Using the backdrop of Chess this is a story about passion, greed, envy, and ultimately love. Anatoly Sergievsky (Josh Groban) is facing off against World Champion Frederick Trumper (Adam Pascal), a cocky American with an eye for money and power. The title of World Champion is on the line but that has very little meaning for either men. Their love for Chess is ultimately governed by social and political issues that crush their spirits and lead them in directions neither could have anticipated.

Chess is a musical that has been in the works since conception. Considered a commercial failure Tim Rice has both criticized his work and cherished it but all together given license to many to recreate it. Over the years he has seen one side win over the other, nationalities change, songs added and songs dropped. Many would argue that this version, Chess In Concert is probably not the greatest version seen to date and I would have to agree.

Josh Groban is amazing in this performance adding a vocal strength that is just awe-inspiring. There are moments when he’ll hold a note seemingly forever but it remains powerful and focused (dare I say almost inhuman). As Anatoly he is marvelous. It is unfortunate that the two other leads, Adam Pascal and Idina Menzel, have their moments of glory but also their moments of inconsistency and in that lies the problem. Menzel seems as if she is shouting most of the time and her voice is not powerful enough for the part so the passion and emotional aspect which is required in this type of performance just isn’t there. Sad because Menzel has the experience having performed in Wicked as well as starred opposite her husband Taye Diggs and Co-star Adam Pascal in Rent. Pascal suffers the same issues sounding focused and charged in one performance and just off-key in another as if he is trying to overpower the orchestrations. Kerry Ellis. Who plays Groban’s wife Svetlana, is sorely underused and has such an amazing voice and direction. It might have proven better to have switched Menzel and Ellis’ roles. David Bedella is also fantastic as Alexander Molokov, Anatoly’s “manager”, whose performance is both strong vocally and physically in presentation.

While the Chess In Concert set comes with both DVD and CD I felt that you couldn’t simply listen, you had to see everything to understand exactly where the story was going. Mind you the recordings from the show are superb in sound quality there is just a lack of information unless you have experienced the show at least once or twice. The DVD captures the spirit of what was being attempted. There are some performances where more then one character is telling their story at one time and the chorus is performing in the background so it was a plus to get a visual as well as have the option of throwing on subtitles. Other plus’ would be backdrops, in some scenes a giant screen is used to show location changes, news flashes, and video’s. There are some great dance performances as well which both add and subtract from the musical. Not all of them seem absolutely necessary but they are an enjoyment to watch. Well worth checking out in this set, live, or on television at least twice (so that you can totally get the gist of everything going on), but as has been stated, fans do tend to prefer one version over an other so keep an eye out and enjoy.