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- [00:05]
A
Welcome to the Broadway show Uncut. I'm Tamsen Fadal. They are some of the grandmasters of Broadway. Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit, and Nicholas Christopher starring in the cold war musical Chess. The musicals got a brand new rewrite in all the stellar songs. Let's go ahead and send it out to Paul Wontorek.
- [00:27]
B
You know, there's nothing I like more than talking to a Broadway star who's, like, currently operating at their A game. And to talk to three all at once is just such a thrill, honestly. I mean, you guys are killing it on Broadway right now. Are you feeling that? Are you feeling like you're really, like, performing at a peak?
- [00:44]
C
I think post holidays, we're feeling like, okay, now we get to do the show because we opened in November, which is amazing. And then you go right into this just crazy, jammed holiday schedule and everyone in the world was sick. So we were navigating that and we had lots of shows. But now it's like. I don't know if we feel like we're. We're at the peak, but we feel like we're surviving now, which is good. But, no, it's been. It's great. It's now nice to just do the show and play to great houses.
- [01:08]
D
And I think what we. What. What the three of us, what we have to do every night is not easy. It's really hard. And I can definitely feel that it's challenging, but that we are reaching that every night and also going home and being parents every day. But most. You know, the number one factor here is we have the most incredible audiences that are having the best time. I've never experienced anything like it before. And when you feel that energy from the audience and then you physically feel what you're doing yourself every night, and those two things combine, it is a very sort of special, unexplainable feeling where you're like, oh, wow, this is. This is really something amazing.
- [01:49]
B
I really just wanted to start by thanking you guys because 40 years ago, I fell in love with this beautiful, weird, thrilling Broadway musical and very misunderstood Broadway musical. And I've been waiting for people to understand it. And I feel like you're all just. The three of you are very essential to the success of what we're seeing in Chess, honestly. And so thank you for bringing this show back and making it work. I mean, it really feels that way to me, you know, but Broadway is tricky. You know, we just saw this with Merrily We Roll Along, Right? You know, there's this talk of Broadway flops, shows that flop on Broadway. And Broadway's tricky. It's expensive. You have to sell a show really quickly. I mean, it's easy to understand why shows sort of disappear. But did any of you, what was your personal history with this show? Were you aware that this was sort of a gem that needed to be polished for new audiences?
- [02:44]
E
For me, I just knew the song anthem because, you know, being at theater camp, you know, kids would sing that for our district.
- [02:51]
D
We did not at the same time.
- [02:53]
F
No, no.
- [02:54]
E
She went theater camp much before,
- [02:59]
G
but.
- [03:00]
E
Yeah, so I knew there was some sort of, like, weird classical, rock, pop, Broadway show out there, but I had no, no idea. Now, with the understanding of it, the depth both for the love that I have for the music and for the story we're telling, but then also the audiences, their love for the music and the storytelling. And now we're seeing parents who had seen One of the 68 shows that during the first run on Broadway, bringing their kids, or people from London who had seen the original London version now coming over and bringing their kids. So it really seems like this sort of generational love and passion for this musical is now bringing people together, which is so exciting.
- [03:42]
D
Yeah. And I think if, you know, sort of the history of the original Chess and understanding what was happening in the world at that time, it really, it. It can make a lot of sense as to why its fate was what it was. And again, when I first started listening to the music and when this project was, you know, brought to me for whatever reason, I just saw it so clearly. You know, it's like how we talk about playing chess in our show. It's like, for me, I could just see the board. I could just read it so clearly, and I understood everything about it. And it just. It landed so strongly, and I knew that it's time again and merrily was a very big factor as well. It's so much about having someone bring in a vision, the timing being right, and then three people coming together who have a, you know, connection amongst the three of us and what we can do individually and what we bring together, that I really feel like allowed all the stars to align for our production.
- [04:44]
C
Yeah. I mean, it's so cool, right? I was thrown the Chess album when I became a theater major in college because I had friends that just threw content at me to say, listen to this, learn this. And Chess was one of the ones that I was given and I listened to, and the songs were amazing. And then soon after that, I heard the live version with Adam Pascal and Adina and Josh Groban and, you know, so this music has just been in my head for, know, 20 plus years. And I can understand why it's been in people's heads since they saw it in the 80s. But as you said, Nick, I've been kind of amazed how many people. Because when people come to the show, I say, okay, what did you know about chess? And it's either I get a lot of nothing or everything, right? There's, like, nothing in between. But so many people have come and said that they saw the show on Broadway, which I've been. I've been, like, blown away by that.
