Chess: Thank You for the Music
8 / 10
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.'
