Chess Broadway Reviews

Parts of the show are absolutely thrilling and parts are flat at best, aggressively dumb at worst. At least Mayer’s production, starring Nicholas Christopher, Lea Michele and Aaron Tveit, is not a bland bore. Thinking back to Michele’s big, then bigger, then biggest ‘Nobody’s Side’ or Christopher’s red-hot, neck-vein-bursting ‘Anthem,’ I can feel the needle move toward the positive side of the dial.

All of the above might make for an entertaining evening if Chess were just a concert, which unfortunately it is not, despite Mayer’s concert-style staging: the orchestra is onstage, with minimal sets (by David Rockwell and video designer Peter Nigrini) but maximal lighting and sound (by Kevin Adams and John Shivers, respectively). The problems with Danny Strong’s new book present themselves instantly in the obnoxious form of the Arbiter (Bryce Pinkham), whose smarmy metatheatrical narration, when it isn’t restating the obvious, often seems to be making fun of the rest of the show. Though never welcome, and usually shouty, his narrator is at his absolute worst when he strains for humor.

The new Broadway revival once again attempts the impossible, under the direction of Michael Mayer and book writer Danny Strong. On paper, their involvement suggested a clear-eyed rethink: Mayer excels with emotional pop-rock material (“Spring Awakening,” “American Idiot”), while Strong has a reputation for structuring complex political narratives (“Dopesick,” “Empire”). In reality, the production feels caught between apologizing for the musical and re-enacting it—all while relying on its three stars to deliver the songs that keep the evening afloat.

Pinkham, along with a deliciously dry performance by Sean Allan Krill as CIA agent Walter de Courcey, balances the above-the-title star power, including Aaron Tveit as clinically depressed and bipolar US chess champion Freddie Trumper, his coach/lover Florence Vassy (Lea Michele), and their Soviet opponent Anatoly Sergievsky (Nicholas Christopher). Christopher, joined by an electric Hannah Cruz as his estranged Russian wife Svetlana in Act II, leans into Michael Mayer’s direction with the highest stakes, navigating the political and personal with the kind of urgency that kept us glued to The Americans for six seasons.

Tveit (Moulin Rouge!) seems to be coasting a bit, not completely committed to the Bobby Fischer-inspired Freddie’s bipolar swings – just a little too composed; but Michele (Glee; Funny Girl), looking terrific, tears into her impossible role of ping-ponging (another game!) between the two champions as if it made sense. Christopher (Hamilton) comes off best, his impassive Yul Brynner affect hinting at Anatoly’s deeper layers that emerge when forced to choose among three loves: Florence, wife Svetlana (a heartfelt Hannah Cruz) and Mother Russia.

If you’ve never seen, or heard, Chess, trust us. Every song is a banger, and the stars—Nicholas Christopher as Russian chess champion Anatoly Sergievsky, Aaron Tveit as American champ Freddie Trumper, and Lea Michele as Florence Vassy, a top chess strategist and the woman loved by both—know it. You’ll never hear a better ‘Anthem,’ the sweeping love-of-country ode that brings down the Act 1 curtain, and the house, than Christopher’s. (Sorry, Josh Groban.) Tveit goes for broke—and hits every crazy high note—on the electrifying ‘Pity the Child.’ And are these Rice’s best-ever lyrics? A personal favorite: ‘I see my present partner/ In the imperfect tense,’ from Michele’s killer power ballad ‘Nobody’s Side.'

Lovers of ABBA may continue to think the score’s great. For the rest of us, the musical features a couple of treacly sweet love songs and a slew of ponderous anthems and percussive dirges driven by propulsive rhythms. Audial exhaustion sets in about halfway through act one.

This is the Broadway show of the fall that some will claim to dislike and yet most everyone will enjoy, even if that has to be in secret. Happily, that’s a match for one of the main themes of a 1980s musical that always saw geopolitics, even the dangers of nuclear proliferation, as games played by those who enjoyed the strategizing.

Alas, the debate of whether ‘Chess’ can be saved or fixed must continue, for this is likely not the best iteration of the material. What Florence sings rings true for ‘Chess’ overall: ‘I’ve still a lot to prove; there must be more I could achieve.’ There’s so much potential, it’s hard not to continually yearn for a version of ‘Chess’ that fully works. Although this ‘Chess’ match may not have produced a new champion, there’s still some thrilling gameplay, especially from Michele and Christopher, who help provide insight into the magic of ‘Chess’ and make this sometimes uneven game still feel entirely worth watching.

There’s a strange, undermining, conflicted nature to Mayer’s project, a push and pull between eras and customs. Perhaps that is actually the great insight of this Chess. Not about the Able Archer 83 incident that almost ended the world, nor about the whirring mechanics of mind and heart that govern chess phenoms. (Truly, the actual game barely factors in here, save for two inventively staged sequences that imagine the interior monologues of players during a match.) Rather, this Chess teaches us a history lesson about the world pre-meta-irony and the one post-, in which we find ourselves mired at the moment.

But for all its shortcomings, it’s impossible not to fall under the spell of this powerhouse cast. After swooping in to save the ill-conceived 2022 revival of “Funny Girl,” Michele earned enough critical goodwill and box-office pedigree to pick any show that she wanted to do next. That she chose a property as dicey as “Chess” is admirable in itself, but it also makes complete sense, given how perfectly the score is suited to her stunning vocal abilities.

Chess is not a serious musical. Fine. Good, even! When the show is at its best, it hits levels of unironic ludicrousness that are more fun than most things on Broadway. Back in 1988 Frank Rich ripped Chess’s American premiere a new one: ‘The characters,’ he wrote in the Times, ‘yell at one another to rock music.’ Yes, they absolutely do. And I had a great time.

The script has been reworked and the characters retooled, only for Chess to end up back where it started: impeccable music, a flat story and a baffling execution. But the eternal contradiction of Chess is that while its flaws are many, it's still a delight to witness. Like those that came before, this lively production is bursting with talent both on and offstage.

What everyone is really here for are the handful of blow-your-hair-back, 1980s-style rock ballads sung by the love-triangulated leads. Whether or not you appreciate the outrageous decibels at which they are amplified here, the bangers are built to impress, with notes held for longer than most people can count in their heads.

Chess matches can be agonizingly long, lasting for numerous hours at the professional level. So maybe it’s perversely apt that the Broadway revival of the musical “Chess” should feel eye-glazingly interminable, despite a cast of thrillingly good singers in top form.

Giving what I think is his best-ever Broadway performance – actually making us feel sorry for the difficult Freddie – Tveit stops Act II in its tracks with his extraordinary rendition of the ultra-difficult ‘Pity the Child’… Frankly, for all its great songs, ‘Chess’ contains a few too many clunkers… Still, thanks to its superb stars, ‘Chess’ remains a knight – I mean night – to remember.

But while the show’s songs run furiously hot, its characters stay resolutely cold and uninvolving. And, the book—despite Pinkham’s comically authoritative guiding hand—remains a messy puzzle, using the lingering Cold War and 1980s nuclear superpower tensions to implausibly sex up, well, chess.

Chess might not be for everyone: Diehard fans may bemoan the modern updates, while newcomers may get lost in the 2-hour-and-40-minute back-and-forth of plot that covers, essentially, two chess matches. But for those who go to Broadway musicals hoping to hear actors perform songs so powerfully you get goosebumps, you’ll find that three times over.