CHESS Sets June 21 Closing- Page 4
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#75
Posted: 5/27/26 at 12:38pm
nealb1 said: "
Several comments here on the thread referred to the Trump & Biden jokes in the show and being in bad taste. So......? It's really no big deal. And, the show isn't shoving anything down anyone's throats.."
It's not that those jokes are in bad taste- it's that they're hacky and tonally out of step with the show (a show set forty years ago!). The show manages to make political jokes that are toothless groaners for everybody on the political spectrum, which, in this age of polarization, I suppose is a sort of accomplishment.
Understudy Joined: 2/10/18
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#77
Posted: 5/27/26 at 1:10pm
Kad said: "nealb1 said: "
Several comments here on the thread referred to the Trump & Biden jokes in the show and being in bad taste. So......? It's really no big deal. And, the show isn't shoving anything down anyone's throats.."
It's not that those jokes are in bad taste- it's that they're hacky and tonally out of step with the show (a show set forty years ago!). The show manages to make political jokes that are toothless groaners for everybody on the political spectrum, which, in this age of polarization, I suppose is a sort of accomplishment."
That's the power of humor. What one person finds funny, the next one doesn't.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#78
Posted: 5/27/26 at 2:04pm
I think I had mentioned that I originally thought the jokes were ad libs, and I had hoped when I went back, there would be different jokes, or as least a rotating cycle that Bryce could pick from based on the audience. Alas, not the case
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#79
Posted: 5/27/26 at 2:21pm
Poor Jojo. I'm sure everyone missed out on her version of the songs. Great attitude, though.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2YN38O14g/?igsh=MThudXNudmtzamk2ZA==
Maybe Jessica Vosk can do the tour?? /s
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#80
Posted: 5/27/26 at 2:30pm
Ball of Buttah said: "Poor Jojo. I'm sure everyone missed out on her version of the songs. Great attitude, though.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2YN38O14g/?igsh=MThudXNudmtzamk2ZA==
Maybe Jessica Vosk can do the tour?? /s"
They can't afford her!
Broadway Star Joined: 6/3/18
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#81
Posted: 5/27/26 at 4:11pm
Kad said: "Ball of Buttah said: "Poor Jojo. I'm sure everyone missed out on her version of the songs. Great attitude, though.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2YN38O14g/?igsh=MThudXNudmtzamk2ZA==
Maybe Jessica Vosk can do the tour?? /s"
They can't afford her!"
you beat me - was gonna post it
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/4/04
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#82
Posted: 5/27/26 at 5:36pm
Ensemble1763372746 said: "bear882 said: "I suppose it’s possible that theChessrevival was doomed by the announcement of Lea Michele’s upcoming departure - prompting her fans to think she had already left the show.
But there is a more likely explanation: The show, whatever the virtues of its score and musical performances, just wasn’t regarded as very good. Some people loveChess, or at least the score, and that contingent yielded its excellent box office for several months.
I agree that Lea Michele is the biggest draw inChess. The numbers back that up. When the producers were trying to revive the flagging box office, they sent Michele - and only her - out to promote it on the talk shows in March. I saw Lea Michele staring down at me during my week in New York City, and we seriously considered seeing it as one of 9 shows I saw that week.
In the end, we decided against it. I think Nicholas Christopher is a terrific performer and was tempted to see it just for that reason. I had never seen Michele (not for lack of trying; she was out both times we tried to seeFunny Girl) or Tveit.
But the show sounded so dumb, and the reviews didn’t really persuade me. Biden and Trump jokes? There’s nothing less appealing to me than a show promising meta commentary throughout.
The first Broadway incarnation ofChessflopped a lot harder, as noted. Musical revivals always run out of steam after a time. The successes make enough money while they’re still hot (Hello, Dolly; Sweeney Todd; Merrily We Roll Along).Sweeneyis such a good musical that even Thomas Kail’s disappointing direction couldn’t doom it.
Chessisn’t one of those musicals. Even its biggest fans groused about the book. It’s not a classic and didn’t have a magical combination of stars that made it a must-see show long after the diehards had seen it.
So the box office faded, perhaps earlier than expected, but it was an easy ticket during the same week in March when Lea Michele was promoting the musical on TV appearances.
