Broadway on the Radio: 'Chess' at WNYC

Summary

Podcast Summary: All Of It with Alison Stewart

Episode: Broadway on the Radio — 'Chess' at WNYC

Date: March 19, 2026

Host: Alison Stewart

Guests: Michael Mayer (Director), Danny Strong (Librettist), Aaron Tveit (Freddie Trumper), Lea Michele (Florence Vassy), Nicholas Christopher (Anatoly Sergievsky), and the Chess band

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Episode Overview

In this special live recording from WNYC’s Green Space, host Alison Stewart brings Broadway to radio by featuring the creative team and stars of the revival of the musical “Chess.” The episode explores the process of reimagining and remastering this Cold War-era musical, delving into its themes of political intrigue, love, and personal ambition. Through interview segments and live musical performances, the cast and creatives reflect on the enduring relevance, artistry, and challenges of “Chess,” culminating in an engaging and layered discussion for both theater lovers and newcomers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introducing “Chess” and Its Revival

• Setting the Stage: “Chess” is described as a story full of "international espionage and duplicity, a political love triangle and a high stakes game of literal chess." (02:17)
• Live Performances: Throughout the episode, listeners are treated to several live renditions of key songs, immediately immersing the audience in the show's theatrical world.

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Exploring Character Depth and the Music

Anatoly’s Inner World

• Performance: Nicholas Christopher opens with “Where I Want To Be,” revealing Anatoly’s stoicism and vulnerability. (03:04–07:05)
• On Characterization:
  • Nicholas: “I think Anatoly is somewhat of a stoic character and this is the first time that we get to see his inner thoughts and then he closes back up and then we don't really get to see that until Florence is introduced into his life.” (07:27)
  • Michael Mayer: “He is a Russian grandmaster, completely controlled by the KGB…he’s left alone to ponder his situation in a completely pure and deeply personal way—a great way for us to know what's inside him.” (07:52)

Rewriting and Directing “Chess”

• Danny Strong on Revision:
  • “It needed clarity first and foremost. And it needed some character deepening…making things feel more realistic so that you could just be more engaged with the story...because these songs are so incredible.” (09:40)
• On Collaboration:
  • Michael Mayer: “Danny [texted], 'I’m gonna fix Chess, and you’re gonna direct it.' And I said, 'I'm in.'...This was an extraordinary score. I had no idea what was going on the entire time.” (10:20)
  • Their partnership in reshaping Chess began over 10 years ago. (11:09)

The Show’s Political Themes

• Why Lean into the Cold War Frame?
  • Danny: “A way into the story would be to add Cold War plot lines to give it a bird’s-eye view, Cold War history play...it would heighten the stakes of the show...to parallel our current political situation to the events of the Cold War. So it made it very relevant.” (13:25)
• Directing Political Theater:
  • Michael Mayer: “It became a metatheatrical device...a textbook example of how to make epic theater. Humor, which is a great political tool, became part of our arsenal.” (14:41)
• Bringing Politics to the Stage vs. Screen:
  • Danny: “With the stage...you can just be more blunt and more head-on with it and not have to sort of bury it in subtext...in a very provocative, in-your-face kind of way, which is very much the style of theater, epic theater, Brechtian approach.” (16:55)

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The Actor Experience and Musical Demands

On Approaching the Roles

• Aaron Tveit (Freddie):
  • On Chess’s “lore”: “No one performed any of the songs because they were too difficult. So it always had this kind of lore in my head of, like, this untouchable score.” (11:25)
  • On “What a Scene, What a Joy”: “It’s nice to get to kind of go full throttle. Narcissist, all the way. Indulgent. All the things.” (18:45)
• Nicholas Christopher (Anatoly):
  • “In musical theater class. The tenor boys would always sing anthem, and that's all I knew, really.” (11:58)
• On Casting:
  • Michael Mayer: “Both of them could do either role...these roles are incredibly demanding, not just vocally, but emotionally.” (12:21)
• Expressiveness in Chess:
  • Aaron: “When that expressive expressiveness has to be contained…there creates this, like, bubbling underneath. The way we do our chess match…you kind of get to see our internal thoughts, bubbling underneath this very still, outside kind of perspective.” (15:47)
  • Nicholas: “What you might see is this, but what's going on inside is this.” (16:15, referencing a comedic scene to illustrate his method)

Lea Michele (Florence) on Joining “Chess”

• Her Path to the Show:
  • Lea: “Michael Mayer...had brought two extraordinary female characters to me before...doing Funny Girl together...he said, 'Go home and listen to this song.'...Idina Menzel singing Nobody's Side...From the first scene I knew that this was a character that I really desperately wanted to play.” (22:14)
• Why Florence Needs to Be Tough:
  • Danny Strong: “She's the greatest strategist in the world...as a woman functioning in that men's world of competitive chess...that toughness is how she was able to survive all the darkness of what she had to experience growing up.” (24:40)
• Growth as a Performer:
  • Lea: “What I loved about our experience in Funny Girl...he gave me so much creative freedom...And I took that trust into our room at Chess. And...Michael's really pushing me, which was amazing...to find Florence's strength in her restraint.” (25:13)

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The Music of “Chess” and Its ABBA DNA

• Style and Variety:
  • Michael Mayer: “The choral harmonies are right out of their songbook...structurally, many of these songs follow a very typical ABBA pop song structure...Tim Rice has created these character arcs inside this pop idiom.” (31:04)
  • Danny Strong: “There are songs that are polar opposite of ABBA, too...one second it's pop ABBA, and the next you're in a grand opera. The variety...just kind of blows me away.” (32:02)
• Vocal Challenge for Florence:
  • Lea: “Constantly shifting gears through different genres of music...the differences between what I have to do sonically with Freddie versus Anatoly...absolutely the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life.” (29:42)
• On Editing the Show:
  • Danny: “By paring it down...there's four or five songs that have been cut...it makes the songs that are there—every one is a banger.” (32:30)

