New version of Chess to play on Broadway with Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher

Chess will be revived on Broadway for the first time ever later this year.

Telling the story of a Cold War-era chess tournament between an American and a Soviet, Chess has a score by ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with Tim Rice, and a new book by Danny Strong.

It was originally released as a concept album in 1984, before having a three-year run in the West End, with a book by Rice. A significantly different Broadway production, featuring a book by Richard Nelson, ran for two months in 1988. Strong’s book adaptation, directed by Mayer, premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2018. The musical is best known for the hit pop song, “One Night in Bangkok.”

You can hear Rice discuss plans for the show, and its history, on our exclusive WhatsOnStage Podcast episode:

Starring in the new revival will be Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele, and Nicholas Christopher.

Tveit will play Freddie Trumper, Michele will take on the role of Florence Vassey, and Christopher is Anatoly Sergievsky.

The production will be directed by Michael Mayer, with choreography by Lorin Latarro and music supervision by Brian Usifer.

Dates and additional information will be announced in the coming months.