My Experience At 'Chess: The Musical' On Broadway

When the long-anticipated revival of Chess: The Musical on Broadway was confirmed—and confirmed with an utterly stellar cast in Lea Michelle, Nicholas Christopher, and Aaron Tveit—I knew I would have to make a trip to New York to see the show. It had been three decades since Chess was on Broadway, and I couldn't miss this possibly fleeting window of opportunity to see the show in all it's glory.

For those not familiar with Chess, it's a grand musical by Tim Rice (whose stellar resume includes Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita (each with Andrew Lloyd Weber), Aida (with Elton John), Aladdin (with Alan Menken), and The Lion King (with Elton John)) and by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA. The story is fictional, but it pulls heavily on the real-world dramas of Fischer, Karpov, Korchnoi, and others engaged in the great chess clashes of the Cold War era. The original show struggled on Broadway despite affection for the music, especially One Night in Bangkok which even topped the popular charts of the day, peaking at #3 in the US. The challenges around the show have largely been attributed to the book (plot and dialogue) and not the music.

The basic plot [SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS] is that the American champion, Freddie Trumper (who is inhabited by Fischer's neuroses but with even more arrogance) battles the Soviet champion, Anatoly Sergievsky, for the World Championship in Merano. He is supported by his manager, second, and lover (in that order), Florence Vassy, who is a Hungarian refugee. To brutally summarize, Sergievsky topples Trumper, wins Florence's heart, and defects to the UK. And that's just Act I! Act II sees Sergievsky defending his title against the new Soviet champion as Trumper serves as commentator and the Soviet powers put pressure on Sergievsky through his wife and family who remain in the Soviet Union and on Vassy whose father has been interred for decades in Siberia and may/may not be alive.

For those who have wanted to see Chess since its closure on Broadway, opportunities have been scant, but I can highly recommend getting the DVD recording of "Chess In Concert" with Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Adam Pascal. Groban's redition of Anthem is amazing.

With the revival debuting on October 14th, Chess has debuted to major ticket success (peaking at #2) and general audience acclaim with a mixed critical reception. Broadway reviews are typically not like movie reviews. Broadway critics are quite picky. Mixed reviews are the norm, and something akin to a 90+% Rotten Tomatoes score is rarely seen. In sum, critics and audiences have almost universally praised the show's music, orchestra, and lead performances. Nicholas Christopher has earned a lot of buzz for his performance throughout and especially his rendition of the classic "Anthem." Critics have sometimes taken issue with the plot, and the Arbiter's humor and narration (a new function for the Arbiter in this revival) has been divisive with some loving it and some finding it off-putting.

I couldn't wait to see the show myself and form my own opinion. My wife and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary shortly, and we decided to celebrate early with a trip to NY this December, visiting Bryant Park's Christmas Village, Rockefeller Center, and seeing Chess: The Musical, Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York, and Ragtime. Our love of musicals and Broadway isn't restricted to Chess, and while I won't spend much time on Two Strangers Carry A Cake Across New York and Ragtime, know that they were fantastic, and Two Strangers is enormously easy to recommend to absolutely anyone—musical lover or not! On our visit, NY was hit by a snowstorm, but that didn't stop us from making it to the Top of Rockefeller Center to see what the NY city skyline looked like in the midst of snowfall.

After thawing out from our brisk viewing of NYC atop Rockefeller Center, we traipsed through the snow over to the Imperial Theater, secured our seats, and checked out the Playbill. It was of special interest because during December, the Playbill includes a promotion for the Chess bots on Chess.com! Behind us was a family with some chess players, and they were talking enthusiastically about playing the bots. Personally, I tried my hand against Aaron Tveit's bot which, like his character, plays in the style of Bobby Fischer. I got utterly trounced (trumped?) by the bot.

The Sunday matinee show we attended was unique because Lea Michelle was scheduled out. We knew she would be out when we purchased the tickets, and though it would have been wonderful to see her acclaimed performance, the timing just didn't work out. Also, I love seeing and supporting stand-ins who do such great work and preparation behind the scenes and relatively rarely perform. Katerina Papacostas was in for Lea Michelle, and when she took the stage, the audience gave her the loudest welcoming applause of all the leads. It was thrilling to see the crowd thoroughly in her corner.