The situation is unfortunate for Levesque, but the advance must have been awful.
I don’t think the failure of a divisive musical revival that has never succeeded in America and got mediocre word of mouth is a sign that all musicals are doomed. We just tend to see things that way given the current environment.
I’ll write a full analysis this weekend explaining why this version is so ****ing good. Not because it’s perfect, but because it actually understands the material instead of treating Chess like some dusty 80s relic.
People keep judging it based on old criticism and productions they’ve never even seen. Meanwhile, this version finally embraces the political satire, the absurdity, and the emotional core of the story instead of running away from it.
The Biden and Trump references aren’t random jokes — they modernize the East vs. West tension and show that political theater hasn’t changed, only the faces have. That’s exactly in the spirit of Chess.
They also make it clear that the Arbiter exists in the present day. He’s telling a story that took place in the 1970s, but he’s not just narrating it from the outside. He actively participates in it by moving the chess pieces and manipulating the action. As Arbiter, he literally and metaphorically hovers above the players and the conflict itself. The modern references reinforce that framing device and make his role much more interesting than in traditional productions.
And the idea that the story is impossible to follow, a comment often made, remains ridiculous to me. I understood it perfectly as a kid in 1986 without English even being my first language. The problem is not the show. The problem is that too many people walk into it already convinced it doesn’t work.
"
I agree with every word you said. I loved this as well.
People are saying they can’t follow the plot? That’s pretty pathetic if true.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#83
Posted: 5/27/26 at 5:40pm
Kulisse said: "suzcap said: "Bobster159 said: "That Times article is generous to Lea. Shewas clearly a massivepart of Chess's early success, but the wheels came off monthsago with her still in the cast. Any replacement star has to sell not just to new audiences but to returning ones too, and that's a huge ask for a mid-tier title."
Still odd the grosses only started falling of after her vacation and the show announcing her departure though."
Did they, though? Looks like a very steady, almost linear downward trajectory to me since all the way back last year. They very obviously plummeted when Lea was out on vacation, but her departure announcement really doesn't stand out as a turning point to me.
"
Yes it does. The announcement of her departure was on 21st March. Look at the decline since then.
Chess was never going to stay at the heady heights of $2M a week and those early grosses were a shock to everyone. I always expected it to start at about $1.2- $1.3M a week, just because i knew as a long term Chess fan it was never going to be for everyone, and that is where it had settled into after the initial unexpected high numbers.
If they could have stayed there they would have been fine which is why they went ahead and extended with JoJo.
They clearly didn't expect the drop that happened after and that drop began the week after they announced Lea was leaving and never recovered.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#84
Posted: 5/27/26 at 8:26pm
GirlFromOz68 said: "Kulisse said: "suzcap said: "Bobster159 said: "That Times article is generous to Lea. Shewas clearly a massivepart of Chess's early success, but the wheels came off monthsago with her still in the cast. Any replacement star has to sell not just to new audiences but to returning ones too, and that's a huge ask for a mid-tier title."
Still odd the grosses only started falling of after her vacation and the show announcing her departure though."
Did they, though? Looks like a very steady, almost linear downward trajectory to me since all the way back last year. They very obviously plummeted when Lea was out on vacation, but her departure announcement really doesn't stand out as a turning point to me."
Yes it does. The announcement of her departure was on 21st March. Look at the decline since then.
Chess was never going to stay at the heady heights of$2M a week and those early grosses were a shock to everyone. I always expected it to start at about $1.2- $1.3M a week, just because i knew as a long term Chess fan it was never going to befor everyone, and that is where it had settled into after the initial unexpected high numbers.
If they could have stayed there theywould have been fine which is why they went ahead and extended with JoJo.
They clearly didn't expect the drop that happened after and that drop began the week after they announced Lea was leaving and never recovered."
Maybe they went down once her limited fan base had seen the show. I saw it and while she sang the hell out of it, her acting, even while singing was sub par.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#85
Posted: 5/27/26 at 9:16pm
George in DC said: "GirlFromOz68 said: "Kulisse said: "suzcap said: "Bobster159 said: "That Times article is generous to Lea. Shewas clearly a massivepart of Chess's early success, but the wheels came off monthsago with her still in the cast. Any replacement star has to sell not just to new audiences but to returning ones too, and that's a huge ask for a mid-tier title."
