Additional Creative Team Members Announced for CHESS

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts today announced additional creative team members for the Broadway Center Stage production of CHESS, the epic rock opera about love and political intrigue set against the backdrop of the Cold War as two superpowers attempt to manipulate an international chess championship for political ends.

Joining the creative team led by Tony Award®-winning director Michael Mayer (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening) are choreographer Lorin Latarro (Waitress), music director Chris Fenwick(Once on this Island, Sunday in the Park with George), and orchestrator and arranger Brian Usifer (Frozen, Kinky Boots). The production will feature the work of Tony Award®-winning set designer David Rockwell (She Loves Me, Kinky Boots), Tony Award®-winning lighting designer Kevin Adams (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, SpongeBob SquarePants), projection designer Darrel Maloney (The Parisian Woman, On Your Feet!), sound designer Kai Harada (The Band's Visit, the Kennedy Center production of Follies), and Tony Award®-winning costume designer Clint Ramos (Once on this Island, Eclipsed).

Written in 1984 by songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (Mamma Mia!) and lyricist Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, The Lion King, Evita), CHESS has been seen in numerous productions around the world. The original concept album spawned two international hit singles, "I Know Him So Well" and "One Night in Bangkok." Presented as a part of Broadway Center Stage, a Kennedy Center-produced series of musicals in semi-staged concerts, CHESS will run February 14-18, 2018 in the Eisenhower Theater.

CHESS, which enjoyed a three-year run in London's West End in 1986 and played Broadway in 1988, has been revised with a new book by Emmy® and Golden Globe Award®-winning writer Danny Strong(Empire, The Butler, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay).

As previously announced, CHESS stars Raúl Esparza (Company, the Kennedy Center's Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along) as American chess champion Freddie Trumper; Ramin Karimloo (Anastasia) as rival Russian chess star Anatoly Sergievsky; Tony Award® winner Ruthie Ann Miles (The King and I, Here Lies Love) as Anatoly's wife, Svetlana Sergievsky; and Tony Award®winner Karen Olivo (West Side Story, In the Heights) as Florence Vassy, a remarkable Hungarian refugee who becomes the center of the emotional triangle. The production also features Bradley Dean (Dear Evan Hansen) as Ivan Molokov, Sean Allan Krill (Honeymoon in Vegas) as Walter Anderson, and Bryce Pinkham (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder) as the Arbiter.

The CHESS ensemble includes Paige Faure, Casey Garvin, Nkrumah Gatling, Adam Halpin, Paloma Garcia-Lee, Ericka Hunter, Sean MacLaughlin, Morgan Marcell, Marissa McGowan, Chelsea Turbin, Christopher Vo, and Ricardo Zayas.

Broadway Center Stage is Executive Produced by Jeffrey Finn, Vice President of Theater Producing and Programming. Following CHESS, the new series continues with In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes's Tony Award®-winning musical about a vibrant community on the brink of change in New York's Washington Heights, March 21-25, in the Eisenhower Theater. Then, June 6-8, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the Tony® and Pulitzer Prize­­-winning musical lampooning life on the corporate ladder, with an exhilarating score by Frank Loesser, will take to the Eisenhower Theater stage to complete the season.

Broadway Center Stage: CHESS will be performed Wednesday, February 14-Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 8 p.m. with matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday, February 17 and Sunday, February 18. Tickets from $49 are currently on sale. For more information please visit the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the Kennedy Center box office, or call (202) 467-4600 or (800) 444-1324.

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