Plot Your Move! Full Casting Is Set for the West End Return of Chess

Casting is complete for the highly anticipated new West End production of Chess. The tuner featuring music by ABBA songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, lyrics by Tim Rice and a book by Richard Nelson will play the London Coliseum beginning on April 26 with an opening slated for May 1. Laurence Connor will direct and Stephen Mear will choreograph.

Philip Browne (The Lion King) is newly announced in the role of Molokov. The cast will also include Sabrina Aloueche, Robin Bailey, Sarah Bakker, Jeremy Batt, Kimberley Blake, Sophie Camble, Cellen Chugg Jones, Jordan Lee Davies, Jonathan David Dudley, Richard Emerson, Callum Evans, Chris Gage, Matt Harrop, Jack Horner, Stevie Hutchinson, Nicholas Lee, Sinead Long, Robbie McMillan, Jo Morris, Jennifer Robinson, Jo Servi, Alexandra Waite-Roberts, Carrie Willis, Stuart Winter, Chris Gardner, Matthew Walker and Joe Watkins.

They join previously announced stars Michael Ball as Anatoly, Alexandra Burke as Svetlana, Cassidy Janson as Florence, Tim Howar as Freddie and original London Chess star Murray Head as the Arbiter.

Chess is set against the background of the Cold War in the late 1970s/early 1980s, during which superpowers attempt to manipulate an international chess championship for political ends. Two of the world’s greatest chess masters, one American, one Russian, are in danger of becoming the pawns of their governments as their battle for the world title gets underway. Simultaneously their lives are thrown into further confusion by a Hungarian refugee, a remarkable woman who becomes the center of their emotional triangle.

The West End production of Chess will play a limited engagement through June 2.