Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit, and Nicholas Christopher in 2025 Chess Revival!- Page 20

[shomeika]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 1:25pm

I like this a lot more than ONIB.   Sounds great!

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 1:45pm

Starting a petition for a baritone to be hired for anything at all on Broadway. Can I please ask for a representation of the baritone community. Just one baritone. *Cries in Constance Wu*

[malcs98]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 2:00pm

BorisTomashevsky said: "Starting a petition for a baritoneto be hired for anything at all on Broadway. Can I please ask for a representation of the baritone community. Just one baritone. *Cries in Constance Wu*"

C'mon man, Nicholas Christopher is a baritone. And I might be a little hyperbolic here but while I know Joshua Henry is the front runner for Best Actor, but if anyone else could beat him its probably Nicholas Christopher, he's never really had a breakout show (out of a few stints in Hamilton, Sweeney Todd & Little Shop) but now with Chess, I think this is going to be his moment. 

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 2:07pm

To me, Nicholas is sounding very tenorial in that song. The character just needs a baritone sound. David Carroll sounds great but didn’t have that baritone weight. It’s like Bradley Jaden as Javert, way too thin and light for the role.

Another one I can think of is Will Swenson, but doesn’t have the musicality for it. 

And I’d love to see and hear Josh Henry’s Anatoly. If only Ragtime had moved sooner, he might have been in this Chess revival.

 

[Huss417]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 2:13pm

BorisTomashevsky said: "To me, Nicholas is sounding very tenorial in that song. The character just needs a baritone sound. David Carroll sounds great but didn’t have that baritone weight. It’s like Bradley Jaden as Javert, way too thin and light for the role.

Another one I can think of is Will Swenson, but doesn’t have the musicality for it.

And I’d love to see and hear Josh Henry’s Anatoly. If only Ragtime had moved sooner, he might have been in this Chess revival.

"

Since day one of this show Anatoly was not a baritone as Tommy Korberg who originated the role is also a tenor. Then again you do you Boo........

[Mary_Poppins]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 2:19pm

Again the chorus almost drowns the soloist but otherwise I like it.

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 2:20pm

Tommy Körberg (don’t forget the “ö”! Respect the Swedish language or you may be accused of erasing his culture!) is a baritone. Yes he can hit “tenor” notes, but he’s a baritone. David Burt who replaced him in London is a hundred percent a baritone. John Herrera who played it on the US tour is a baritone.

Casting tenors as Anatoly (Ramin, Josh Groban) weakens the impact of the role and dilutes the potential pathos.

Here’s a pic of me doing myself, as you suggested:

https://imgur.com/a/otqrPax

Updated On: 9/5/25 at 02:20 PM

[Birdie Boy]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 3:02pm

Aaron tveit got married!! His wedding was featured in vogue, congratulations!! 

[Lot666]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 3:09pm

malcs98 said: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOMS-OaQZtg

I gotta say Nicholas Christopher was definitely the right choice for Anatoly. You can definitely hear the emotion here. If this is the warmup for his "Anthem," I think we're in good hands here!"

I like this a helluva lot more than Tveit's "One Night in Bangkok". Now I really want to hear him sing "Anthem".

[MezzA101]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 3:55pm

Birdie Boy said: "Aaron tveit got married!! His wedding was featured in vogue, congratulations!!"

Broadway Actors Aaron Tveit and Ericka Yang Said “I Do” With a Classic New York City Wedding

https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/aaron-tveit-and-ericka-yang-wedding

 

[uncageg]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 4:01pm

Nick sounds wonderful, as usual.

[scripps]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 4:40pm

I just got way more excited learning that David Burt was a replacement Antoloy in Chess than with anything this new production has released thus far. Any wagers on when this will hit TDF?

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 4:56pm

scripps said: "I just got way more excited learning that David Burt was a replacement Antoloy in Chess than with anything this new production has released thus far. Any wagerson when this will hit TDF?"

Indeed, he closed the run and did a beautiful job. (He also went back into Les Mis as Javert, originated John Jasper in the London DROOD, and was a replacement for both Munkustrap in Cats and Magaldi in Evita in the early 80s. And not forgetting that he sings the best Pilate any human ears will ever hear.)

Sadly the final note of his Anthem below is cut. Aurora also has a few minutes of him uploaded in other numbers. Maybe he will see this thread and bless us with some more David B!

https://youtu.be/nE06XD2t09k?si=eZWE4-efjpqFzaD0

Updated On: 9/5/25 at 04:56 PM

[Mary_Poppins]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 10:28pm

MezzA101 said: "Birdie Boy said: "Aaron tveit got married!! His wedding was featured in vogue, congratulations!!"

Broadway Actors Aaron Tveit and Ericka Yang Said “I Do” With a Classic New York City Wedding

https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/aaron-tveit-and-ericka-yang-wedding

"

Small World. I got bored, actually read the article and noticed this:

“I called my best friend Becca Tobin for advice, and she offered her gorgeous veil to me,” she says. “It was my ‘something borrowed’ and it means so much to me that she offered it to me.”

Becca Tobin is also a good friend of Lea. In fact, Lea got to see that veil long before Ericka wore it.

They were on Glee together but didn't share many scenes. When Becca's then BF was unexpectedly found dead, Lea had several long talks with her and they have been close ever since. So there is a connection between Aaron and Lea.

 

Updated On: 9/5/25 at 10:28 PM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 9/5/25 at 10:40pm

Nicholas Christopher was stunning in Sweeney Todd, so lucky that I got to see the two understudies during those couple of weeks. Both were thrillingz 

[inception]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 9:20am

Been listening again this week to the Albert Hsll concert recording.  On that I find Marti Pellow's voice as The Arbiter to be similar to Adam Pascal's.  So I was wondering does the person who plays the Arbiter ever act as the understudy for Feddie?  Mr. Tveit has a track record of not calling out, but if something were to happen, who would sing Freddie?  Would it ve Mr. Pinkham?