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Song Spotlights & Live Performances

| Song | Performer(s) | Description/Purpose | Timestamp | |-----------------------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Where I Want To Be | Nicholas Christopher| Opening up Anatoly’s internal struggle | 03:04–07:05 | | What a Scene, What a Joy | Aaron Tveit | Freddie’s introduction, showing his bravado | 18:03–20:44 | | Heaven Help My Heart | Lea Michele | Florence’s vulnerability—“decision from her heart”| 33:17–37:30 | | You and I | Lea Michele & Nicholas Christopher | The love and strain between Florence & Anatoly | 51:31–54:06 |

• On “Heaven Help My Heart”:
  • Lea: “As a woman who is really functioning so much and using her head...this is the first time she's making a decision from her heart, and that is terrifying for her.” (33:29)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Enduring Theme of “Chess”:

  • Danny Strong: “We, the people, are pawns of the decisions our governments are making. And there's a line at the end of the show which is sort of the key line...‘Just because our governments have lost their souls doesn't mean we have to as well.’” (28:52)

• Lea Michele on the Imperial Theater:

  • “I wrote my college essay that got me accepted into NYU about the Imperial Theater...it was where I made my debut in Les Mis when I was 8 years old...it's really the happiest I've ever been in a work experience in my life.” (47:39)

• The Joy and Challenge of Recording the Cast Album:

  • Lea: “Going into the studio, for me specifically with Nobody's Side...I was really sort of worried I wouldn’t be able to find that same sort of power and connection. But something really special just happened...” (43:58)

• Chess as a Metaphor:

  • Nicholas: “Like acting...there's a structure there...but depending on how you're feeling that day...the number of possibilities is infinite.” (38:41)
  • Aaron: “Much like life, too, you think it's going to go one way and then it can just really not go any way you plan and you have to adjust…” (39:07)

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Character Relationships and Dynamics

• Freddie’s Complexity:

  • Aaron: “Freddie's dealing with some mental health issues that I think stem from being thrust into the spotlight as a child...narcissism...brilliance...these things are very closely tied together.” (40:18)

• Mutual Respect by the End:

  • Nicholas: “There’s a fascination...of how you [Freddie] navigate the world that is the complete antithesis of the way Anatoly has been programmed.” (41:10)
  • Aaron: “By the end, we come to this kind of mutual understanding of each other...it's, you know, that we're all pawns to these big governments and then we can see each other at a more human level by the end of the show.” (41:39)

• On Hannah Cruz/Svetlana’s Role:

  • Nicholas: “What an uphill battle she has every day to enter into Act 2, to get the audience to see her perspective and to just sing her face off and act her face off in, what, like 20 minutes of stage time? And she's so memorable.” (42:43)

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The Collaborative Ensemble

• The Company’s Camaraderie:
  • Nicholas: “For the first time since rehearsal, we were all in one room again, like Leah was just talking about. And we got to eat dinner together, and we got to really, like, snack and joke around and have this experience. So that's really what I remember from it.” (46:28)

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Final Thoughts & The Future of “Chess”

• Relevance Today:

  • Danny Strong: “I just think it makes the show more relevant every day that every day what we're going through...is just exactly what the show is discussing.” (28:52)

• Moving Forward:

  • With a new, streamlined script and an all-star cast, this revival of “Chess” is presented as a timely, emotionally rich, and musically thrilling event, resonating with contemporary audiences.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:04 — “Where I Want to Be” live performance
• 07:12 — Panel on Anatoly’s character and the show's setup
• 09:01 — Danny Strong on why “Chess” needed remastering
• 10:20 — Michael Mayer and Danny Strong: 10-year collaboration
• 13:25 — Adding Cold War elements to the narrative
• 15:47 — Actors on expressing emotion through chess
• 18:03 — “What a Scene, What a Joy” live performance
• 22:14 — Lea Michele on joining “Chess” as Florence
• 25:13 — Lea and Michael Mayer discuss their collaborative growth
• 29:42 — Lea Michele on vocal demands and vocal range in “Chess”
• 31:04 — Discussion of ABBA’s musical DNA
• 33:17 — “Heaven Help My Heart” live performance
• 38:41 — Chess as a metaphor for acting and life
• 41:10 — On respect and rivalry between Anatoly and Freddie
• 47:39 — Lea Michele on the significance of the Imperial Theatre
• 51:31 — “You and I” live performance

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By drawing personally and politically relevant parallels, the Green Space event offers both a tribute to “Chess” and a vibrant case study in theatrical revival—reminding audiences not only of the importance of great music and storytelling, but also of the culture and community built around them.

Transcript

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[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. We're live in the green space in

[Aaron Tveit]

soho

[Alison Stewart]

with a special episode of all of it for you. Today, it's Broadway on the Radio. For the next hour we'll be joined

[Interviewer / Host]

by the team behind the Broadway musical the Chess.

[Alison Stewart]

It's the Cold War era story of

[Interviewer / Host]

international espionage and duplicity, a political love triangle and a high stakes game of literal chess.

[Alison Stewart]

We've got with us Tony Award winning director Michael Mayer. We've got Labretta as Danny Strong. We've got with us Freddie Trumper, Aaron Tveit. We have got Florence Massey, Lea Michele and Anatoly Sergios, Nicholas Christopher and let's hear it for our band. We have a organization here, everybody.

[Interviewer / Host]

It's here for the band.

[Alison Stewart]

If you're not here with us in person or listening to us, you can see this shindig by going to wnyc.org

[Interviewer / Host]

where you can watch a free live

[Alison Stewart]

stream of today's broadcast.

