Dann Rafferty, Laura Tanner, and Michael Joseph in "Chess."

Photo by Glenn Bugala

There are three things you need to know about the musical “Chess," which the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre opened Thursday night at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.

First, it has little to do with the actual game of chess. Second, the song “One Night in Bangkok,” a hit on the radio in the mid-1980s, is nowhere near the score (or this production’s) finest moment. Finally, and most important, the A2CT makes mostly the right moves in bringing this sprawling production to the stage.

As director Glenn Bugala pointed out in the program notes, many people are familiar with the show’s score (by 1970s Swedish supergroup Abba’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus and with lyrics by Tim Rice) thanks to a popular concept album that was released even before the production hit the stage, but most have never actually seen the show. It was a hit in London, but a rewritten version was a miss on Broadway. To be clear, it’s the London version of the show Ann Arborites are seeing.

Without getting to deep in the details, the story, one of love and politics, fictionalizes two chess matches between American Bobby Fischer and Russian masters of the time against the backdrop of the Cold War, with a romantic triangle that mirrors the moves on a chess board.

The score is a mash-up of styles: rock, classical, disco, classical, opera, Russian folk and, yes, even Gilbert & Sullivan (the wonderfully humorous “Embassy Lament”). Don’t ask how, but it works.

On Thursday night, every one of the leading players proved they were up to the musical challenge. They included Michael Joseph (Russian chessmaster Anatoly Sergievsky), Laura Tanner (Florence Vassy, second and lover to hotheaded American player Frederick Trumper before she switches her affections to his Russian challenger) Dann Rafferty (Trumper) and Jared Hoffert (Alexander Molokov, second to Sergievsky and a KGB agent). Linzi Bokor was just right in the no-nonsense role of Arbiter.

A surprise treat in the second act was Amy Bogetto-Weinraub (Sergievsky’s wife Svetlana) who was superb both in her solo “Someone Else’s Story” and her duet with Tanner on the familiar “I Know Him So Well.” The emotional rock ballad “Pity the Child,” offered by Rafferty, proved him a powerful singer and a much more sympathetic character than we had been led to believe.

Speaking of musical numbers, the only one that disappointed was “One Night in Bangkok,” which opened the second act. I wanted it to be flashier and louder.

There was one other problem. Besides a large cast, “Chess” also includes the nearly 50-member Ann Arbor Civic Chorus, tucked neatly away at the back of the stage, vocally backing up the choral numbers. That’s a lot of voices performing some pretty fast-paced lyrics, hence some of the ensemble numbers were so vocally muddled as to be mostly unintelligible (“Merano,” “Merchandisers”). But it should be noted that the members of the ensemble did do an amazing job with multiple roles and costume changes.

Finally, the choreography was well-done, especially during a ballet scene in the first act. The stark, mostly black and white costumes mirrored the tensions of the times and the set was perfectly restrained, with nary an over-sized chess piece to be seen. The small orchestra made such a big sound I wondered if it was augmented by prerecorded tracks.

In the distant past I have ventured the opinion that when it came to musicals, the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s ambition sometimes exceeded its ability. Not this time. With “Chess,” A2CT is at the top of its game.

"Chess" continues through Sunday. For more information, see the preview article. For tickets, go to www.a2ct.org.