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By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
" 'Chess' is really about how people play with other people,
and how there is always a bigger picture," says actor Jade Stice.
"Things that are right in front of you, that you think are so big
and so important to you, can be like a speck of dust to
someone else."

Jade Stice, back from Broadway,
stars in Diamond Head Theatre's
production of 'Chess'

---

By John Berger
Special to the Star-Bulletin

THE superstar status of the "three knights" -- Tim Rice and ABBA members Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus -- who created "Chess" isn't enough to give it the mass appeal of a musical such as "South Pacific," "The Sound of Music" or "Cats."

The musical's most recognized song is "One Night in Bangkok," which hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 for British singer/actor Murray Head in 1985. But one hit song is not likely to sell the musical.

ON STAGE What: "Chess" Place: Diamond Head Theatre Date: Opens tomorrow. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through March 4. Tickets: $10 to $40 Call: 734-0274

Diamond Head Theatre is presumably hoping the homecoming of a Broadway triumphant Jade Stice will get people through the doors long enough to be taken by the tale of international intrigue.

The DHT production will be Stice's first big show for a hometown crowd since she appeared opposite Alan Onickel and James C.K. Pestana in DHT's 1990 production of "Singin' in the Rain." Stice has lived in New York City since 1991, and she's ecstatic to be performing here instead of dealing with winter in the city.

She says "Chess" tells a great story and no prior knowledge of the show or the board game is required. "It's really about how people play with other people, and how there is always a bigger picture. Things that are right in front of you, that you think are so big and so important to you, can be like a speck of dust to someone else," she says.

Stice stars as Florence, a woman who gets caught between an American grand master (Matthew Pederson) and his Russian rival (Guy Merola) while the two men are battling for the world chess championship. A key man on the Soviet team is Molokov (Mike Humerickhouse), a cynical KGB man responsible for watching the Russian champion and preventing political incidents.

(The Soviet Union designated chess a "national sport" and considers possession of the world chess championship proof of the superiority of communism over capitalism.)

The story is based in part on two famed battles for the world championship title. One took place in 1972 when the brilliant and arrogant American challenger, Bobby Fischer, beat defending world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in Iceland. In 1978, a Soviet world champion, Anatoly Karpov, successfully defended the world title against Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi in a rivalry so bitter that a divider was installed so the two men couldn't kick each other under the table.

Out of that history comes the musical tale of a rivalry between a loutish American and his urbane Russian opponent, as Soviet power brokers pursue a broader agenda.

Diamond Head Theatre
Guy Merola plays Anatoly and Jade Stice, Florence, in
Diamond Head Theatre's production of "Chess,"
a tale of international intrigue.

"Florence is a pawn in the whole picture. That's the chess game for Florence. She's a pawn and she gets played. What she wants has nothing to do with anything in the big picture," Stice said.

The DHT show is a reunion for her and several of her colleagues. She and director Andrew Sakaguchi worked together on a local production of "Dreamgirls" at the Hawaii Theatre and later became roommates for a couple of years in New York. Stice and Pederson worked together as members of the original Broadway cast of "Miss Saigon," and Sakaguchi and Merola were the dynamic duo whose chemistry on stage was the most impressive element of Manoa Valley Theatre's staging of "Kiss of the Spider Woman."

"Even when the helicopter (in "Miss Saigon") didn't work -- and that happened quite a bit -- people would come up and say that they still enjoyed the show," Stice says regarding the trend toward bigger and more elaborate effects, and louder music, on Broadway.

"People use technology in this MTV era -- lights and sound and 'big' -- and I think that's great, but a story has to stand on its own." "Chess" has that power, she said.

"It's a huge undertaking and I was more concerned about the vocal challenge of it. When I got here and started working with Matthew and Guy and Andrew and trying to make my character real, I got caught up in the story. As an artist you always want to sound good and look good but when it's all said and done it's about, did they get it? Did they get the character? As an artist you should always have something to say (and) if one person gets it, you can say you've done your job. This is that kind of show!

"But, maybe more people would come if the name of the show was 'One Night in Bangkok.' "

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