[Interviewer / Host]

Now let's get going and hear some music. We're kicking off this Cold War musical drama in the Soviet Union. Here's Nicholas Christopher as Anatoly with Where I Want To Be.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Who needs a dream who needs ambition could be the fool in my position Once I had dreams now that obsessions, hopes became needs Lovers, possessions Then they moved Moving oh so discreetly Slowly at

[Aaron Tveit]

first

[Nicholas Christopher]

Smiling too sweetly I open doors they walked right through them Called me their friend I hardly knew them now

where I wanna be and who I wanna be and doing what I always said I wouldn't Yet I feel I haven't won at all Running for my life and never looking back in case there's someone right behind and shoot me down and say always do I fall

when the CR.

Feel slow stone

where will I be? Back where I started don't get me wrong I'm not complaining Times have been good, fast, entertaining but what's the point if I'm concealing Not only love all other feeling now

where I wanna be and who I wanna be and doing what I said I wouldn't Yet I feel I haven't won at all

[Aaron Tveit]

I'm

[Nicholas Christopher]

running for my life and never looking back in case there's someone right behind and shoot me down and say always do I fall

when the crazy wheel slows down where will I be. Where I started.

[Alison Stewart]

Nicholas Christopher singing Where I Want To Be from the musical Chess. We are live in the green space with the stars and the creative team.

[Interviewer / Host]

I'm bringing back to the stage Michael Meyer and Danny Strong. Nicholas, we just heard Where I Want To Be. It's the first time we hear from Anatoly. It's the second song and the whole show. How does this song introduce us to Anatoly?

[Nicholas Christopher]

I think it's a moment where we get to kind of peek in Anatoly's mind for the first time. I think Anatoly is somewhat of a stoic character and this is the first time that we get to see his inner thoughts and then he closes back up and then we don't really get to see that until Florence is introduced into his life.

[Interviewer / Host]

How does Where I Want To Be set up the show and the stakes of the show?

[Michael Mayer]

I think What Nick said is correct. We're living in the Cold War when this story takes place, and he is a Russian grandmaster. He is completely controlled by the kgb. He is not permitted to have any kind of real, authentic personal life. So the fact that in this moment, he's left alone to ponder his situation in a completely pure and deeply personal way is a great way for us to know what's inside him. So as the story progresses, we're waiting for that to get unlocked again.

[Interviewer / Host]

Danny, the story of this revival, it kind of begins with you. How did you find yourself taking on the task of remastering Chess Insanity?

[Danny Strong]

I was just listening to it, and I thought, you know, it's this beloved score in musical theater lore, sort of famously, the show doesn't make sense, you know, so it's rarely produced. I'm not saying anything that anyone else hasn't said for the last 40 years.

[Aaron Tveit]

So.

[Danny Strong]

But I didn't know why. So I thought, why? What is the problem of Chess? Because I've actually never seen a production of Chess. I'm just a musical theater nerd who knows the music backwards and forwards. So I watched a video of the show being done with Josh Groban and Idina Menzel, and as I started watching it, my sort of rewrite brain started kicking in, and it was like, so what would I do to this to see maybe I could rework this show in a way that this music could get everything it deserves? And so that's where it all began.

[Interviewer / Host]

What did the story need? Sit down for a while.

[Danny Strong]

It's like I'm, you know, reenacting the moment with my therapist. Well, it needed clarity first and foremost. So it needed clarity, and it needed, I think, some character deepening. I think it needed a sense of making things feel more realistic so that you could just be more engaged with the story. And thus, if you're more engaged with the story, the music will have more impact. Or the hope was for the music to have maximum impact, because that's why we're here, because these songs are so incredible.

[Interviewer / Host]

Why did you want to be involved in the revival of Chess?

[Michael Mayer]

Well, I got a text from Danny Strong at midnight one night out of the blue.

[Danny Strong]

I'd been drinking. True story.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Yeah.

[Michael Mayer]

And it said, hey, Michael, it's Danny Strong. I'm gonna fix Chess, and you're gonna direct it. And I said, I'm in. I was actually at the concert that Danny listened to the recording of. I went in 2008, and I had very much the same experience Danny had. This was an extraordinary score. I had no idea what was going on the entire time. And when Danny, who I admired so much as a writer, reached out to me this way, I thought, well, I'm absolutely going to hear what he has to say. And that's when it was 10 years ago that we started discussing.

[Interviewer / Host]

10 years ago.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Wow.

[Michael Mayer]

Yep.

[Interviewer / Host]

Aaron, we're going to bring you up on stage. Come and I sit down, everybody, a little bit.

[Alison Stewart]

Hey, stay quiet.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Stay here, stay here.

[Interviewer / Host]

You can come back if you go.

[Aaron Tveit]

Hi.

[Interviewer / Host]

Hi. What was your familiarity with chess?

[Aaron Tveit]

I was very familiar also with the music. I studied theater in college, and when I had started studying theater, I basically only knew the shows that I was involved with in high school. And so I had some friends that said, you have to listen to all these albums, and Chess was one of them that I was handed. And I just remember being completely blown away by the music. But it also was one of these things where nobody performed any of the songs because they were too difficult. So it always had this kind of lore in my head of, like, this untouchable score. And then, yeah, I came around, and we get to be a part of it. It's amazing.

[Interviewer / Host]

Nicholas, how did you discover Chess?

[Nicholas Christopher]

In musical theater class. You know, the tenor boys would always sing anthem, and that's all I knew, really. But, yeah, from hearing it in class, and that was really it. All I knew was anthem until I ran into Michael one day and he asked me to do a reading of it. And I was like, oh, boy, this is really good.

[Interviewer / Host]

Why are these two gentlemen right for their parts, Michael?

[Michael Mayer]

Interestingly, I think both of them could do either role.

[Alison Stewart]

I thought so, too.

[Michael Mayer]

And that is really unusual because these roles are incredibly demanding, not just vocally, but emotionally. And from an acting perspective, you're looking at two of the absolute finest musical theater performers on the planet, and people who get angry.

[Nicholas Christopher]

True, true, true.

[Michael Mayer]

The fact that they can not only achieve what is demanded of them vocally, but the fact that they can deliver emotionally and narratively while they're performing these songs is. It's an Olympic feat, actually.

