Chess, Starring Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, Will Close Early on Broadway

The Broadway revival of Chess will play its final performance at the Imperial Theatre on June 21. At the time of its closing, it will have played over 250 regular performances and 34 preview performances. The musical began Broadway performances on October 15 and opened on November 16, 2025.

Chess is directed by Tony winner Michael Mayer, with a new book by Danny Strong and a score by EGOT winner Tim Rice and ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. The musical was nominated for five 2026 Tony Awards: Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Nicholas Christopher, Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Bryce Pinkham, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Hannah Cruz, Best Orchestrations for Brian Usifer and Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Kevin Adams.

The production stars Christopher as Anatoly Sergievsky, Lea Michele as Florence Vassy and Tony winner Aaron Tveit as Freddie Trumper, with Cruz as Svetlana, Bradley Dean as Molokov, Sean Allan Krill as Walter and Pinkham as The Arbiter. It was previously announced that Joanna "JoJo" Levesque would succeed Michele as Florence Vassy beginning on June 23.

The company also features Kyla Louise Bartholomeusz, Daniel Beeman, Shavey Brown, Emma Degerstedt, Casey Garvin, Adam Halpin, Sarah Michele Lindsey, Michael Milkanin, Aleksandr Ivan Pevec, Aliah James, Sydney Jones, Sean MacLaughlin, Sarah Meahl, Ramone Nelson, Fredric Rodriguez Odgaard, Michael Olaribigbe, Katerina Papacostas, Samantha Pollino, Regine Sophia and Katie Webber.

Chess features scenic design by Tony winner David Rockwell, costume design by Tom Broecker, lighting design by Tony winner Adams, video design by Peter Nigrini, sound design by Tony winner John Shivers and hair, wig and makeup design by Campbell Young Associates. Choreography is by Lorin Latarro, with music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Usifer. Additional orchestrations are by Anders Eljas. Ian Weinberger serves as music director.

First released as a concept album in 1984, followed by a 1986 West End production, an altered version of Chess with a book by Richard Nelson opened on Broadway in 1988, running for only two months. The show was revived in the West End in 2018.

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