- [05:29]
D
You know who came the other day? The amazing grandmaster chess player. She saw the original production as well.
- [05:36]
C
It's incredible that for something that ran for seemingly such a short amount of time here in New York, just found this kind of cult love following that people have for it. But. And people have been back. So it's really, you know, I still can't believe that we're getting to do this as a thing that people have always said, oh, I hope chess has a revival. So there's nights we're on stage. I'm like, wow, we're really getting to do chess. It's pretty wild.
- [05:57]
B
I think that obviously, Michael Mayer, your director, and Danny Strong, who wrote the new book, have been working on this for before any of you were involved with it. They've been really dedicated to this project, and I've been excited waiting for it to finally come. It's fascinating to me because they actually dug into a lot of the character work really deeply, and you get to really have fun with these and take these characters. So much going on, so much going on. I mean, their personal, private life, it's just crazy how much you get to play with. But it's also so much fun, and it feels like an event for audiences. You know what I mean? It's just everything's so amped up, and, you know, there are moments of it that feel like I'm watching the Grammy Awards. You know, when you have your. You come downstage right during. I know him so well. You're sweep down. I literally felt like I was watching the Grammy.
- [06:47]
C
Oh, that's awesome.
- [06:48]
H
You know what I mean?
- [06:49]
B
You get these rock star moments. How thrilling is that for you on stage? Because it's interesting that you're playing these characters so deeply, but yet also getting these great, showy theatrical moments.
- [07:00]
D
It's awesome. Yeah, it's really awesome. I mean, we were really fortunate that the three of us as well, with Michael and Danny, we had a really intimate experience over the summer where we got to work on these characters and really take the time to develop the dynamics and the conversations and the relationships amongst one another and the complexities. And I just felt, for me, it was so important that Florence not just be this sort of pawn, excuse the pun.
- [07:28]
C
Well done. Well done.
- [07:29]
D
There you go. You know, in between these two men that, you know, you understood her history, the tragedy behind her past, the trauma that she had been through on her own, which maybe explains some of why she is with the man that she is with at the beginning, and then her need to want to be with someone else, but then most importantly, to just find out who she is separate from the both of them. So I feel so fortunate to play such a rich and dynamic woman on the stage that gets to have these really intense but very different moments with both of these two men, and then at the same time, get to have these unbelievable cool, like you said, sort of like rock star singing moments. And every night when I sing, Nobody Sighed, I'm like, I am not cool enough to be singing. I'm going to give it. Yes, but I'm going to give it my all. And I just. I. I love it. And I love, you know, being in the theater. That is so, you know, familiar to me, and it's really incredible.
- [08:35]
B
I just want to say I was really excited when you were cast in this because obviously you were fantastic in Funny Girl. And, you know, we all were waiting so long to see you play that role, Fanny Brice. And when I watched Act 1 of Funny Girl, it was kind of what I expected. Right. And then Act 2, when I got to see you play adult Fanny, I was like, God, I can't wait for you to get to do something where you can see you as, like, this fascinating woman you've become.
- [08:57]
D
Yeah. And that was for me also. I mean, I. I've only played young girls for so long, and then getting to play Fanny, and even though, you know, she starts younger, but getting to become a wife and a mother in Act 2. But now, even then, I started as a young girl, and, you know, when you see her at the beginning, I have two pigtails and I come out in my little sailor dress. But here she starts out, you know, where she is in her life. And Michael and I talk about that a lot, how what a big sort of turning point this role is for me of just getting to be a woman.
- [09:28]
B
Yeah. Freddie Trumper, he's got a lot going on.
- [09:32]
C
A lot going on. And he's created a lot going on too. So there's both things happening.
- [09:36]
B
I mean, he's kind of. I've seen productions where I just didn't like him the whole time. I just thought, like, who is this?
- [09:43]
C
A hole? Yeah.
- [09:44]
B
And your performance is so beautiful because the layers are so rich. And I mean, you've never been better than you are in this show. It's fantastic. What was it like digging into that and what did you love about his psychological profile that you got to bring to the audiences?