[Interviewer / Host]

I think Danny, want to bring you into the conversation. You put sort of at the front of the plot, the USA versus the USSR and the chess game and the geopolitical influences. Why did you want to push the script?

[Danny Strong]

Well, it was sort of one of the first ideas I had when I was watching the Chess in concert, which was, this was written during the Cold War, but it's been decades since the Cold War, so perhaps a way into the story would be to Add Cold War plot lines to give it a sort of bird's eye view, Cold War history play. And I thought, well, if. If those were in the show, it would heighten the stakes of the show, so that the stakes would go beyond just the chess matches in the love story, which are great. But I thought with this third element, it could add a really exciting layer to the show dramatically, but then also thematically, kind of give the show a reason to exist because we could parallel our current political situation to the events of the Cold War. So it made it very relevant. And when I met with Tim Rice, one of the first things he said was, you know, I was writing this during the Cold. During the Cold War, and now there's perspective on it. And, you know, I just said, well, that's what I want to do. That's what I. You know, I want to put that into the show, and I want to add Cold War plot lines into the show. So it was the very sort of original idea I had when I thought, okay, how could I rework this?

[Interviewer / Host]

How did you think of developing political elements in the show as a director?

[Michael Mayer]

Yeah, well, it actually started when we did a presentation at the Kennedy. What used to be the Kennedy center several years ago was right before COVID And in the presentation that we made, Danny and I both discovered a kind of epic theater event. Because it was a concert and we could actually comment on the show. It became a metatheatrical device, which is very. It's right out of the political theater textbook. It's a textbook example of how to make epic theater. And that also gave us what we discovered there was. It's incredibly funny. So suddenly, humor, which is a great political tool, became part of our arsenal.

[Interviewer / Host]

Aaron Nicholas is both. For you, Broadway is often about big movements, exaggerated expressions as actors. How do you get that expressiveness, expressiveness to come through the game of chess?

[Aaron Tveit]

Oh, very interesting. I think when. When that expressive expressiveness has to be contained, right. It's like there creates this, like, bubbling underneath. And I think that the game of chess really has that right. And I think we. The way we do our chess match in the show also is that you kind of get to see our internal thoughts and all of that kind of bubbling underneath this very still, outside kind of perspective looking in. So I think it kind of does both of those things in a cool way.

[Interviewer / Host]

What do you think?

[Nicholas Christopher]

You know, in the Birdcage, where Robin Williams. Like Martha Graham. Martha Graham. Madonna. Madonna. But you keep it inside. That's my approach to Anatoly. So what you might see is this, but what's going on inside is this.

[Alison Stewart]

Danny, I wanted to point out that

[Interviewer / Host]

you've written for TV and film for Dopesick, for Empire. You wrote recount. What's the difference of bringing politics to the stage versus politics on the screen?

[Danny Strong]

Wow, that's a really. I hadn't thought about that. I think with the stage you can, particularly with this show is you can add a theatricality to it and thus it does. You can do multiple things. A. You can just be more blunt and more head on with it and not have to sort of bury it in subtext in a way that I think could be very exciting, entertaining, and then just say something in a very provocative, in your face kind of way, which is very much the style of theater, epic theater, Brechtian approach to theater. That was sort of one of the basic concepts of how to do this show. So it's a lot of fun. At times it feels like we're provocateurs in the show, which I think is a very incredibly cool, hip thing for a big Broadway musical to be able to do that.

[Interviewer / Host]

I'm going to ask Nick and Michael and Danny to leave the stage.

[Aaron Tveit]

See you later.

[Interviewer / Host]

I'm going to talk to Aaron. Next, we're gonna hear a song for you. And we are told this is the first time performing this song outside of the theater.

[Aaron Tveit]

That's right, yeah. We've not done this.

[Interviewer / Host]

That's very exciting. What song are we gonna hear and where does it appear in the show?

[Aaron Tveit]

This is. What a scene, what a joy. And this appears early on in the show, kind of. We've met Freddie already, you know, as people that don't know Freddie's dealing with some mental health issues. And we kind of meet Freddie all the way down the bottom of his well. And then Leah, Florence gets Freddie to take his pills and all of a sudden he's on the opposite side of his well, and all the way up. What a scene, what a joy. They have just arrived in Murano for the World Chess Championship. And so he's ready to meet the press and meet his adoring fans. And these are all the things that really, truly play into his own narcissism.

[Interviewer / Host]

What do you like about performing this song?

[Aaron Tveit]

Yeah, I think exactly that. I think it's nice to kind of. It's nice to get to kind of go full throttle. Narcissist, all the way. Indulgent. All the things. Yeah, it's nice.

[Interviewer / Host]

I'll leave you to it. This is Aaron De Veit.

[Aaron Tveit]

What A scene, what a joy, what a lovely sight when my game is the big sensation. As the mob sporting taste alter it overnight. Have you found dudes a fix the ca? Not yet. They just want to see if the nice guy beats the bone. If it's east, west and the money sky high they all come. You can raise all you want you raise the roof screaming shout and the gate increases. Break the rules, break the bank I'm the living proof they don't care how I move my pieces I know I'm the best there is. But all they want is a show. Well, that's all right. I'll be glad to. Sro. Sro.

Thank you.

[Alison Stewart]

We've got more music on the way from Broadway's chest. This is Broadway on the radio. From all of it on wnyc, live from the green space, Lea Michele. She's up next.

[Interviewer / Host]

Stay with us.

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[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart and we are live in the green space at WNYC with a special Broadway on the radio event. If you're listening on the radio, you

[Interviewer / Host]

can Watch [e-mail] to watch the livestream back there. There are people watching in Brazil already. It's kind of amazing.

[Alison Stewart]

I have the band here with me

[Interviewer / Host]

from Chess, as well as director Michael Mayer, librettist Danny Strong. And on stage with me now, Lea Michele.

