Against one green wall lean posters for the Molesworth books now reprinted by Rice's company, Pavilion Books. "Are you an Eric or a Nigel?" asks one. "How to be topp in all subjeckts" promises another. "How to be a goody-goody."
Rice admits that the sagas of Molesworth, the dishevelled but worldly urchin, had more influence on him than most books. "His philosophy is way ahead of Kant or Russell. 'Keep a straight bat in cricket as in life' " he quotes, referring to his favourite pastime. On the opposite wall hang what he might like to regard as the fruits of this philosophy: gold and platinum discs of songs written by him and sung mostly by Elaine Paige, songs with the titles like "Love Hurts".
Yet it is less Molesworth than his weedy enemy Fotherington Thomas whom one associates with the smiling face and the thinning fair hair, fluffed up at the back in curls. "I was really quite unrebellious at Lancing - which in itself is quite original", he adds hopefully. A contemporary there of Christopher Hampton, David Hare and Nigel Andrews, Rice remembers with most affection a clarinettist who went to Belgium and was never heard of again.
Music is more important to Rice even than cricket, though he has three cricket books out this week. He also publishes - and writes - books like British Hit Singles 3 and Hits of the Sixties which makes him a mine arcane information. "Did you know that one of the guys who wrote 'Rock Around The Clock' was born in 1893?
Extraordinary how the composer of that song should be a man of the 19th century."
It was listening to his parents' records of shows he had never seen that Rice became interested in words and music. "All my excitement at shows like My Fair Lady came off their records. I remember then seeing some of the shows and feeling how strange they were, not at all like I imagined. Even today I never feel a sense of theatre." This could explain why he has never seen Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express nor his former partner's musical Cats. "At least not the whole thing from start to finish." he says, tapping his feet."There was a traffic snarl up."
The 10-year partnership, which had begun with an unperformed musical on Dr Barnado, ended in 1976 with Evita.For a time Rice without Lloyd Webber was like Bill Haley without his kiss curl. His medieval musical, Blondel, soon slipped from view, leaving its author to turn to disk jockey for attention on television.
But now with his latest musical, Chess, opening on Wednesday at the Prince Edward Theatre, Rice is riding high again. The album has already sold 1.5 million copies. As with Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita its release, a long time in advance of the stage production, is regarded as a run out of town. (He could also persuade very good people like Barbara Dickson to sing minor parts.) "I'm very pleased", purrs Rice. "In record terms it's done better than Evita." It cannot have escaped his attention that one of the songs "I Know Him So Well" reached number one on the very same day as "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" some years before.
Chess is the first Rice musical which doesn't involve a famous person, though the idea had its origins in the Fischer/Spassky and, more recently, the Karpov/Korchnoi tournaments. "Andrew and I nearly did something on the East-West relationship featuring the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chess is basically a
For his research Rice attended tournaments in England and America. "A lot of the time it's just two guys in a room over a board with an audience that's quiet and hushed. It's jus like theatre." Fittingly for a man who does not much like theatre, he then admits he is not particularly interested in the game, "I am fascinated by the people in it", he says, picking up a pair of sunglasses.
Thinking what a good idea it seemed to be for "a play, a book or something", Rice wrote a four page synopsis and began looking for a partner. Lloyd Webber ? "He was probably doing Cats at the time", he replies, tapping his feet. Hearing that the two bearded members of the Swedish pop-group Abba wanted to write a musical. Rice went to Stockholm. They so loved the idea they disbanded the group for it.
The lead female in Chess will be Elaine Paige, of the platinum discs, Evita, Starlight Express and Abbacadabra (with Abba's very own Bjorn and Benny). Did Rice write the part with her in mind ? "Yes, I did probably", he says, but he never took it for granted Bjorn and Benny would agree. "The same people crop up because they're good, and you only want to work with the best", he explains valiantly. One of these was the director, Michael Bennett, who quite unexpectedly withdrew on the account of ill health. Flying back to America, Bennett surfaced in the Press with garnish accounts, not of his own health, but that of the musical.
"I have been assured by our American producers that he is ill", says Rice patiently, his feet now in unison with his sunglasses. "But I was really quite surprisedwhen I read that he didn't like the script and had problems with Elaine." Fortunately Starlight Express was delayed on Broadway, which meant the availability of Rice's original choice, Trevor Nunn.
Rice goes on about how good his Abba collegues are. Can he conceive of them responding to another of his ideas ? "They're very good", he answers, without irony. "If I have a wonderful idea I'll atke it to Bjorn and Benny and if they think it's rubbish I might try it on Andrew, but I have no plans for another musical.
May 1986