- [10:04]
C
Yeah, as Leah mentioned, we got to spend a lot. You know, the three of us all joined this project essentially at the same time. And as you said, Michael and Danny have been working on it for a long time. And they were so generous to let us bring ourselves into the room and to be open to our ideas and to kind of shape the characters to where they are now, which, you know, listen, they didn't have to do that. They could have said, no, we've been working on the show. This is what it is. Sing the notes. Right. But they were so generous to us. And I was really inspired by Leah and Nick because as you know, they, they, you guys had such great ideas about what you thought this could be. And it was like. So it really just, it created this conversation for all of us to kind of make everything, you know, sometimes you suspend a lot of disbelief with. Through lines and character. So we really tried to make it all make sense. And for me, you know, I, I'm interested in this guy's mental health state, right? And I said to Danny that I don't want this to just be some general thing. I want this us to really focus on what he's struggling with and how that manifests. And then also, you know, the idea of trauma and childhood trauma, right, Those, those are the things that I was really thinking about. I mean, we live in a day and age where any 11 year old with a phone can all of a sudden get all this notoriety because they post a video online and a million people watch it. Right. But what's. We don't know what the, the cost of that is going to be in 15 or 20 years. And so to think about this guy who was thrust into the world stage at 11 years old with what we learned later, with no support system, no family structure behind him, you know, it started to make sense to me how and why he could become who he is and be in this very, very terrible codependent relationship where he treats someone so horribly. But why he does that and why he can't get over, you know, the blocks he has. So I was just interested in, you know, even though this guy's not necessarily the nicest guy, like, his humanity and, you know, and then, you know, it's just really nice that that song in the second act, you know, hopefully the audience has seen this whole thing happen, and then they go, oh, this is why this person is kind of the way he is. So, you know, that's kind of the way that I looked at it. And it's. It's interesting.
- [12:09]
B
Is it a heavy load to. Actually, we'll talk about the singing in a second. But the actual emotional. I mean, you also have this incredible.
- [12:16]
D
He cries so hard every night. Nick wins the crying award.
- [12:20]
B
Talk about childhood.
- [12:21]
D
That says a lot because I usually am the crier, but we. We have a cry off at the
- [12:26]
G
end of the show.
- [12:28]
C
And I've been called TT in other shows for Tyra to viii, so it's. So I don't. I'm not as TT in this show. That's okay. It's just having a nickname for you, but throw it in there. Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot of stuff.
- [12:40]
B
But, yeah, I mean, endgame is like one of my favorite moments on Broadway, period. I mean, what you've done. And it's so. Because I think I've told you this before, I was kind of obsessed with David Carroll, who played the role on Broadway. And when you look at the original production, there was a table, right. There was a chess table, and the table's sort of gone. And so there was a lot of scenes happening at the table. And that. That number was like. He was sort of trapped at the table singing these big notes, and you get to just sort of like, explode
- [13:07]
E
on the stage and quite literally step off the board.
- [13:10]
B
Yeah. What is that like?
- [13:11]
E
And every night it feels different. I don't know how to really kind of talk about it, which seems weird. I should be able to articulate it, but it just. It feels like a true exploration of self because I. What I have is the sounds of the incredible voices behind me, the sound of the orchestra, and then it's just this sort of, like, void of blackness where I get to really explore Anatoly's life or my own life sometimes, or my own insecurities sometimes, or Anatoly's insecurities sometimes. And yet there's the added ingredient to the mix of all of these eyes on you at the same time, where it takes an incredible amount of focus to open yourself up to that, to then Be able to share that and then also do it in a way where it is where you are communicating still so that I'm not just up there in a puddle of my own self, but actually share a real piece of myself with the audience every night.
- [14:43]
C
That's such a good way to describe that. Yeah, because it's a hard. It's a hard thing to do.
- [14:46]
F
Yeah.
- [14:46]
E
And you just like crying out, Damn, T.T.
- [14:48]
C
open your heart.
- [14:50]
H
You do.
- [14:51]
C
You just like open your whole. You open your whole jacket and you're like, look at me.
- [14:53]
B
Right.
- [14:54]
C
So that's a great way to describe it.
- [14:55]
B
I mean, it's fascinating to hear you describe the characters going through versus what you. The actor. The parallels of that is really fascinating.
- [15:01]
E
And it all exists at the same time.