[Alison Stewart]

Hi, Leah. We heard how Aaron and Nick found

[Interviewer / Host]

their way to Chess. How did you find your way to Chess?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

I found my way to Chess through Michael Mayer. This is our third show that we've done together. He's brought two extraordinary female characters to me before and we were doing Funny Girl together. And he said, I'm doing Chess. And it was after a two show day, very late at night, and he said, go home and listen to this song. And if this song resonates with you, then I think you might want to do the show. And I listened to it in my kitchen in the dark. And it was Idina Menzel singing. Nobody sighed. And I could have called him right then and there and told him that I was in. But I waited and I, I read, you know, Danny's amazing script. And from the first scene I knew that this was a character that I really desperately wanted to play.

[Interviewer / Host]

You guys are late night people.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

We have no choice.

[Interviewer / Host]

How did you know Leah would rewrite for Florence?

[Michael Mayer]

Well, I've known Leah since she was 14. When we did the very first 10

[Nicholas Christopher]

years ago,

[Michael Mayer]

We did the workshop of Spring Awakening. And so I've watched her grow up and I've participated in part of that journey between Spring Awakening and then Funny Girl and working on Chess and having been in the room with her during Funny Girl and watching her transform from the 16 year old Fanny Brice at the beginning of that show to the mother of two kids and watching her husband walk out on her and seeing the emotional maturity that this 14 year old girl that I knew suddenly was displaying, I thought, wow, she's really becoming a woman before my eyes. And wouldn't it be amazing to give her the chance to play a real, real adult, professional woman from soup to nuts, you know, not starting as a girl, but really live in this. And I knew that she would sing it in an extraordinary way.

[Interviewer / Host]

Danny, in the script, Florence enters and the arbiter calls her the brilliant and beautiful Florence. But in the stage directions, it's describ as brilliant and tough. Why is it important that Florence is tough?

[Danny Strong]

You're not supposed to read those stage directions. I don't understand.

[Alison Stewart]

That's the way we do it.

[Interviewer / Host]

Public rating.

[Danny Strong]

I don't understand how that. Why is it important that she's tough? Is that the question?

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Interviewer / Host]

Why is it important that she's tough?

[Danny Strong]

Because she's the greatest strategist in the world. And I think as a woman functioning in that men's world of competitive chess at the highest level, that there is a toughness combined with her, as the arbiter would say, mysterious and tragic past. And that that toughness is how she was able to survive all the darkness of what she had to experience growing up.

[Interviewer / Host]

Leah, what did you learn from Michael on Funny Girl that has been useful for you on this show?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Oh, wow. I mean, I've picked up so many amazing things from Michael over the years and I owe so much to him and so much of, you know, how he has pushed me in his direction has really, you know, helped me to grow as a performer. I just think what I loved about our experience in Funny Girl, which was very different from the experience of Spring Awakening and also very different from our experience at, you know, working on chess together, was he gave me so much creative freedom. Like he one day, you Know, he just sat down and he was like, go. Like, go for it with this number. Do whatever you wanted to do, want to do. And next thing you know, I was jumping off of a piano and laying on top of him and climbing up a ladder. And it just felt so good to have that amazing sense of trust coming from him. And I took that trust into our room at chess. And funny enough, the rehearsal process, I was like, oh, Michael and I know each other so well. This is going to be a breeze. And I was like, oh, wow, Michael's really pushing me, which was amazing. I wouldn't have expected, you know, anything else, but to really help me to find Florence's strength in her restraint, which is very different from maybe closer to Spring Awakening, but very different from Funny Girl. But I think it was that baseline of trust that we have for one another and the ability to go really far and then figure out where we want everything to land. With that trust, everything just feels like we can accomplish anything together.

[Michael Mayer]

I also, I would just add this was felt like the most collaborative as peers, which was a really new experience for me because I always felt very paternal towards Leah, and now I feel like we're two adult professionals working together. And the collaboration has been beautiful.

[Interviewer / Host]

Let's talk about Florence. She's an immigrant to the United States from Hungary. How does that affect the stakes or the stakes in her chess match?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Personally, I mean, everything that Florence is carrying with her, both from her, you know, her past, her present relationship, the seven years that she's been with Freddie, the loss of both of her parents, she. I wouldn't say she wears it because she doesn't. She's holding it all inside. And I get to have these moments in the show through, you know, song and some moments that, you know, Dani has structured so well in, you know, very simple ways, but just of her having moments to express what she's feeling internally. She's a very complicated woman with a deep amount of trauma. And again, like I said before, it's something that I find very challenging every night to have to not use any sort of external physicalities to express myself, which is what I'm really used to doing in a lot of the performances that I've played or even use comedy to be able to express myself, but I can't do that with Florence. I have to play a lot of her emotions, you know, inside, and then finally having the moment at the end to have that emotional release. But it's a. It's a tragic story and, you know, definitely something that I Feel grateful to play just such a complex female character who's so strong, who is standing between these two men in this, you know, man's world of chess. And it's, you know, as an. And actress, I'm just really grateful.

[Interviewer / Host]

Danny, do you think about chess differently now, given our current geopolitical strategy of

[Danny Strong]

the United States Musical or the game

[Interviewer / Host]

start with musical?

[Danny Strong]

I just think it makes the show more relevant every day that every day what we're going through ties in not just we, but the entire world is going through is just exactly what the show is discussing, which is that, you know, we, the people are pawns of the decisions our governments are making. And there's a line at the end of the show which is sort of the key line of the show for the characters, which is, just because our governments have lost their souls doesn't mean we have to as well. That's sort of the line, right? Did I just screw that up? Aaron gotten it. Mostly. I was like. But I think that line becomes more relevant every hour.