Act I absolutely BLEW ME AWAY. When the lights came up, I looked over at my wife, and she was absolutely glowing with a huge smile plastered across her face. The audience reaction was completely in line with my wife's. From the opening performance of "Difficult and Dangerous Times" (a welcome re-ordering as usually this song is in Act II, but it is great opener) to "The Arbiter" by Bryce Pinkham (who KILLS the Arbiter role), "Nobody's Side" by Papacostas, and finally the INCREDIBLE "Anthem" by Nicholas Christopher, the energy, humor, and story was firing on all cylinders. Among the many choices cementing the story were the use of the Arbiter as a narrator and a dry fourth-wall breaking humorist and the inclusion of the nuclear disarmament peace talks as a story element. In Act I, I think it all worked perfectly, and our audience was with it and laughing throughout.

I will mention only two minor Act I quibbles. First, the show added an element of mental illness as a core plot point for Tveit's character. In concept, I loved the approach, it is both truthful to the struggles of many top chess players like Fischer, and it deepens Tveit's character and the show. I only question the execution which felt a little clumsy. The Arbiter also opened with the Arbiter hamming up being a bad dancer. In all other contexts, as Arbiter and narrator, he is assured and confident. I would have preferred he owned this song from start to finish rather than feigning discomfort with the spotlight at the outset.

Act II famously kicks off with the most popular song in the whole show: "One Night In Bangkok". Without spoiling too much, you see a LOT more of Aaron Tveit and the cast in the Broadway performance than you do in their promotional performance here on the Today show. 🥵

The second Act also introduces Hannah Cruz as Sergievsky's wife, Svetlana, who remains in the Soviet Union. The core of Act II is Sergievsky's struggle as he is pulled between his love, his nation, and his family. Candidly, the second act is a little lighter on bangers after the non-stop nature of Act I, but few will complain with "One Night In Bangkok" kicking things off. "Pity The Child", "I Know Him So Well", and "Someone Else's Story" (listen to Lea Michelle's performance below) also give plenty to love in the second act - to say nothing of the gripping story. As a chess lover, the chess play also gets a bit more love in the second act, and there's a beautiful montage of the world champions that pays off Sergievsky's motivation to etch his own name in history. I won't spoil the ending, but suffice to say that it's bittersweet and beautiful.

A true highlight of our showing was Papacostas' performance! She was amazing, both as a singer and as an actress, and she received the loudest applause of all the performers. Her character, caught between the machinations of two champions and two nations, is the linchpin of the whole show. During the curtain call, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, waved her back to take a second bow in response to the audience acclaim. It was a touching and supportive moment and so well deserved. There was a great post on the Broadway subreddit celebrating her performance, and it was noted that she does such great work while having a successful career as a software engineer. mind. blown. 🤯

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My quibbles with Chess certainly didn't prevent me from having a tremendous, once-in-a-lifetime, joyful experience, but they do exist. In my opinion, they are also very fixable, and like many, I wish I could get an editing pass at the book. There are many changes in this revival that are improvements, but I found the second-act premise of war games and possible nuclear annihilation hinging on the match to be far too over the top relative to the first-act's premise of possible match fixing to bring the Soviets to the table in disarmament talks. Similarly, in the second act, I think the self-aware humor wears thin. At this point, the audience has bought in to the premise and characters, and we don't need to be told "wow-this-musical-is-really-about-chess?!?!" for the tenth time. In my opinion, these and similar issues stem from an insecurity around chess. When I was growing up, chess had a stigma - like math, D&D, Comic-Con, etc. Such things were "nerdy" and "uncool," and they were certainly not good fodder for mainstream entertainment. Today, the world has learned to celebrate all manner of interests. D&D has Stranger Things and its own fine movies, Marvel movies are THE biggest thing in entertainment in the last two decades, and the Queen's Gambit was the #1 show on Netflix when it came out. Media doesn't need to be self-conscious about it's source material, and chess is as viable a topic for stories in mainstream media as anything else. The story in Chess: The Musical is based on engaging real-life drama. The characters are compelling. The songs are SPECTACULAR. The one thing I would love to see from future versions of Chess is confidence in the core material and story and less attempts to poke fun at being a musical about chess or over-wrought nuclear plots which don't trust in the core plot.

If you can, see Chess on Broadway! You won't regret it. If you are a chess player, it's great! If you aren't a chess player, it's great! Hopefully, the success of this revival paves the way for great touring productions in future, but this case and performance is special. If you can make it to NY, I cannot recommend it enough. ❤️