- [15:03]
F
Like,
- [15:05]
E
for me, I don't like really feeling like, oh, in character or out of character or anything like that because we. We are. We are. And with an audience there, we all are. And I do believe that there is some sort of subconscious energy work at play there and where our hearts sync up. And with this great music, I think we can all, all. We all really feel that. And we then we feel that response from the audience. And as much as I'm talking about end game, like, Leah has such beautiful, vulnerable moments that she shares with 1600 plus people every night and Aaron does too. And, you know, you were talking about the kind of heavy lift of this show, and yes, it is a heavy lift, but I think we all lean on each other so it isn't as heavy as the audience might experience it. Every night that we know we are all coming in and we check in with each other about our kids, about our families. We share jokes, we share worries, we share tiktoks, you know, Tiktoks. Exactly.
- [16:09]
C
But also feels like we get to like tag each other in and out show a little bit. Right. So, yeah, there is heavy hair. Oh, do I. I better get it off. I got it. So, yeah, it's.
- [16:17]
B
It's.
- [16:17]
C
We get to, you know, we get to tag each other in and out. So the lift is really shared.
- [16:21]
D
It's really that it's a lot of like, okay, now, it's now passing the ball to you. And Nick said it too, the other day. There's something about. I don't know if it's how the music is within the show or the story or what we have amongst the three of us or all of the above, but there's something about it where the minute we walk on the stage, I feel like I'm on A ride. And there's something about it that I just let go and we just go.
- [16:48]
C
It just goes.
- [16:49]
D
It just goes. And that doesn't mean it's any easier or any harder. It just means that like, I guess we just lock hands and we go. And there's something about that that just takes us. And before I know it, I'm, you know, it's. Act one is over. I'm like, whoa, that was such a, you know, like a ride. It's, it's thrilling.
- [17:10]
B
You, you, you all now have long rich careers, which is exciting for me to see, knowing you from when you first got here. What, you know, a lot of when you, I think when you get older, you try to like really live in the moment and take things and make really smart decisions. What is the best thing about your life right now? Doing this show, the three of you. And just where's your head at when you think about that?
- [17:34]
C
For me, you know, I have a 14 month old at home. And so the fact I just keep thinking about this moment in her life before she's in school, before she's in preschool, that I'm getting to work in New York, do this thing that I love in this show with these incredible people. And so I get, I have my life. My world feels so full, right? It's like I'm home with her and, and it's amazing. And I have this, you know, this beautiful family that's occurred, what I'm so grateful for. And then I get to go into work. So it's just the, you know, the compliments of the two of those things are just like. So it's kind of overwhelming to think about.
- [18:10]
D
Yeah, same. I mean, I have a 16 month old and a 5 year old and you know, I was not living in New York for a really long time and then I came back and was able to do Funny Girl, which was so incredible and hadn't done Broadway in 15 years. And I came back with the hardest, what I thought was the hardest, you know, female role until I met Florence. But now, as Erin said, I think we are all so grateful that we have amazing partners and beautiful children at home. But to be able to have a job where you can go and me especially as a woman to feel so supported by everyone in the building, but especially by these two and to get to play such a rich and beautiful character in a show that I think we are all so, so proud of. I have so much to feel unbelievably grateful for. Every night before I go out, I have A picture of me at eight in my dressing room, and I just feel so grateful to be able to be doing what I love for so many years, for 30 years now, when I walk out every night and I sing someone else's story, I, like, look at the center stage and think I stood there when I was 8. And it's an unbelievable blessing to be able to do what you love and have the support around you of the people that are helping to make that happen, especially as a working mom. Like, it's. It's a really unbelievable gift.
- [19:38]
E
Yeah.
- [19:38]
B
I mean, I just want to add also, like, you have had. You started as an understudy on Broadway. This is the big moment for you. It's exciting to be. You know, there are three stars of this show, and this is. This is. I'm so thrilled to get to see you have this moment. I'm trying. I'm not trying to add the emotion for you.
- [19:54]
F
No.
- [19:54]
G
How are you feeling?
- [19:56]
E
Yeah, I mean, there's that. No, there's definitely that. And that. That sort of feels like outside noise. It feels like people are yelling outside the window, and I can't really make out what they're saying, and that's cool. But inside the home is still the same. Like, it's the same work. It's the same passion. It's the same dedication to what we do. And, you know, I think this is the first time in a long time, definitely since I came back to New York in 2023, that I've had one job, one character, and I get to spend some days with my. With my kids, and I am not working on. I don't have three jobs to try to make ends meet. I don't have, like, that added pressure of, like, yeah, I'm doing this show right now, but then tomorrow morning, I have to run into a rehearsal and be somebody completely different. I get to dedicate my full energy and my full focus to this show and to my family, to my friends, and I think that's where I'm at right now.
