Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit, and Nicholas Christopher in 2025 Chess Revival! — Page 15

I so appreciated Mary Poppins post above. Apparently Strong's kept "Merano," which means the show opens as an operetta in the Alps. That may prove an ironic frame on the dark, intimate piece that follows rather than verisimilitude-establishing old school musical theater. But it'll be a challenge. Ditto, as noted, "Bangkok," an earworm-fueled pop hit that can feel self-indulgent in 2025. In other words, does an audience need to know about these contrasted cultures as a context for the competition and personal contention? And since neither locale has much to do with Russia and the US, the nations that engage in a tug of war (ludicrously, as many reviews noted - even after the Kennedy Center) do they add or detract? I can see a 100 minute intermission free iteration that pushes the triangle downstage, strips away the creatives' original desire to build a big musical drama, and lets the story's stakes remain personal. (This has been tried in several places with Camelot, and I'm not talking Sorkin's cheesey revision.) Less is often more with West End bombast, and this score - and I've loved it since I bought the concept album - quickly turns to bombast.

Here's the Aaron version of the marketing:

https://imgur.com/a/hye9oGO

I noticed today that Rows AA and A in the Center Orchestra have now been released for sale if anyone is interested.

Is this a limited run or are they in a wait and see. I see tickets are only on sale till March. I’d love to see this but won’t be back in the city till April. I know it may be hard to tell right now and things will change once reviews come out.

Seems like either a music video or demo recording of “One Night in Bangkok” will drop tomorrow.

CHESS is gonna be HUGE

EDSOSLO858 said: "Seems like either a music video or demo recording of“One Night in Bangkok” will droptomorrow."

Speaking of, anyone know of a delicious, nice-looking Thai restaurant in walking distance to the theater? The evening is an anniversary treat for the parents, so nothing too funky or hole-in-the-wallish. Thanks.

SisterGeorge said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "Seems like either a music video or demo recording of“One Night in Bangkok” will droptomorrow."

Speaking of, anyone know of a delicious, nice-looking Thai restaurant in walking distance to the theater? The evening is an anniversary treat for the parents, so nothing too funky or hole-in-the-wallish. Thanks."

There are a slew of Thai places on 9th avenue that are all pretty good. Obao, Elephant Ear, and Viv are all less than a 10 minute walk from the Imperial and are all elevated in terms of decor.

Updated On: 8/27/25 at 06:55 PM

GirlFromOz68 said: "suzcap said: "In the Instagram comments "Sweaty O" says it is the announcement of Svetlana, so take with grain of salt."

huge grain of salt. I dont think they would be making a huge fuss about that, no disrespect to Hannah Cruz. At this point given they are so close to rehearsals starting they might wait until then or they announcenot only Svetlana but Molokov, The Arbiter and Walter as well. There is a tendency to forget Svetlana is only in Act 2.

I still think its music related but that is only a guess."

Would Svetlana be considered a “princess track?”

Great notes but he misses the internal rhyme of “in a” and “Brynner” and I can’t tell if it’s bad acting or bad mixing but some of his other words come across with strange pronunciation.

And it looks like they’re sticking with the pink.

It’s probably a demo track, so I’m sure there is wiggle room to fix it for an actual cast recording down the road.

This snippet did warm me up to the idea of Tveit as Freddie a bit more than I expected. He has that adult cockiness in his voice that sounds like his character from “Catch Me If You Can” finally grew up. However, “One Night In Bangkok” is by no means a hard song and can be talk-sung so long as the tempo is kept. The real test is going to be when he has to sing “Pity The Child”.

I still wish Tveit and Christopher were in each others’ role but I’ll live.

Presented as a concert? Erm- and how much are they selling tickets for?

Now worried about this production.

"It's being presented as almost a concert evening," he says. "There's real book scenes and everything, but it's in the sense that we are all players putting forward this piece and everyone can come and go out of scenes. A lot of people are going to be on stage at the same time“

Lame. Chess has waited this long to be done right, only to be done dirty.

The half-baked branding was our first clue.