Still odd the grosses only started falling of after her vacation and the show announcing her departure though."
Did they, though? Looks like a very steady, almost linear downward trajectory to me since all the way back last year. They very obviously plummeted when Lea was out on vacation, but her departure announcement really doesn't stand out as a turning point to me."
Yes it does. The announcement of her departure was on 21st March. Look at the decline since then.
Chess was never going to stay at the heady heights of$2M a week and those early grosses were a shock to everyone. I always expected it to start at about $1.2- $1.3M a week, just because i knew as a long term Chess fan it was never going to befor everyone, and that is where it had settled into after the initial unexpected high numbers.
If they could have stayed there theywould have been fine which is why they went ahead and extended with JoJo.
They clearly didn't expect the drop that happened after and that drop began the week after they announced Lea was leaving and never recovered."
Maybe they went down once her limited fan base had seen the show. I saw it and while she sang the hell out of it, her acting, even while singing was sub par."
I disagree about her acting and her fan base isnt that limited but you can always count on people wanting to drag Lea.
Swing Joined: 11/20/24
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#86
Posted: 5/28/26 at 5:29am
GirlFromOz68 said: "Kulisse said: "suzcap said: "Bobster159 said: "That Times article is generous to Lea. Shewas clearly a massivepart of Chess's early success, but the wheels came off monthsago with her still in the cast. Any replacement star has to sell not just to new audiences but to returning ones too, and that's a huge ask for a mid-tier title."
Still odd the grosses only started falling of after her vacation and the show announcing her departure though."
Did they, though? Looks like a very steady, almost linear downward trajectory to me since all the way back last year. They very obviously plummeted when Lea was out on vacation, but her departure announcement really doesn't stand out as a turning point to me."
Yes it does. The announcement of her departure was on 21st March. Look at the decline since then.
Chess was never going to stay at the heady heights of$2M a week and those early grosses were a shock to everyone. I always expected it to start at about $1.2- $1.3M a week, just because i knew as a long term Chess fan it was never going to befor everyone, and that is where it had settled into after the initial unexpected high numbers.
If they could have stayed there theywould have been fine which is why they went ahead and extended with JoJo.
They clearly didn't expect the drop that happened after and that drop began the week after they announced Lea was leaving and never recovered."
...yeah, I'm looking, but I'm still not sure what I'm meant to be seeing around that particular date, nor am I convinced why I should ignore the larger trend that precedes it. It's not like the show stabilized after an initial unrealistic high and then suddenly started falling again - it just kept going down gradually. It's also not an unusual trajectory for revivals unique to Chess. The show just ran its course. Lea initially gets people through the door, but that only goes so far if the love for the show itself isn't there. They were probably hoping for some Tonys love to give them a boost, but that didn't end up happening.
ETA:
For comparison, here's Sunset from last season - extremely similar progression (including free falling sales when the star lead was out), except they did get the desired Tonys bump in the end.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#87
Posted: 5/28/26 at 6:57am
Kad said: "nealb1 said: "
Several comments here on the thread referred to the Trump & Biden jokes in the show and being in bad taste. So......? It's really no big deal. And, the show isn't shoving anything down anyone's throats.."
It's not that those jokes are in bad taste- it's that they're hacky and tonally out of step with the show (a show set forty years ago!). The show manages to make political jokes that are toothless groaners for everybody on the political spectrum, which, in this age of polarization, I suppose is a sort of accomplishment."
My goodness you really didn’t get it did you? The arbiter is the present time telling a story of 40 years ago. The Trump/Biden jokes are there so you understand he is the present time. The jokes are also there to underline that there is not much difference between the 70’s and our time. We are still being manipulated by the great powers and we were polarized 40 years ago just as we are now. It really is not that hard to understand. If you have opinions at least give them a thought before you post them.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#88
Posted: 5/28/26 at 6:57am
Kad said: "nealb1 said: "
Several comments here on the thread referred to the Trump & Biden jokes in the show and being in bad taste. So......? It's really no big deal. And, the show isn't shoving anything down anyone's throats.."