- [21:01]
A
Let's send it out to Beth.
- [21:06]
H
Tell me what drew you to Chess and made you want to take on this revival?
- [21:11]
G
I was listening to Spotify Daily Mix, perhaps number three, and, you know, it was all, like, Les Mis and Jesus, great superstar, and Hamilton, Spring Awakening and Chess, which makes it maybe the greatest playlist of all time. And every time a Chess song came on, I just would get this sort of dopamine kick of, like, Chess. Chess is so cool. And then I started thinking, what's. What's the deal with Chess, I know it doesn't work. I don't really know why, because I've actually never seen a production of it because very few people have. So I looked online and there was the Idina Menzel, Josh Groban, Chess in concert at Royal Albert Hall. And so I watched it. And as I was watching it, I started thinking. My rewrite brain started kind of clicking in, and I had this very delusional thought, which was, maybe I could fix this. And some ideas started coming in my head and how to do it. And then a few days later, I was with a friend of mine who knew Michael, and I started boasting I could fix chess. I mean, who does that? I have no idea.
- [22:14]
H
Actually, a lot of people tried.
- [22:16]
G
A lot of people tried. And then I told her, I said, text Michael Mayer right now and tell him I'm gonna fix Chess and he's gonna direct it.
- [22:24]
H
That's very bold.
- [22:25]
G
It is bold. It is bold. Cause I didn't even know him, but he is my favorite theater director and many peoples and many people's. And then I woke up in the morning with an email from Michael, and it just said, I'm in.
- [22:35]
F
And then I wrote back and I said, and Tom Hulse is gonna produce it.
- [22:40]
G
So you have a producer now, too. I mean, it was amazing. In 10 minutes, I had this. You have a long director producer relationship with Thomas.
- [22:47]
F
And I said, danny Strong's gonna fix Chess. I'm gonna direct it, you're gonna produce it. And he said, sounds great. Because Tom and I had been at that concert in London and saw Idina and Josh and Adam Pascal, and we felt the same way Danny did. We were like, this show, there's something amazing there, but it's kind of incomprehensible. So we would. We were talking about, well, that's one of those things that's never going to happen. And then I got that text and the rest. Here we go.
- [23:22]
G
Here we are nine years later.
- [23:25]
H
So Tim Rice has carried this show with him for decades. He has described a lot of emotional attachment to it and a lot of passion for it. How do you approach this? And with knowing how he feels about it and how important it is to him and getting his input.
- [23:42]
G
Yeah, well, so that first, after we met Nitam and Michael, then I was sent off to London to meet with Tim Rice to talk to him about
- [23:51]
H
it, who's the lyricist, and conceived of it.
- [23:53]
G
Conceived of it. And one of my heroes, you know, one of my writing heroes, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita, a huge influence on. And I told him this when I first met him. I said, you're one of my writing heroes. And he said, I'm so sorry. And so, you know, that first meeting was so interesting because it was almost like, how do you talk about chess to someone? You know, I don't know how he feels about it. I don't know if he thinks that it works great and everyone's wrong or, you know, but very quickly he started talking about it and he talked about the flaws of the show and he was very honest about it. And he seemed very in touch with what doesn't work with the show. And one of my main concepts was I wanted to turn it into. I wanted to infuse Cold War true life Cold War plot lines into the show so that you had the love story, you had the chess matches, and then you had a much richer Cold War story. That's flicked at in the lyrics, but it's not fully realized. And one of the first things Tim said to me was, you know, I wrote this in 1984 while the Cold War was happening, right? So, you know, I didn't have a perspective on the Cold War.
- [24:58]
H
And let's just. For people who don't know, the original concept is it's a chess masters who one is Russian, right.
- [25:06]
G
Like it's a fictional version of the Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky chess rivalry.
- [25:12]
H
Right.
- [25:12]
G
Which is the coolest idea ever for a musical. Right. So once he started talking about that perspective on the Cold War, you know, that's when I went right in, which is. That's exactly my approach, is that I want to infuse true life Cold War stories into the plot line. And I felt that by doing that, it would a give it sort of a much grander scope, a bird's eye view scope of this, you know, wildly important era of world history. And then more simplistically, it would raise the stakes for the characters, right? So it would have higher stakes beyond the love story in a chess match. We would have global nuclear war, right? Which is what the Cold War was ultimately about, looming over the entire show. And then the challenge was, well, how do you do that? Right? But that was the concept and Tim Rice immediately took to it.
