad for Florence. On the other hand, she can do better than a man who is going to play the martyr and sacrifice their relationship for something that he never bothered to ask if she wanted. In the end, neither Freddy or Anatoly “win” Florence (another male entitlement trope, the hero gets the girl). Though we’re obviously meant to sympathize with Anatoly (for his “noble self sacrifice”) and Freddy (for his childhood abuse), I can’t quite bring myself to do so.

Women In Men’s Stories (Florence and Svetlana): Chess is a story about men. As much as I want Florence to be the main character (and seriously, you have no idea how much I want that). It’s a story about men. Florence and Svetlana are there to support the men’s stories--even the men in the story think that’s their only function. So a little bit of background that never made it into the review (because it wasn’t actually important): Florence’s father was apparently killed by the Russians in an uprising in Budapest in 1956. Okay, but you went through my entire review without knowing that little factoid. The other (male) characters, however, all make a big deal about this, as if it’s a big deal (Anatoly and Molokov/1956 - Budapest is Rising/The Deal (No Deal)). Why do the men think she’s somehow motivated by daddy issues? Can she not just be awesome? Then Black abandons her in Act 2, while White makes her a shade of her strong, independent self. Poor Svetlana gets it even worse. She doesn't even show up until Act 2 and then she's used as a plot device to twist Anatoly up in emotional knots. All of her songs are about her life in relation to a man. We don't even know how her story truns out. Does she support Anatoly in his new fame? Does she leave him to keep her children out of harms way? Does she go on to have a happier life, free from Anatoly’s thoughtlessness? We don’t know, and the plot doesn’t care about her (I care!). She has a story, but it’s left mostly untold to make room for the men. As much as I enjoy Chess (seriously, I sang along to it nonstop for two weeks during my commutes), the way it treats women is really awful. Someone write that Florence/Svetlana road trip sequel already.

Final Score: B-(Black)/C+(White) While I enjoy the songs in isolation, the context sets my teeth on edge.

Next Week: The Secret Garden or How to Improve a Beloved Classic