It's not that those jokes are in bad taste- it's that they're hacky and tonally out of step with the show (a show set forty years ago!). The show manages to make political jokes that are toothless groaners for everybody on the political spectrum, which, in this age of polarization, I suppose is a sort of accomplishment."
My goodness you really didn’t get it did you? The arbiter is the present time telling a story of 40 years ago. The Trump/Biden jokes are there so you understand he is the present time. The jokes are also there to underline that there is not much difference between the 70’s and our time. We are still being manipulated by the great powers and we were polarized 40 years ago just as we are now. It really is not that hard to understand. If you have opinions at least give them a thought before you post them.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#89
Posted: 5/28/26 at 9:08am
Ensemble1763372746 said: "Kad said: "nealb1 said: "
Several comments here on the thread referred to the Trump & Biden jokes in the show and being in bad taste. So......? It's really no big deal. And, the show isn't shoving anything down anyone's throats.."
It's not that those jokes are in bad taste- it's that they're hacky and tonally out of step with the show (a show set forty years ago!). The show manages to make political jokes that are toothless groaners for everybody on the political spectrum, which, in this age of polarization, I suppose is a sort of accomplishment."
My goodness you really didn’t get it did you? The arbiter is the present time telling a story of 40 years ago. The Trump/Biden jokes are there so you understand he is the present time. The jokes are also there to underline that there is not much difference between the 70’s and our time. We are still being manipulated by the great powers and we were polarized 40 years ago just as we are now. It really is not that hard to understand. If you have opinions at least give them a thought before you post them."
Where did I indicate that I didn't understand it? I just didn't think it worked. You are doing a lot of a dramaturgical justification that the production, frankly, doesn't even do for itself. Hacky jokes about RFK's brain worm and Biden's cognitive decline don't underline any of the show's themes at all and indicate a massive lack of trust in the material and the audience's ability to draw very obvious comparisons.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#90
Posted: 5/28/26 at 9:11am
I saw the show last night and felt it was misdirected thus I was not engaged in the story. The director seemed more interested in style (which was lacking) rather than substance. I guess I should’ve been suspicious when I walked in and an usher whom I knew, said “well at least the singing is good.”
Lea seemed miscast and Aaron looked like he was outside his character peering in. I also had a hard time understanding lyrics in ensemble numbers when the orchestra was too loud. Aaron was hard to understand in the opening of Act 2 and I know the lyrics.
The theatre was freezing. I wished I had brought my winter parka and gloves but it did not occur to me since it was 84 degrees in Times Square. Everyone in my section was complaining. I do not know what the general management was thinking. Perhaps it was an attempt to keep us all awake.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#91
Posted: 5/28/26 at 9:18am
Ensemble1763372746 said:
My goodness you really didn’t get it did you? The arbiter is the present time telling a story of 40 years ago. The Trump/Biden jokes are there so you understand he is the present time. The jokes are also there to underline that there is not much difference between the 70’s and our time. We are still being manipulated by the great powers and we were polarized 40 years ago just as we are now. It really is not that hard to understand. If you have opinions at least give them a thought before you post them."
I think this is the best encapsulation of why I hated this production - so little trust in its audience that it leans on these bold-faced HEY THIS IS ABOUT RIGHT NOW statements just in case anyone isn't getting it. It feels so dumbed down - I came out of the theater and told my sister, "I feel like this show thinks I'm stupid."
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#92
Posted: 5/28/26 at 10:01am
I think the elephant in the room with Chess is that nobody really reckons with the Brechtian element of the piece. The music is intensely passionate, while the lyrics themselves tend towards a sort of cold, analytic detachment. So much of it is about people analyzing and avoiding their feelings, with a weird gallic shrug to the whole thing. Meanwhile, the plot goes round in increasingly tight circles, sturm and drang that signifies very little on the personal or political scale. When something grips you intellectually or emotionally, something is right around the corner to cancel that reaction, and I can't tell if it's intentional or not.
It's Tim Rice at his Tim Riciest, full of wordplay and allusion that is extremely interesting but rarely affecting. "Take my blues as read" is the kind of triple entendre line Elvis Costello would be jealous of, but it's hardly effective as a recurring moment of character development.
