Chess Revival Closes June 21 With Lea Michele Exit
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- "Chess" will close on Broadway on June 21, with producers Tom Hulce, Robert Ahrens, and The Shubert Organization scrapping a planned extension that would have kept the show running through September with JoJo Levesque as Florence Vassy.
- The revival broke several house records at the Imperial Theatre when it opened last fall, but attendance has since dropped to roughly 70% capacity in recent weeks.
- The show earned five Tony nominations—lead actor for Nicholas Christopher, featured actor for Bryce Pinkham, featured actress for Hannah Cruz, and two more—but snubbed Michele and Aaron Tveit and was passed over in the musical revival category.
- Set during the Cold War, the musical follows an American grandmaster (Tveit) and a Soviet grandmaster (Christopher) competing in a chess tournament over a woman (Michele) who manages one and falls for the other.
- The production originated as a concept album by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with Tim Rice, premiered on London's West End in 1986, and flopped in its original 1988 Broadway run after just two months—this revival adds a new book by Danny Strong and direction by Michael Mayer.
- Reviews were mixed, but the performances of Michele, Christopher, Tveit, and Cruz were unanimously praised; Variety's Christian Lewis singled out Michele and Christopher as making the "sometimes uneven game still feel entirely worth watching."
Why it matters: Producers couldn't justify keeping a five-Tony-nominated revival alive on roughly 70% capacity attendance, even with a built-in star replacement (JoJo Levesque) already lined up. The simultaneous exit of Lea Michele and the show signals that Tony-category snubs in musical revival and a leading-lady departure were enough to pull the plug on a hot-ticket opener months ahead of schedule.