[Interviewer / Host]

Leah, you really get to use the power in your voice in this musical. What are you able to do as a singer different with the music in chess that you haven't done on Broadway before?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

I think that what is so incredible about this score and what I get to play with, specifically with Florence and this track is it's like constantly shifting gears through different genres of music and really having to be so in tune with my voice and my instrument, to be able to go from these really powerful pop anthems and then walking off stage and coming right back on and being in a lyrical soprano, the. The differences between the. What I have to do sonically with, you know, Freddie versus Anatoly and flip flopping back, back and forth between the two is absolutely the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life. But it's. It's. It's fun, but it is something vocally that requires a lot of focus and a lot of rest, which I don't really get because I have two children. But it's thrilling. It's really. It's really thrilling. And to get to, you know, play with my instrument and really, you know, see how I can kind of weave back and forth between the different sounds and genres is a challenge, but it is very fun.

[Interviewer / Host]

I'm pretty sure everybody in this room knows, but for people who don't know, some of these songs were written by two of the members of abba, Right? That's the pop sincere.

[Danny Strong]

All of them.

[Michael Mayer]

All of them.

[Interviewer / Host]

How can I tell? It was Written by two members of abba.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Oh, my God.

[Interviewer / Host]

What do you think?

[Michael Mayer]

Well, I think the harmonies certainly. Certainly when the chorus. We have an amazing ensemble, but the choral harmonies are right out of their songbook. And I also feel structurally, you know, we should ask our musical supervisor out there if I'm getting this right, Brian, you can give me a thumbs up or not. But it does feel like structurally, many of these songs follow a very typical ABBA pop song structure. And the interesting thing about them is that Tim Rice, who's a great, you know, musical theater lyricist, has created these character arcs inside this pop idiom. And so that's where a lot of the very cool tension comes in the songs. But when you hear it with the full chorus and the full orchestra, it's undeniably got ABBA right in its DNA.

[Danny Strong]

But at times, there's songs that are polar opposite of abba, too. I mean, that's. What's. One of the amazing things about the score that Leah was talking about was the variety of music. And it just kind of blows me away how one second it's this sort of pop abba, and the next you're in a grand opera. Opera. It's the variety, and their talent is unbelievable.

[Interviewer / Host]

You had to lose some songs for this.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

How did you. Not that many. Not that many.

[Danny Strong]

Well, it was songs and music. But I believe that is one of the key decisions of how the show. I'm sorry, I even cut your question off. Is there enough that it was one of the key decisions of how the show is, I think, functioning so well is by paring it down. And like we said, it's not a lot, but there's, you know, four or five songs that have been cut. There are also, you know, larger pieces of music. And so it makes the songs that are there, every one is a banger, you know, every one is unbelievable. And I think that was, you know, sort of part of the secret sauce of why this production has been so successful.

[Interviewer / Host]

The next song we're going to hear is Leah singing Heaven Help My Heart. Why did you keep the song one?

[Danny Strong]

Why did I keep. Well, it's really famous. You couldn't. You couldn't cut this one.

[Nicholas Christopher]

So

[Alison Stewart]

what is something that you like

[Interviewer / Host]

about singing this song, Leah?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

I love this song because it, you know, nobody's side is really the first time that you get a look into how Florence is feeling and what is happening for her. But as a woman who is really functioning so much and using her. Her head and making these strategic decisions, this is the first time that she's making a decision from her heart, and that is terrifying for her. And you get to see her in this vulnerable state. When I first met with Michael, one of the first things that I said was, I don't want, heaven help my heart to be this sweet love song of. Of, you know, devotion. I wanted to be a woman who feels so vulnerable and so raw for the first time, you know, listening to her heart, and that just scares her so much. And so to. To get to play her in these moments of strength, but then also get to play this moment of just extreme vulnerability. It's really exciting.

[Interviewer / Host]

Are you ready?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Yeah. Definitely.

[Interviewer / Host]

This is lea Michele.

[Lea Michele]

If it were love I would give that love every second I had and I do. Did I know where he'd lead me to? Did I plan doing all of this for the love of a man? Well, I let it happen anyhow and what I'm feeling now has no easy explanation reason plays no part Heaven help my heart. I love him too much what if he saw my whole existence turning around? A word, a smile attached these days and it won't be long he'll know more about me than he should all my dreams will be understood no surprise nothing more to learn from the look in my eyes don't you know that time is not my friend I'll fight it too the end Hoping to keep the best of moments when the passions start Heaven help my heart. The day that I find

[Nicholas Christopher]

Suddenly I

[Lea Michele]

run out of secrets Suddenly I'm not always a on his mind. Maybe it's best to love a stranger well, that's what I've done Heaven help my heart. Heaven help my heart.

[Aaron Tveit]

Thank you.

[Alison Stewart]

That was lea michele. We've got more music on the way from Broadway's chest. This is broadway on the radio from all of it on wnyc live from the green space.

[Interviewer / Host]

Stay with us.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc.

[Interviewer / Host]

I'm alison stewart. We are live in the green space at wnyc with a special broadway on the radio event. If you're listening on the radio, go to wnyc.org to watch a live stream. I'm here with the team from chess

[Alison Stewart]

and I really want to give it to the band here. Let's have a special hand for the band behind us.

[Interviewer / Host]

They are doing an amazing job.

[Alison Stewart]

I'm on stage with lea michele, Nicholas

[Interviewer / Host]

Christopher, and aaron tveit. First of all, Leah, do you play chess?

[Alison Stewart]

Nicholas, do you play chess?

[Nicholas Christopher]

Hello.

[Interviewer / Host]

Little.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Yeah.

[Interviewer / Host]

How about you?

[Aaron Tveit]

Same. A little yeah.

[Interviewer / Host]

What do you like about the game?

[Nicholas Christopher]

I Like that you can never play the same game twice. You can play the same person, but, you know, everything, it's. It's always different and it's kind of like acting like there's a structure there. Each piece has to move in a certain way. Like, we have our lines, we have our blocking, but depending on how you're feeling that day, if there's a. Like the.

[Michael Mayer]

The.

[Nicholas Christopher]

The number of possibilities is infinite.

