Sound - check - mate

Chess in Concert
Royal Albert Hall

I would love to be able to comment on the quality of the performances at Chess the Concert on Tuesday. The cast promised to be fantastic, with Idina Menzel and Kerry Ellis battling for the heart of Josh Groban.

Unfortunately I am unable to do so. I left the Hall infuriated and immensely disappointed at having forked out £25 for a seat with a severely restricted view only to discover during the performance that the sound quality was also restricted to such a level that the lyrics and spoken words were essentially inaudible throughout.

The overall experience was akin to listening to a concert in a stadium from outside in the car park.

Not being familiar with the musical, I was forced to guess the plot based upon the simultaneous PowerPoint presentation projected above the performers. And at times I regretted being too far away from the stage to be able to read the titles which I could see scrolling past on the immensely tacky and distracting autocues which were dotted around the stage.

I can only assume that many other members of the audience found themselves in a similar position: two rows of people around me did not return after the interval and when I tried to purchase a programme (pouring good money after bad in an attempt to salvage my evening by reading the synopsis), I was told that programmes were sold out despite them also being vastly overpriced at £15. Phew.

Advice to all: look out for future productions promoted by Heartaches Ltd / The Night of 1000 Voices / JGPC and give them a very wide berth. And really, DON'T buy the DVD.

I found this Youtube Clip later taken on someone's mobile phone. The sound really was this bad.