10 Fascinating Facts About Chess to Know Ahead of Its Broadway Revival

It’s a game. It’s a battlefield. It’s a musical with, ahem, a checkered past. Yes, it’s Chess—and it’s coming to Broadway for the first time since 1988.

The revival, starring Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher, will begin previews at the Imperial Theatre on October 15 and open November 16. (Fun fact: The original production also played there.) Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the story centers on the events leading up to the World Chess Championship between brash American grandmaster Freddie Trumper (Tveit) and disciplined Soviet Anatoly Sergievsky (Christopher). Freddie’s manager Florence (Michele) is caught between the two men, both romantically and politically.

The production will mark Michele’s return to Broadway following her acclaimed 2022-23 run in Funny Girl and her first time originating a role since Spring Awakening in 2006. Tveit is a 2021 Tony winner for his performance in Moulin Rouge!, and Christopher last appeared on Broadway in the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd. Chess, scored by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, features a new book by Emmy winner Danny Strong (Dopesick), with Lorin Latarro (Waitress) choreographing and Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) on board to direct.

Those are the black-and-white details. Now it’s time to study up on Chess’ intriguing behind-the-scenes history.

1. The idea was inspired by a real chess match
Our story starts in 1972. That’s when British lyricist Tim Rice—already renowned for his work on Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita with collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber—was closely following the Cold War politics surrounding a World Champion chess match between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky. ''I play chess and follow it in newspapers, but it is not a particular passion,'' he told The New York Times in 1988. “'What I always wanted to write was a musical about East and West. The idea of a chess match in which points were being scored backstage by various nations and factions seemed a wonderfully straightforward metaphor.''

2. The road to find a composer led to Sweden
Rice initially approached Lloyd Webber about writing a chess musical in 1980 while the two were in Australia to launch a production of Evita. But the composer, already busy with Cats, passed on participating. A New York producer named Richard Vos, who had previously approached Rice about writing a show with Barry Manilow that never materialized, matched him with unlikely partners: Andersson and Ulvaeus, the songwriter-producers and performers in the mega-selling Swedish pop quartet ABBA. As it turns out, the two were looking to stretch their creative muscles beyond catchy Euro-pop records.

3. The music originated as a concept album
Before the musical was produced, a two-disc Chess album was released by RCA in 1984. The single “One Night in Bangkok,” a pop-disco earworm sung by Murray Head, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1985 and sold four million copies; “I Know Him So Well,” a soaring duet between Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson, reached No. 1 on the British pop charts and was later recorded by Whitney Houston and her mother, Cissy. (Other songs included “Anthem and “Nobody’s Side.”) In total, the album sold two million copies worldwide and earned critical praise from both Rolling Stone and Time. The cast also put on concert productions in London, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris and Stockholm.

4. The show had to overcome a big hurdle ahead of its world premiere
Michael Bennett, the mastermind behind A Chorus Line and Dreamgirls, had originally signed on to direct Chess. But, ahead of the show’s first curtain in 1986, he had to withdraw because of health issues. (He died of complications caused by AIDS in 1987 at age 44.) Enter Trevor Nunn, the original director of Cats and Les Misérables. He inherited a cast that included Paige, Dickson and Head, not to mention an elaborate stage production. “The London production forced together the ideas of two directors who had no consultation,” Rice told the Times.

5. The London production was a bona fide hit
At last! Chess debuted on May 14, 1986 at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End. The show boasted a state-of-the-art stage that rolled and tilted, along with a floor that used 128 video screens to transform into a giant chessboard. The actors functioned like chess pieces in some scenes, with half the cast dressed in black and the other half in white. Though Chess opened to mixed notices from the critics, it went on to receive three prestigious Olivier Award nominations, including one for Best Musical and one in the acting category for Paige. It played for almost three years, closing in April 1989.

6. The Broadway version required some major maneuvering
Rice paid out of his own pocket to help bring the show to Broadway in 1988. But this Chess looked and sounded much different compared to its version across the pond. Instead of the flashy chessboard imagery, the characters resembled everyday people. The set, meanwhile, was organized around 12 towers that changed in shape and color as they moved into different configurations (a la Les Misérables). The New York iteration also included three new songs—several numbers from London were omitted—plus additional dialogue from American playwright Richard Nelson. He ended up sharing the book writing credit with Rice.

7. The Chess run in NYC was short-lived
After just 17 preview performances, the much-altered version of Chess opened at the Imperial Theatre on April 28, 1988. Judy Kuhn played Florence, Philip Casnoff was Freddie, and David Carroll took on Anatoly. Critics weren’t kind. Reviews pointed to the production’s muddled storytelling and tonal shifts, with several noting that the show seemed at odds with itself. The show ran 68 performances before closing on June 25. Still, Kuhn and Carroll earned Tony Award nominations.

8. ...But its music never went away
Flop, shmop! Lured by Chess’ mellifluous rock-opera score and memorable songs, many marquee names went on to perform the music. An Actors Fund benefit in 2003 featured Adam Pascal, Josh Groban and Tony winner Sutton Foster. Chess in Concert, with Pascal, Groban and Idina Menzel, was staged at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2008 and recorded live for a DVD and album release. The last New York City performance of Chess was staged in 2022 as part of an Entertainment Community Fund benefit. It starred Tony winner Lena Hall, Ramin Karimloo, Solea Pfeiffer and future Tony winner Darren Criss.

9. The plan to return to Broadway started a decade ago
In 2017, Rice shared that he was actively revising the 1986 show with a new creative team. They had tested the restructured storyline in a stripped-down workshop setting, and he hoped to bring a full production to Broadway the following year. Though it didn’t come to fruition, a semi-staged show—directed by Mayer with a revised book from Strong—did play for one week in 2018 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. On the stage? Tony winners Ruthie Ann Miles and Karen Olivo along with Tony nominees Raúl Esparza and Karimloo. The production’s driving rock score turned heads once again, giving the cast plenty of room to shine.

10. Fans are more than ready for Chess 2.0
Even prior to the May announcement about Chess’ Broadway revival, the search phrase “Chess revival” turned up thousands of social media posts from fans begging for the rumors to become a reality. (Samples: “Sometimes you just feel like singing—when are we going to get that Chess revival on Broadway?” and “I’ll believe the Chess revival is happening when I am sitting in a chair with my Playbill in hand!”) Now that the show is official, game on!