Chess 2025 — Page 2

I’m with you on this! It would be a great role for her (Sara)

jagman106 said: "Adam Pascal was in a concert version of Chess in I think, 2005? His rendition of "Pity the Child" was the best I ever heard, and I only heard a recording of it. I'd pay a small fortune to hear him sing it live."

Agreed 100%...Adam was so sexy as well...but if he is now too old , then Adam Lambert for sure!

I was listening to a Backstage Babble interview with Michael Mayer the other day and the second half of the interview was apparently recorded in September 2024 and Michael was talking about work he had coming up and he said was hoping to be doing a big revival at the beginning of next season, that they were in the process of casting that now (september) and they'll know in a couple of months if its going to happen next fall. So if Sweaty is right about them having a theatre sounds like Chess is a go for Autumn 2025.

EDSOSLO858 said: "Lead producers are Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman, they’re using Danny Strong’s updated book, and apparently they plan to bring back most of the 2022 benefit concert cast."

Darrin Criss wasn't that well received based on the reviews I saw of the concert. Also, isn't the word that Lea Michele being tagged for Florence - that Lena Hall was a substitute in 2022? That leaves Ramin Karimloo (no problem there) and Solea Pfeiffer. 2 keepers and 2 replacements.

GirlFromOz68 said:
Re Solea isn't she booked for something else in 2025 or is it just that she is currently doing something else? While very talented she's also only 30 years old, that's a 16 year age gap with Ramin, and their characters are husband and wife. I know she did it for the concert but would they realistically cast that big an age difference for the revival?

I wonder if they mean for keeping most of the cast are the actors who have played The Arbiter, Molokov and Walter in both the Washington concerts in 2018 and the NYC concert in 2022?

I do hope it means Ramin is still in as Anatoly."

I don't know anything about Solea. In real life 16 years isn't all that big a deal, but today's audiences might find it objectionable. He and Lea are 8 years apart (The age difference between Fanny and Nick was 12 years). As for the rest of the cast, you are likely right. I was only considering the principals. Of those, Ramin is likely to be the only one to return.

Based on comments he made on the podcast he had during the FG run (The Hang) he alluded to doing Chess without actually saying so. Just that there was a show he would probably be doing where work had been done on the book that he liked. Pirates will be finished, so Fall of 2025 would seem to work for him. He is the perfect Anatoly.

Can anyone comment on the Danny Strong book? The show's problems fall into the Candide camp - to use the broadest definition associated with that legend - all score, weakish storytelling to hold an audience. Chess has always suffered from a shortage of relatable stakes, i.e., making Cold War specific character issues feel immediate. Yes, Russia is, if anything, more in the foreground than it has been for two decades. But the defection from communism angle is organic to a very distant time. Making the trio's plight emotionally full now is no easier. And it's a show in which women are relegated to subsidiary positions. Yes, of course, historically accurate, but it's a bro show, with women on the periphery, no matter how great their songs. I'm a devotee of the music, and played it on vinyl and tape back in the day. I'll never lose my affection for the ways it wears the heart on the sleeve, or the jump from Merano to Bangkok, giving the context global variety. But these three people - how can they engage as fully as they must? I hope the Strong work found a way in. The Richard Nelson book, literate, sophisticated, and well crafted, didn't do the show any favors. And that's the problem, baked into the DNA. Even when Chess is smart it's coolly distant in how it lands, particularly its second half. It's a lot of set-up, and then ... it just finishes without a grand enough stopping place, more befitting a chamber piece than a big musical.

Updated On: 1/2/25 at 01:08 PM

DramaTeach said: "Call me crazy, but I think Lea Michele might be Sandra Dee in Just in Time. It’ll reunite her with Jonathan, and their Instagram account follows her. Could be bc Jonathan doesn’t have his own account and she’s a bit of a surrogate for that, but makes me wonder."



I think you might be on to something. I checked the show’s casting and there are two actresses that are listed as the understudy for Sandra Dee: Julia Grondin and Larkin Reilly.