[Aaron Tveit]

I also think it always, you know, you never know. You can always. Much like life, too, you think it's going to go one way and then it can just really not go any way you plan and you have to adjust to that and, you know, so it's a real. It's a real amalgamation of life as well.

[Interviewer / Host]

Leah, in your character descriptions in the script. Yes, we read the script. Florence and Anatoly are described as brilliant, but Freddie is described as, quote, having a big ego. Go. How do you think this explains the way the relationships work out?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Well, I think from Florence's perspective, Freddie is extremely brilliant. I think that that's what she loves about him. I think that she's very attracted to his genius, and I think that because of that, it allows her to sort of, as sometimes ignore the negative. I think with Anatoly, it's very clear that he's also brilliant, but there is so much more that is safer for her and loving. And I get to have two very different relationships with the both of them.

[Interviewer / Host]

Aaron, do you think your character has a big ego or is brilliant or both?

[Aaron Tveit]

I think all the above, yeah. You know, as I mentioned before, Freddie's dealing with some mental health issues that I think stem from kind of being thrust into the spotlight as a. As a child and kind of becoming world famous as this chess champion when he was a child. And through that, though, his. His narcissism is also at play and brilliance. And I think all these things are very, very closely tied together. And so it's this really. It's like a. It's like poison for him because the more notoriety he gets, the more narcissistic he is, but then the more terrified he is. And so it's just this constant cycle that he's on of these mood swings and highs and lows that I think is really tied into his intelligence and the game of chess and his fame that he's found from all of this.

[Interviewer / Host]

Nicholas, do Freddie and Anatoly, do they respect one another?

[Nicholas Christopher]

I definitely think by the end they do. I think they. Yeah, Yeah. I think the respect comes from, at least from My perspective when we're sitting on that bench at the end is there's this fascination, or even at the beginning, when I'm watching you, there's this fascination of how you navigate the world that is the complete antithesis of the way Anatoly has been programmed.

[Interviewer / Host]

What do you think?

[Aaron Tveit]

I think the same. I think by the end, we come to this kind of mutual understanding of each other. Come to this mutual understanding of each other. But I think at the beginning, Freddie's also kind of blinded by his deep rooted hate for the Soviet Union. And so I think at the very beginning of where we find these characters, even if Freddie may have respect for Anatoly as a chess player or a person, he's just completely blinded by this thing that he has against the Soviet Union. And so it's really interesting to have that kind of strip away and he even realizes that it's, as Danny said before, it's, you know, that we're all pawns to these big governments and then we can see each other at a more human level by the end of the show.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Show.

[Interviewer / Host]

Nicholas. I want to give a shout out to the woman who plays. It's Hannah Cruz.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Yeah.

[Danny Strong]

Who plays your Hannah Cruz?

[Nicholas Christopher]

Yes, the one and only.

[Alison Stewart]

Tell us a little bit about her

[Interviewer / Host]

and tell us a little bit about their relationship.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Well, she was born in Connecticut in 19. No, I, I.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

She has a cat named Svetlana.

[Nicholas Christopher]

She has a cat named Svetlana.

[Interviewer / Host]

Really?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

I named her.

[Nicholas Christopher]

I mean, what, what an uphill battle she has every day to enter into Act 2, to get the audience to see her perspective and to just sing her face off and act her face off in, what, like 20 minutes of stage time? And she's so memorable. That's such a testament of who she is as an artist. But when we come into our story, I haven't seen her for four years, and I imagine that we grew up together, and then all of a sudden there's this four year gap and there's a lot of hurt, there are a lot of open wounds there. And so there is an amount of distrust. And yet there is this odd, like, physical comfort with each other and exploring that. And the distrust doesn't mean that I hate her. Like, I don't want her to die, I don't want my kids to die. And so it really throws Anatoly into this predicament of do I choose myself or do I choose others?

[Interviewer / Host]

I want to give her her flowers on this. You recorded a cast album in January. How does that feel for you when you Go into the booth and you have to recreate the show.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

I was definitely nervous because I think that we just create such an energy every night, you know, with our. With our band and singing to the audience. And I just have loved every night being able to connect individually with as many people as I can find to know, sing these words to. And it's a really thrilling experience. So going into the studio, for me specifically with Nobody's Side, I was really sort of worried that I wouldn't be able to find that same sort of power and connection. But something really special just happened and sometimes it's, you know, unexplainable. But I think that the gods were really in our favor. And we recorded in a studio that's very iconic for, you know, theater recordings, but it's in the round. And so each night when I perform, I have the. Our incredible, incredible, incredible ensemble who we have to give a shout out to because they're so amazing. They're, yes, brilliant and beautiful and so hardworking. And in that song, they're behind me and they're sort of like the. The pulse, like the heartbeat of the song, but I never get to see them. And so there we were in the studio in this round space, and I got to look at everyone and sing the words to our whole cast. And it was. Was really amazing. And we have gotten to hear some of the songs. Nobody's side is available now for the world to hear and listen to and more coming soon. And it's going to be amazing.

[Interviewer / Host]

What was it like for you to sing this?

[Aaron Tveit]

I actually had an amazing time. It was, you know, this. It reminded me, I think, not that you just, you know, sometimes you can't see the forest or the trees. And so you do during the show. During the show, eight times a week, you have kind of one. Lots of different thoughts. But to be in that recording studio and just having, like a fully immersive sonic experience with that music was really remarkable to me. And it was also amazing that I could really hear myself and hear everyone else, because on stage those things are varying degrees just for the nature of performing on stage. So I was once again reminded just how incredible this music is and how unbelievable our orchestra and our band sound. And so just for all that to come together and, you know, it'll be out and everyone else can throw their headphones on and listen to music.

[Interviewer / Host]

It'll be out when?

[Aaron Tveit]

It'll be out soon. It'll be out very soon. But as we said, nobody signed out today. On all platforms, go listen

[Alison Stewart]

and Nicholas,

[Interviewer / Host]

what was the experience like for you?

