{"id":667740,"date":"2026-05-27T09:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/667740\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T09:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:01:10","slug":"chess-to-close-early-on-broadway-timed-to-lea-micheles-exit-in-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/667740\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Chess’ to Close Early on Broadway, Timed to Lea Michele’s Exit in June"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cChess<\/a>\u201d will close early on Broadway, with the buzzy revival ending its run on June 21. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlthough Lea Michele was scheduled to depart the production in late June, the musical had intended to remain on Broadway with Joanna \u201cJoJo\u201d Levesque set to take over the lead role of Florence Vassy through at least September. Instead, the show\u2019s closing date will now coincide with Michele\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChess\u201d was a hot ticket when it opened last fall, breaking several house records at the Imperial Theatre. But the show has struggled to maintain momentum, with attendance dropping to roughly 70% capacity in recent weeks. Then the musical had a weaker-than-expected showing when Tony Award nominations were announced in early May<\/a>. Although \u201cChess\u201d scored five nods \u2014 including lead actor for Nicholas Christopher, featured actor for Bryce Pinkham and featured actress for Hannah Cruz \u2014 the show\u2019s two biggest stars, Michele and Aaron Tveit, were snubbed while the production wasn\u2019t recognized in the musical revival category. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo see longtime fans and first-time audiences alike embrace this production so wholeheartedly has been incredibly rewarding for everyone involved and a powerful reminder of why \u2018Chess\u2019 has endured for so many years,\u201d said producers Tom Hulce, Robert Ahrens and The Shubert Organization. \u201cBringing \u2018Chess\u2019 back to Broadway for the first time in nearly 40 years has been an enormous privilege, and we are extremely proud of everything this production accomplished during its historic Broadway run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSet amid the Cold War, the musical revolves around a chess tournament between two grandmasters, one American (Tveit) and the other Soviet (Christopher), as they fight over a woman (Michele) who manages one and falls in love with the other. \u201cChess\u201d began as a concept album from ABBA members Benny Andersson\u00a0and\u00a0Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus and \u201cEvita\u2019s\u201d Tim Rice before the show opened on London\u2019s West End in 1986. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cChess,\u201d which boasts catchy songs like \u201cOne Night in Bangkok\u201d and \u201cNobody\u2019s Side,\u201d has a notoriously troubled history on Broadway. A very different version premiered in the U.S. in 1988 and flopped, closing after two months. This revival still features music by ABBA\u2019s Benny Andersson and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice of \u201cEvita\u201d fame, along with a new book by Emmy Award winner Danny Strong (\u201cDopesick\u201d). Michael Mayer, who worked with Michele on \u201cSpring Awakening\u201d and \u201cFunny Girl,\u201d directed the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tReviews for the revival were mixed, though the performances of Michele, Tveit, Christopher and Cruz were unanimously praised. In Variety\u2019s review, critic Christian Lewis wrote<\/a> \u201cDespite this revival of \u2018Chess\u2019 making some wrong moves [\u2026] there\u2019s still some thrilling gameplay, especially from Michele and Christopher, who help provide insight into the magic of \u2018Chess\u2019 and make this sometimes uneven game still feel entirely worth watching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cChess\u201d will close early on Broadway, with the buzzy revival ending its run on June 21. Although Lea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[116929,88],"class_list":["post-667740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chess","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}