May 27: Don’t know nothin’

Whoa, I feel like a big dummy. While surfing the ‘net this evening, I found a mention of Chess in reference to Idina Menzel, and started investigating. And there’s a whole stage musical that’s been produced—several times!—that I had no idea even existed. It was written by Tim Rice and the guys from ABBA, and the most recent production stars, among others, Menzel, Adam Pascal (the original Roger in Rent), Josh Groban, and Kerry Ellis (Elphaba in Wicked in London and Broadway). This is why I feel like a big dummy about it:

• I follow Broadway productions and their stars somewhat faithfully. Obviously not faithfully enough.
• Idina Menzel, Wicked’s original Elphaba, is a performer I enjoy very much—loved her in Rent, loved her (on the soundtrack) in Wicked, loved her even in the non-singing role she played in Enchanted. And hello??? She’s married to Taye Diggs and, to quote Jack from Will & Grace, “I digs me some Taye Diggs.” So how could I not know she was in this big production, belting out that gorgeous voice?
• Josh Groban’s voice gives me goose bumps in the very best way. It surprises me that I enjoy him so much, because opera is one of my least favorite kinds of music, but I think his sound is incomparable.
• At least two of the songs from the musical were very popular when the soundtrack was first produced in the ‘80s: One Night in Bangkok and I Know Him So Well.

I’m not going to go into all the details about Chess; you can read them on Wikipedia like I did. But I have to link you to the Amazon page in which you can see a trailer for the DVD coming out in a couple weeks. The music looks/sounds like it’s incredible.

The performance is scheduled to air on PBS, so check your local listings. Around here, it’ll be on KOPB on June 17 and June 19.

It just hit me how I got into this thread of browsing: Norbert Leo Butz guest-starred on Law & Order: Criminal Intent tonight and I started digging around to find his filmography. He was the original Fiyero in Wicked and Freddy in Broadway’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. If you want to see a particularly fun performance, check out this one.