[Nicholas Christopher]

The experience was great for me. So we recorded most of it in one day, and we had a couple of other days here and there for other songs. But when you rehearse a show for four weeks, everybody's in the same room all together, all the time. And then you move into the theater, and everybody goes off into their different dressing rooms on different floors, and you're concentrated on the show, and then you come in in a half hour before the show, and you do the show, and then you leave. And for the first time since rehearsal, we were all in one room again, like Leah was just talking about. And we got to eat dinner together, and we got to really, like, snack and joke around and have this experience. So that's really what I remember from it, because it was a long day of, like, a bunch of different things just running in and out of the booth. But coming together as a cast, we all truly get along, which is really extraordinary. So for us to be in the same room, that's what I'll be thinking about as I listen to the cast album when it comes out. Soon.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Soon.

[Interviewer / Host]

This is running at the Imperial Theater. And that's where you made your Broadway debut, Les Mis.

[Alison Stewart]

Rob?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Yes.

[Interviewer / Host]

What's special to you about being in that theater?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Oh, my gosh. I just remembered that I wrote my college essay that got me accepted into NYU about the Imperial Theater. And I didn't remember until the other day, but I wrote that other people will look back on their childhood homes as being their home and the place that really molded them. But I wrote it about the Imperial Theater because it was where I made my debut in Les Mis when I was 8 years old. And it was where I really found myself and I found my passion. And I'm a mom. I have, you know, two little kids. And all you can hope as a parent is that your children, whatever it is, that they find something that makes them feel safe and like, they can be themselves and like they can express themselves and that they feel truly happy. And that's what I found at 8 inside the Imperial Theater. And so every day when I walk in, it smells the same. It's like I can hear the first, you know, few words of Les Mis playing. And I feel. Feel so happy and so at home. It's really the happiest I've ever been in a work experience in my life. And I think so much of that is just because this theater means so much to me. And, yeah, I could talk about it. These guys, they've Heard. They've heard of too much. But it's very special.

[Interviewer / Host]

Now you two work together on sweeneytot.

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Yeah.

[Interviewer / Host]

What is something from that experience that you brought to Chess?

[Aaron Tveit]

You know, Nick and I didn't get to rehearse Sweeney together because I joined the show when it was already going on. But I think in our scenes we had. There was like. You know, Nick had such an innate playfulness on stage. And, you know, it was interesting. The kind of. The tonality of the characters we were playing are actually quite reversed in this. You know, he was a very playful person, and I was being very stoic, and now it's kind of flipped. But, you know, I just had so much respect for Nick for, you know, his talent and what he brought to the stage every day and him as a person. And so to kind of get to walk back in with that kind of baseline knowledge of each other and that, and then get to actually experience an entire rehearsal process and build something with him, it's just been. It's been really, really amazing.

[Interviewer / Host]

What do you remember from that experience?

[Nicholas Christopher]

I remember. I remember looking in Aaron's eyes and throwing whatever I could, including shaving cream, at him. And he was just. And he was so game. So I think coming into this process, I really had a trust with him of, like, we can go wherever, or if somebody makes a decision, we'll just go with it and see what happens. And like I said, every time we get to, like, sit on this bench together, we have. We sit on the same bench in two different scenes, and it's just like, okay, I don't know where this is going, but I'm game, and I know he's game.

[Interviewer / Host]

Our last song we're going to hear is Florence Anatoly singing. You and I. Can you set this up?

[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Florence and Anatoly have been, you know, for four years. They have been together in a very sort of loving and safe space. They've fled to London together, and they come back to a chess tournament where they're going to be reunited with Freddie again for the first time, which brings up its own set of, you know, anxiety. And then they are confronted with sort of. They get set up, I guess you could say, in a very negative way. And we sing this song to each other, sort of the first time that we can see a real crack happening between the two of us and in our relationship. And something that felt so pure and safe is now sort of being, you know, attacked and how deeply we are trying to hold on to the love that we have for each other and this connection that we. That we have.

[Interviewer / Host]

Let's hear it.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Yeah, that was pretty good.

[Interviewer / Host]

All right. Look at him.

[Alison Stewart]

Stage managing.

[Interviewer / Host]

I love it.

[Lea Michele]

This is an all too familiar scene.

[Nicholas Christopher]

Life imperceptibly coming between those whose love

is as strong as it could or should be.

Nothing has altered yet everything's changed. No one stands still still?

I love you completely and hope I always will? Each day we get through Means one less mistake left for the making

and there's no return? As we slowly learn of the chance we're taking?

[Lea Michele]

I leave the world to stay just as we are? It's better by far not to be

[Nicholas Christopher]

too wise not to realize? Where there's truth there will be lies? You

[Lea Michele]

and I, we've seen it all? Been down this road before yet we go unbelieving. You

[Nicholas Christopher]

will die We've seen it all? Chasing our hearts desire

[Interviewer / Host]

yes.

[Nicholas Christopher]

But I still think I'm certain

[Lea Michele]

this

[Nicholas Christopher]

time it will be

[Lea Michele]

our happy endear.

[Alison Stewart]

That's it for Broadway on the radio. Big thank you. Thanks to Chess and thanks to everyone who joined us at the green space.

[Native Deodorant Announcer]

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[Home Depot Announcer / Lea Michele]

Uh, yeah.

[Native Deodorant Announcer]

Let me see that can. Aluminum butane. I cannot pronounce that. You have to switch to native deodorant. Native's simple formula has only clean ingredients. It gives you effective 72 hour odor protection with no hydrocarbon propeller.

[Alison Stewart]

Talent.

[Interviewer / Host]

Wow, this smells heavenly.

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Clean effective 72 hour odor protection isn't a myth.

[McDonald's Announcer]

It's Native with its two juicy beef patties, three slices of melted cheese and tangy Big Arch sauce. The Big Arch is what happens when you start making a McDonald's burger and never stop. The big arch. The most McDonald's McDonald's burger yet for a limited time.