Playbill: Chess is currently back on the boards, as it readies to open its first ever Broadway revival, led by a trio of young stars: Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele, and Nicholas Christopher. It is also playing at the Imperial Theatre, the same theatre where the show first ran in 1988. But how did a show about a board game, which only had 68 performances on Broadway, become a cult classic?
3 comments:
I need to see the revival of Chess! I have been keeping tabs on it since it was cast and has been in the works for the Broadway revival, and it is a show that is definitely on my bucket list. It is really cool to kinda take a step back and read about the first production, along with many others that have happened, and how it is continuing to tell its story and be a hit. This article was really interesting because there are definitely some things that I didn't know about how this show was brought up. For example, I didn't realize that Benny Andersson had been the one to help write some of the music. This really shocked me especially because I am an ABBA fan. When thinking about the music, I can start to notice some similarities between the ABBA songs and the Chess music. I also think it is interesting how it has had so many different revivals from when it opened to now, because of the limited number of performances that it ran for on the original Broadway production. It is interesting to really take a look at the start of the entirety of Chess and see how it has progressed over the years.
I love the idea of revivals, especially those who make changes to the actual play to make it. I believe taking old art and making it something new and reimagined is a work of art in it’s own, and that is exactly what why they have their own tony category for best revival. Art did this perfectly, they redid the script so it reads better, all the designs were redone (of course), and new talent who take this play a totally different way then the previous cast. It seems like the reviews for the revival seem a lot better then the original. However, it is interesting to see the amount of stunt casting it seems this show has. Aaron is a major stunt cast as a lot of theatre kids “fangirl” over him. Lea Michel is also a major name in the industry and general acting, so I am curious to see what would had happened if it was casted differently.
I’ve never seen or listened to Chess before, but reading about the original run made me kind of curious. What really caught my attention was how huge everything looked with the set, the costumes, and very interesting lighting. I didn’t realize the show had such a messy history with all the different versions in London and the US. It’s cool that even though it didn’t do great at first, people still kept it alive and it turned into this fan favorite. Theater fans are so good at keeping shows alive when they love it, no matter what critics say. The photos from the production look awesome, everything just feels really bold and over the top in the best way. I kind of want to listen to the soundtrack now just to see what the vibe is. I love when shows that didn't go great at first get a successful revival, I hope I can see this when I visit.
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