How Michael Mayer Is Shepherding an All New CHESS to Endgame

We know him so well. Michael Mayer is the visionary director who has brought us such  beloved new musicals as Thoroughly Modern Millie, Spring Awakening, American Idiot, and Swept Away, just to name a few. When it comes to revivals, he has made just as big an impact on Broadway, bringing us new takes on Funny Girl, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and this fall... Chess.

After years of developing a revised version of the 1986 musical with Danny Strong (who has written the new book), he is finally ushering the final product back to Broadway, where it hasn't been seen in almost four decades. This Chess will be led by an all-star cast, including his frequent collaborator Lea Michele, Tony winner Aaron Tveit, and Nicholas Christopher. 

Before rehearsals began, Mayer checked in with BroadwayWorld to tell us all about how he's setting up the board to create a Chess for 2025. 

So I understand that you are just days from starting rehearsals, is that right? Are you ready?

I'm ready as I'm gonna be, and in some ways I'm extra ready because we've been working on this for quite some time now. We've had so many different iterations, so it's really, really thrilling to have landed on this version that is our favorite and with this amazing cast. So I can't wait actually.

I wanna start by talking about this version. As you were just saying, a lot of people know some about Chess, but it's gone through lots of changes over the years, right? What can you tell me about the version we're going to see, and specifically, what Danny has done with the book? 

Well, I should start by saying that I'm actually not that well-versed on all the previous versions. I did not see it when it was first in London and I never saw the New York production. I actually never even read the book for the New York production! I've seen a few little bits and pieces on YouTube. They're just shot from the house though, and it's hard to know what's really going on. [Laughs]

Oh yes, we've all seen those.

I did see the concert at Royal Albert Hall in 2008, which was really exciting musically. I didn't necessarily know what was happening all the time... but I was really completely blown away by the score. 

It's one of my favorite scores! 

Yes, it's just it's a remarkable thing that they made. But this whole thing is actually Danny's idea. He had a vision for how this musical could be reimagined while keeping all the great stuff about it that we love- the basic characters and that extraordinary score. 

The original show was written and conceived at a moment when we were very much in the middle of the Cold War. So it was meant to be of the moment. When Danny started taking a crack at it, he was very cognizant of the fact that if and when we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to present a new version of Chess at the level that we dreamed of, which is exactly what we're doing, that it would happen at a time when the Cold War was a historical event as opposed to a current experience that we were all inside of. 

To that end, in maintaining the characters and the relationships that were originally conceived and maintaining them to the extent that we had to by virtue of lyrical and musical information that we were maintaining, right? So everything that is lyrical that tells you about these characters, Danny held on to. It was a little bit of reverse engineering in a way to then tell the story from a perspective that had some critical distance from the Cold War and from the political situation that existed when the show was first written. 

In so doing, I think that one of the things that we learned over the process of the last, you know, almost 10 years, I think, of doing readings, workshops... we did a presentation at the Kennedy Center (when it was still the Kennedy Center that we all grew up with and loved so passionately). Then, we did another workshop after that and then did this one night only, concert with the Entertainment Community Fund. Through all of that, Danny kept exploring further and further how much the distance from the Cold War gave us to incorporate a very ironic 2020 hindsight approach to the history lesson of the Cold War that is baked into the show. 

And suddenly we found ourselves in a beautiful situation where our arbiter could function in a way like a master of ceremonies/trickster. And that really unlocked some interesting opportunities in the storytelling. 

Maybe it's fair to guess that Chess could be even more profound in 2025? 

Yes, I really think so. This version is informed by time and by what the world is going through today. Current events-wise, Russia is so in the news all the time! This musical is about the game of Chess but it's also about the political Chess game that was happening within the Cold War, which we have hindsight on today that we didn't have then. 

I know that Chess has remained quite a passion project for Tim Rice through the years. Have there been conversations with him as well throughout your process? 

Oh my god, absolutely! He has played a huge part in getting us to this point and in fact we consult him regularly. Having him has been phenomenal. And speaking of Tim, Benny and Bjorn are also such geniuses and it's been incredible working with them as well. 

The trio of actors that is leading this show... they are all such powerhouses...

I know. I cannot wait for people to see them. You know, I have a sort of short hand with Lea, having worked with her the most over the years. So I watch her, and I watch her watching the other two... we've had several table reads and their chemistry is just electric. They all sound amazing, they are singing the crap out of it, but they are also bringing such nuance to these characters. I really can't wait to get into rehearsals and get working on the scenes, because I know the three of them are going to be something really special.

Chess will begin performances at the Imperial Theatre on October 15 and will open on November 16, 2025.

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