- [26:03]
H
So, Michael, when people talk about chess, they talk about the score and how much they love it. And these songs are known outside the
- [26:10]
F
theater world for sure. They are iconic.
- [26:12]
H
They're iconic. So how do you stage them so they can be fresh for an audience who already has an idea of what they are going to see or hear.
- [26:21]
F
Right. Well, most of the audiences who know the songs have never seen them in the context a of the original story, let alone this new version that Danny has created. I will say, one of the things that happened when, in developing it, when we did this at the Kennedy center, it was the very first. First show that Jeffrey Finn did where he did his kind of Broadway on stage concert versions of shows, and that we were the inaugural show. And we realized something watching it in that concert setting. It had. It sort of attained a kind of epic theater kind of vibe. And so when we were developing it further, Danny said to me, he said, I think we should go further in that direction and really exploit the difference between the Cold War then and where we are now. So we're very cognizant of who we are as a country right now as we are looking at this historical document. Right. So all these songs are in the context of not only the love story that Danny has created, but this sort of epic scale presentation of it. So in a way, these songs are a link between where we are now and where the characters are. And that's. I think, the. I think that's one of the differences between how these songs function now and the way that they did originally.
- [28:02]
H
And when we talk about the famous songs, what we're talking about is One Night in Bangkok. I know him so well. These are songs that were on the radio.
- [28:08]
F
Anthem. Oh. You know, and Someone else's prize, Someone else's story. I mean, it's crazy how many great songs there are. The Arbiter was a dance hit in London based on that original concept album.
- [28:26]
G
Wow.
- [28:26]
F
Which was amazing. It's kind of amazing.
- [28:31]
H
Danny, you have written a lot about the cross section between power and the personal and the political and the personal. With that in your background, how did you bring that insight to creating a new book for Chess?
- [28:47]
G
You know, the approach was just how to. It was really just about chess. You know, how to make this show work as well as it could possibly work. How to, you know, deepen the love story, how to deepen the characters, and then infusing that Cold War plot lines into it. Right. So it was really. I wasn't sort of keen into anything I'd done in the past. It was really just about, okay, these songs are incredible. This is a great concept for a show. How can we make the story in the book live up to how fantastic these songs are and can help the songs, you know, fulfill their potential within a story as they possibly could?
- [29:32]
H
As you both have mentioned, most People have not seen chess. So how do you make the game of chess theatrical?
- [29:41]
F
Well, one way that we do it, and this is where I feel like Danny really. He really figured out the way in to. To making the literal game metaphorical so that it's also the geopolitical chess game that these two nations are playing with each other. And because that story is so much clearer and more specific, I think, also than it was in the original, then the chess matches end up mirroring that in such a great way that we automatically invest in those games a little bit more than we might have if it were literal chess game. So the chess games are as metaphorical staging wise as the larger context is. But for some reason, we feel like we're inside the game, so that's how we're doing it.
- [30:40]
G
And this is why my initial instincts, when I was watching the Royal Albert hall and I thought, oh, maybe I could, you know, I could work on this show, was why my initial instinct was Michael to direct, is because he is. Has a wonderful theatrical style when he wants to use it. He also does very realistic pieces, too. But when he does these, you know, expressionistic theatrical pieces, they're so bold and exciting. And I felt like, well, that's what this show needs. It needs that kind of director to really make it work. And, you know, my concept was a really theatrical piece overall that was multimedia, that was at times, you know, not mired in realism, and then at times, bam. Very real, very heightened stakes, very intense, and then sort of mocking that. Right. So it was a really dynamic tone that I thought could be very. Just an interesting piece of theater. And then I thought, well, no one could deliver that better and more richly than Michael.
- [31:48]
H
So the other thing Michael Mayer brings to the table is his real instinct for casting. And you have Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher and Lea Michele. What did these stars bring to the roles that surprised you or maybe illuminated something about the characters for you guys?
