Rialto Chatter: Is a Broadway CHESS Revival Coming in 2023?

Chess was last seen on Broadway in 1988.

By: Feb. 15, 2023
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As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Tim Rice has been vocal about plans to bring Chess back to Broadway. In December, following the Entertainment Community Fund concert presentation of the musical, he issued a statement saying that "maybe the time is right for a return to Broadway." The time might be sooner than we think.

A recent announcement indicates that the show is planning a Broadway revival in Fall 2023.

The most recent Chess concert was directed by Michael Mayer and starred Darren Criss as "Freddie Trumper", Lena Hall as "Florence Vassey", Ramin Karimloo as "Anatoly Sergievsky" and Solea Pfeiffer as "Svetlana Sergievsky".

Chess originally opened on Broadway in 1988. It features music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of the pop group ABBA, lyrics by Ulvaeus and Tim Rice, and book by Rice. The story involves a politically driven, Cold War-era chess tournament between two grandmasters, one American and the other Soviet, and their fight over a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other.



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