My phone keeps wanting to put Pinkham in as Pink ham

[GirlFromOz68]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 9:42am

inception said: "Been listening again this week to the Albert Hsll concert recording. On that I find MartiPellow's voice as The Arbiter to be similar to Adam Pascal's. So I was wondering does the person who plays the Arbiter ever act as the understudy for Feddie? Mr. Tveithas a track record of not calling out, but if something were to happen, who would sing Freddie? Would it ve Mr. Pinkham?

My phone keeps wanting to put Pinkham in as Pink ham"

from last week from an eagle eyed person looking at the folders:

 

U/S Freddie: Aleks Pevec, Adam Halpin

 

Also there was a meet and greet with  producers last week with a few posting photos and videos on IG with photos with the cast and Michael Maher, Danny Strong, Tom Hulce and some others present with photos and drawings in the background of the sets and costumes. 

Mark Jacoby was indeed present so I guess that's confirmation he is Mr Vassey as was noticed on a folder last week. Interesting he was kept of the announced cast list .

Updated On: 9/9/25 at 09:42 AM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 11:05am

Any report on how much of the score is intact? My Spotify revisit of the popular 3rd-ish major iteration, the starry 2008 concert headed by Groban, Menzel, and Pascal, is 2 hours and 11 minutes of recorded music over 43 tracks. The '88 Broadway production with the Nelson book was 1 hour 12 minutes of recorded music. And going back to the '84 concept album, famously considered standalone and "bookless" through the Michael Bennett/Trevor Nunn West End production, was 1 hour 43 minutes.

I was a die-hard fan of the original concept recording, at the Imperial when the b.o. opened. The production, widely discussed as one of the most ponderous and least attractive musicals ever to grace the New York stage, was a crushing disappointment, excised music ("Merano" and then "Arbiter's Song" cut in late previews notable) caused much discussion pre-internet. Florence got an I Want, "Someone Else's Story," but in the evolution of the show, not for long, since it has long been reassigned to Svetlana for her entrance about 10 minutes into the second act.

It's that kind of material, so reconfigured the original intentions have been amplified, minimized, rethought - and perhaps returned to? I can't tell from the clips of the DC workshop at the Kennedy Center how much Danny Strong held onto, except that much of the quartet/quintet material in the tortuously plotted second seemed intact in rehearsals. From the two preview releases, Tveit's "One Night in Bangkok" and Cristopher's "Where I Want to Be," the new production sounds reverential of the conceptual arrangements. One recurring criticism of the show is its self-importance and bombast, and when the ensemble charges into "Where I Want to Be" to override Cristopher in the song's syncopated hook, the bombast is a characteristic. Not a criticism, but some had speculated that this might be a chamber approach, aiming for intimacy. Not true in these releases on YouTube. The music has always been emphatic and presentational, characters announcing both emotions and - intended to be bookless - plot turns. One problem with the Nelson book: it made most of the exposition repetitive since the story was dramatized and sung.

I'll remain hopeful that Strong has had so much time and workshop-shaped revision that he is closer to something that works. Again, that second act is a doozie, sorting out a confounding triangle without a strong root-for and some hoary KGB-CIA shenanigans. Has anyone here seen a subsequent production - the Muny did a big splashy one - that satisfied, other than musically?

Updated On: 9/9/25 at 11:05 AM

[suzcap]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 12:16pm

Lea's song to be released Wednesday Sept. 10, 2025

 

Chessbway Instagram: Tomorrow, the promise we made will grow impossible to keep. #ChessBway

 

Updated On: 9/9/25 at 12:16 PM

[quizking101]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 12:17pm

It appears they are telegraphing a drop of Lea Michele singing “Someone Else’s Story” tomorrow.

https://x.com/chessbway/status/1965438406819021194?s=61&t=mVlu1-Vlv8FQ0xTiz8SQeg

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 1:13pm

Oh interesting, if she's doing Someone Else's Story then they're changing up the show more than I expected, since that was still a Svetlana song for the Actors Fund concert.  I wonder if Hannah Cruz will have anything besides I Know Him So Well in that case.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 1:43pm

chrishuyen said: "Oh interesting, if she's doing Someone Else's Story then they're changing up the show more than I expected, since that was still a Svetlana song for the Actors Fund concert. I wonder if Hannah Cruz will have anything besides I Know Him So Well in that case."

 

You and I, Endgame 

[chrishuyen]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 2:19pm

Robbie2 said: "chrishuyen said: "Oh interesting, if she's doing Someone Else's Story then they're changing up the show more than I expected, since that was still a Svetlana song for the Actors Fund concert. I wonder if Hannah Cruz will have anything besides I Know Him So Well in that case."

You and I,Endgame"

I wasn't including Endgame since that's not really a feature moment for her, but I can't remember if this production used the Ambitions part of You and I (which was one of my favorite parts to come out of the Broadway score)

[GirlFromOz68]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 3:01pm

quizking101 said: "It appears they are telegraphing a drop of Lea Michele singing “Someone Else’s Story” tomorrow.

https://x.com/chessbway/status/1965438406819021194?s=61&t=mVlu1-Vlv8FQ0xTiz8SQeg"

when I worked that out i was shocked given its been given to Svetlana in so many productions since the Broadway production where it was written for Judy Kuhn, which makes me wonder  what if any solo Svetlana will have.

 

Updated On: 9/9/25 at 03:01 PM

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 9/9/25 at 3:09pm

Someone Else’s Story is far and away the best female number in the show and Florence should have it. I think Endgame and the duet are plenty for Svetlana. She’s really a cameo like Florence’s dad.