BWW TV: The Cast Discuss The Opening Night Of CHESS!

The first West End production of Chess since 1986 stars Michael Ball as Anatoly, Alexandra Burke as Svetlana, Cedric Neal as The Arbiter, Tim Howar as Freddie, Cassidy Janson as Florence and Phillip Browne as Molokov.

This epic musical love story had its press night last night (read our review here) and is now playing at the London Coliseum for a strictly limited season. Watch a video from the opening night party below!

This is the fourth production in collaboration with English National Opera by Michael Linnit and Michael Grade, who brought Sunset Boulevard, Carousel and Sweeney Todd to the London Coliseum, the home of ENO. Michael Linnit and Michael Grade also produced 42nd Street, currently playing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

CHESS tells a story of love and political intrigue, set against the background of the Cold War in the late 1970s/early 1980s, in which superpowers attempt to manipulate an international championship for political ends. Two of the world's greatest grandmasters, one American, one Russian, are in danger of becoming the pawns of their governments as their battle for the world title gets under way.

Simultaneously their lives are thrown into further confusion by a Hungarian refugee, a remarkable woman who becomes the centre of their emotional triangle. This mirrors the heightened passions of the political struggles that threaten to destroy lives and loves.

watch as BroadwayWorld's Jamie Body discusses opening night with the cast at the afterparty!