Chess is what it is, which is a musical with Tim Rice lyrics about love and politics. You can try and embrace the intellectual chilly wit the way the OLC did, you can try and negate it by interpolating real human stakes and drama the way the OBC did, or you can try and neutralize it a little by rendering the entire thing a bit absurd and nihilistic, the way this one does. But at the end of the day, it's always going to be that strange, intentionally alienating mixture of drama, pathos and bathos that you either love or hate.
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#93
Posted: 5/28/26 at 11:50am
Very interesting conversation starter. I would counter that the show could use much more intellectual distancing. All three love-challenged characters routinely wear their hearts on their sleeves for most of the stage time, whether venting operatically about non-allegiances, "Nobody's Side," origin story trauma, "Pity the Child," or wistful yearning for attachment to culture and geography, "Anthem." Rice's libretto may be larded with wordplay, but the sentiment is invariably emotion-fueled. A little more distance from the push-pull in romantic alignment might - underscore might - help the show earn its pretentious drop curtain, the schematic Cold War divide. But that presumes that chess championships have global stakes. The contrivance in the plotting - Strong now folding in Able Archer, a stakes-free nukes exercise since we know the outcome - only makes all of the sturm and drang feel wankerish. We wait for the trio to think about anything but their oft-bruised hearts. Adorned with clever verbiage or not, it's a soap dressed up in geopolitical folderol that goes nowhere.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#94
Posted: 5/28/26 at 12:33pm
Yeah, I would definitely argue that the central plot is basically melodrama (I do not mean this as a pejorative) with some political intrigue for spice.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#95
Posted: 5/28/26 at 1:19pm
Chess is fun to listen to, but difficult to give your full attention to. The score is full of darlings nobody wants to kill, the lyrics are clogged with awkward, constipated phrases, and the central love triangle just sits there like a piece of hardtack. It's like if half the songs in Evita were replaced with ten more Another Suitcases.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#96
Posted: 5/28/26 at 10:15pm
darquegk said: "I think the elephant in the room with Chess is that nobody really reckons with the Brechtian element of the piece. The music is intensely passionate, while the lyrics themselves tend towards a sort of cold, analytic detachment. So much of it is about people analyzing and avoiding their feelings, with a weird gallic shrug to the whole thing. Meanwhile, the plot goes round in increasingly tight circles, sturm and drang that signifies very little on the personal or political scale. When something grips you intellectually or emotionally, something is right around the corner to cancel that reaction, and I can't tell if it's intentional or not.
It's Tim Rice at his Tim Riciest, full of wordplay and allusion that is extremely interesting but rarely affecting.."
Well said. I think this is another reason I say just go back to the London through sung "rock opera" and quit trying to make a book work. Whether it's the tone of Strong's anachronistic snark, or Richard Nelson's attempt to make this serious political drama with deep characters, it just does not mesh when Rice is being his "Riciest." I still don't think audiences need the characters better explained than the basic archetypes that they originally are (and so far I personally feel it never works) but that aside, stylistically, it's very hard to have book scenes for characters who have been emoting through Tim Rice's stylized lyrics otherwise--nevermind that often these sequences (Mountain Duet being a big one) are in place of book scenes, so why suddenly switch to dialogue? Yes, Rice has written scores for more traditional book musicals more recently (Lion King obviously, From Here to Eternity, etc) but this is in full Evita mode--and could you imagine if Evita's music stopped and suddenly those characters had spoken scenes?
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#97
Posted: 5/29/26 at 4:41pm
I might attend the closing performance if I can get an affordable ticket closer to. I had fun back in January when I went.
But i wasn’t a fan of the costumes, or the choreo. The entire ensemble did look in synch. I also felt the orchestra could’ve been more in your face. Maybe it’s the arrangement
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#98
Posted: 5/29/26 at 5:49pm
There are still plenty of seats for the closing performance. There was a 30% discount floating around up until yesterday. Now I can't find that particular advertisement.
CHESS Sets June 21 Closing#99
Posted: 5/30/26 at 12:43am
DottieD'Luscia said: "There are still plenty of seats for the closing performance. There was a 30% discount floating around up until yesterday. Now I can't find that particular advertisement."
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