What is Sandra Dee’s role like in this production?

DramaTeach said: "Call me crazy, but I think Lea Michele might be Sandra Dee in Just in Time. It’ll reunite her with Jonathan, and their Instagram account follows her. Could be bc Jonathan doesn’t have his own account and she’s a bit of a surrogate for that, but makes me wonder."

No Thanks. I mean no offence to Jonathan Groff but Lea is a much better fit playing Florence in Chess than playing second fiddle to her bestie in a jukebox musical. Plus I'd like to see her do another show of her own before teaming up with him again if she must.

I'd rather see Lea work with Ramin again before seeing her work with Jonathan again.

Plus Lea stated in May that she was still attached to the same show she had talked about the previous year and that they were holding the show until she had her baby. When producers hold a show specifically for you, you don't repay them by them by throwing them over to go and play a secondary role in another show just because it's your bestie. Lea might have many faults in some people's eyes but she's always been loyal to those who give her a chance (too much so in the case of Ryan Murphy) but she's not going to back out on Michael Mayer who she's been working with since she was 14 years old.

Auggie27 said: "Can anyone comment on the Danny Strong book? The show's problems fall into the Candide camp - to use the broadest definition associated with that legend - all score, weakish storytelling to hold an audience. Chess has always suffered from a shortage of relatable stakes, i.e., making Cold War specific character issues feel immediate. Yes, Russia is, if anything, more in the foreground than it has been for two decades. But the defection from communism angle is organic to a very distant time. Making the trio's plight emotionally full now is no easier. And it's a show in which women are relegated to subsidiary positions. Yes, of course, historically accurate, but it's a bro show, with women on the periphery, no matter how great their songs. I'm a devotee of the music, and played it on vinyl and tape back in the day. I'll never lose my affection for the ways it wears the heart on the sleeve, or the jump from Merano to Bangkok, giving the context global variety. But these three people - how can they engage as fully as they must? I hope the Strong work found a way in. The Richard Nelson book, literate, sophisticated, and well crafted, didn't do the show any favors. And that's the problem, baked into the DNA. Even when Chess is smart it's coolly distant in how it lands, particularly its second half. It's a lot of set-up, and then ... it just finishes without a grand enough stopping place, more befitting a chamber piece thana big musical."

I hope they've made edits since the most recent Actor's Fund concert because I loathed that book. It was overly didactic with direct address to the audience and brought in too much of the other political events in the Cold War that weren't really related to the main plot at all, taking focus away from the characters. Hopefully that was just a concert rendering where they felt the need to overly explain things and for a fully staged version they'd do less of that. I'll admit it's the only version of Chess I've seen live but having watched the 2008 concert and read the librettos of the original West End/Broadway versions, I found this to be the weakest yet.

Personally, I think this is a story about three people who love chess and want to be involved with chess at the highest level but end up getting pushed around by outside forces, in essence being treated like pawns even when they're at the top of their game (I think doing it as a chamber piece would be a really interesting concept). Although the main story is about the two chess competitors, I've always thought Florence should've been the main character, or at least a co-lead with Anatoly while Freddie is more of a second string lead. But I love the score and all the different renditions so I'll be excited just to hear it sung live again.

DramaTeach said: "Call me crazy, but I think Lea Michele might be Sandra Dee in Just in Time. It’ll reunite her with Jonathan, and their Instagram account follows her. Could be bc Jonathan doesn’t have his own account and she’s a bit of a surrogate for that, but makes me wonder."

hmmm maybe not crazy lol

Updated On: 1/2/25 at 11:53 PM

I wonder if the plan is for a 12-18 week limited run from October -January… if so I would think they would be casting Ramin and Lea for sure. I just can’t see this being a year run or an open run. (Personally I’m hoping it’ll still be open March/april 2026. )

Ruthie Ann Miles' Svetlana in the KC production was very good.

GirlFromOz68 said: "both Lea & Ramin are doing it, as well as Bradley Dean"

Ramin and Bradley? Yes, please!