CHESS (2025 Broadway Revival) Reviews- Page 11

[Mary_Poppins]

Posted: 3/14/26 at 8:59pm

The stars of Broadway's CHESS join Alison Stewart live in The Greene Space at WNYC. 

Thursday, March 19, 2026

12:00 PM

44 Charlton Street, New York, NY 10014

Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele, and Nicholas Christopher perform songs from the show and discuss bringing the beloved musical back to the stage. They’re joined by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer and Emmy Award-winner Danny Strong, who re-wrote the book for this revival.
This event is part of All Of It's Broadway on the Radio series.

Info/Tickets here:

https://www.wnyc.org/events/events/2026/mar/19/broadway-radio-chess/

There will also be a free live stream.

[Art Isn’t Easy]

Posted: 3/15/26 at 4:12pm

I caught the show this weekend for the second time (I saw it near the beginning of previews) and actually came away really impressed with the production as a whole. Part of it is knowing what I was in for in terms of the new book material, which is just terrible. It actually gets close to being an embarrassment some of the time, not even The Arbiter stuff because at least that lands with the audience, the dialogue is so surface level and vapid I really still cannot believe it.

 

But as for the production I think it's a really sleek and effective staging of an incredibly difficult piece of material - there's so much music and so many scenes and set changes that I can't imagine bringing a more realistic or physical staging to it, we've heard the horror stories from the original Broadway production. The cast has all depend in their portrayals - Stern and Krill are an even tighter comic pair (The Soviet Machine continues to be a sleeper hit), Cruz is nailing the ice queen vibe (her voice is insane, at times I'm like. is this good singing? It's loud at least!), Pinkham has tapped into an almost manic quality that people around me were eating up, and the central trio are bringing an even richer performance both vocally and in terms of characterization. Tveit is loose, Christopher found a way to channel this nerdy, almost Seymour Krelbor-ian element to Anatoly that makes his early scenes with Florence shine and add believability to their dynamic, and I was most impressed actually with Michelle - I thought she was outstanding. She is singing her face off and acting down, I do think there is a case to be made for her winning the Tony perhaps (not an especially competitive year it is though oy).

 

At the end of the day the show is the show but I think this production makes a case for Chess having one of the great scores; it is so thrilling to experience the intricate plotting of The Deal sequence or the balls to the wall breakdown of Endgame, even on just hearing the slap bass on Difficult and Dangerous Times I thought "god they really do not make them like this anymore." 

Updated On: 3/15/26 at 04:12 PM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/15/26 at 6:38pm

Folks, not every show is - or should be - about everyone having 'agency'. Quite on the contrary, this is about people being pawns in other people's CHESS-like games. And it's not just Florence.

Since this was addressed to my post by Mary T. Poppins, I'll answer it a month later: I'm not using "agency" in any sociopolitical or niche feminist sense, merely dramaturgically. I have no problem with her circumstantial paralysis; I have an issue with her failure to self-reflect and acknowledge the absence of options and a richer life seeking them might give her. If you're the ostensible heroine of a romantic triangle, sing for 2.5 hours about your woe, and it's all tethered to the careers of two men, you might end up with a song or scene about the absence of agency, a number that ruminates on why you're a Pawn and not a Queen in life, Or at least wooable in a new way. (See Doolittle, Eliza, "Show Me.".) Yes, the creatives repurposed "Someone Else's Story" to cover this, but nothing in the Rice lyrics offers gained insight (again, it served Kuhn as an introduction.) The biggest problem with Florence is her emotional stasis. It's an attractive role because her songs are such soaring workouts. But I hold that the character is singularly narrow, and need not have been. I thought the younger Strong might remint her. Clearly, many love her as is, and feel the numbers alone are enough. We'll agree to disagree. .  

Updated On: 3/15/26 at 06:38 PM