Nicholas Christopher as Anatoly Sergievsky in Chess
(© Matthew Murphy)
The Broadway revival of Chess will end its run at the Imperial Theatre on Sunday, June 21, the originally scheduled departure date of star Lea Michele.
Chess will have played just over 250 performances by closing, nearly four times longer than the original Broadway production. However, ticket sales were noticeably soft whenever Michele was out, and the closing announcement suggests that her replacement, JoJo Levesque, was unable to generate the same box office momentum.
In Chess, featuring music and lyrics by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, based on an idea by Rice, two of the greatest chess players in the world compete for something beyond victory as the woman between them is caught in a high-stakes battle of desire and devotion. This production, with a new book by Danny Strong, received Tony nominations for stars Nicholas Christopher, Hannah Cruz, and Bryce Pinkham, but it didn’t receive a coveted nod for Best Revival.
Chess also stars Aaron Tveit, Bradley Dean, and Sean Allan Krill. The ensemble includes Kyla 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, Chloé Nadon, Ramone Nelson, Fredric Rodriguez Odgaard, Michael Olaribigbe, Katerina Papacostas, Samantha Pollino, Adam Roberts, Regine Sophia, Travis Ward-Osborne, and Katie Webber.
This production is directed by Michael Mayer and choreographed by Lorin Latarro, with orchestrations by Anders Eljas and Brian Usifer, music supervision by Brian Usifer, and music direction by Ian Weinberger. Sets are by David Rockwell, costumes are by Tom Broecker, lighting is by Kevin Adams, sound is by John Shivers, and video design is by Peter Nigrini.