- [32:07]
F
Well, first of all, they have to sing the shit out of it. This is not an easy score, and we got if anyone can do it right. I mean, we really needed great singers and also great actors. And it's very hard to find people who can handle the demands of the score. The range is unbelievable. And the sing for each one of those three is a real challenge because it has to use every part of their voice. So they can't live in one place all night. They've got to really jump around a lot. Obviously. You know, I've been a Lea Michele fan since she was 14, and first walked into that workshop audition for Spring Awakening, so we go obviously way back. I know her. I know her so well, and I know what she's capable of, and I think she's going to crush this. We had such a great time doing Funny Girl together, too. It was so wonderful to watch her go from a girl to then play someone who goes from a girl to being a woman to now. This is her first show where she's a grownup the whole time. She doesn't have to do any of that acting of being younger. You know, she can really own who she is and the place that she has in the world right now. And it's a beautiful thing to see in the acting. And Aaron I've never worked with before, but I've been such a fan of his. And I don't know anyone who can sing Freddie as well as he can. And it's also fun for me because we're getting to push him a little bit out of his comfort zone. And it's really exciting to watch him. And he's got an appetite for it, too, so that's thrilling. And then, Nick, I've known since we did whirl Inside a Loop together at Second Stage. I saw that and I loved him and I thought he was great. I didn't know what a phenomenal singer he was until I saw him do other stuff. In particular, when I saw him do Sweeney Todd and I heard him sing Pirelli. And then to know that he was also singing Sweeney when Josh was out, he was the COVID I thought, what can't he do? So I hired him to be Seymour over at Little Shop with Sherry Renee Scott, and they were fabulous, but he was great. And then I knew he really can do anything. And I thought he'd be a beautiful Anatoly. And he's delivering in a big way.
- [34:49]
H
Danny, what is it like to write a musical or to work on a musical when you've never seen that musical before and you never saw the other versions of it, of which there are many, too many.
- [35:02]
G
You know, it's. I just based all my decisions off the music. The music was my guide to the show, was the north star of the show. It's an incredible catalog of music. It's been reordered, done in so many different versions over the years.
- [35:19]
H
It's brand new. I just want to be clear about that, because usually when they say, oh, it has a new book, it's really just a reworking of the old book. That's not the case.
- [35:26]
G
I've never read A book. So I never read the Richard Nelson book to the original Broadway production. I haven't seen the original London production. The only production I saw was the Royal Albert hall production. And so I basically took these songs and use them as my guide to how to make the story work. So the story is not some kind of, you know, invention that I've just strung out of nowhere that's inspired by, you know, a puppy and a cat that I love, Right? It's literally all the decisions were informed from the lyrics, right? And so I've got these lyrics, these lyrics. That is the show. These are the relationships. This is the dynamic. Okay, how can I then, by the way, this was a very difficult thing to do. It was a very complicated undertaking. It was. How can I create a story with those lyrics as my guide in a way that can, as I said before, deepen the show, deepen the relationships, deepen the characters, but also increase the entertainment value, heighten the stakes, make it funny, make it exciting. And it was a very big challenge, but I thought it was worth it because the songs are great. I thought, these songs are so incredible if I could figure something out that could get us through this story. And then it became about. Not just about, okay, how do you just make it work so you can understand it, Right? Because that's the famous thing about chess. You can't understand chess. And it was like, okay, I don't want you to just understand it. I want to try and write something that's great, that people will come that know nothing about chess, which will be 90% of our audience, and will just think, what a great show. What a great love story. Right? So that was. That was the goal. And. And, you know, we'll find out whether it was achieved or not. But. But it was really. It was much more ambitious than. Let's just make. Let's just be able to understand it. It was really about. I think this is one of the great scores, rock scores of all time in musical theater. So let's create a show that's worthy of these songs.
- [37:34]
H
And the original creators, Benny and Bjorn and Tim Rice, were on board, it sounds like.
- [37:39]
D
And they loved that.
- [37:40]
G
They love it. They love it. It was. When we did the first at the Kennedy center, was the first time we did it. And Benny and Bjorn were sitting in front of me. Tim Rice was to my left. It was crazy. It was crazy, right? So these guys are all sitting around me. And then at intermission, Benny turned to me and he went, this is great.
- [38:01]
D
I love this.
- [38:02]
G
And it was like, oh, my, thank God. And Tim had already been to a private reading we'd done, and it was the same experience where I was sitting next to Tim Rice for our first reading. And I just thought, okay, once we get to intermission, just don't even look at him. Just like, who knows, Maybe he hates this. Maybe this will be the end of it. And then the second anthem ended. He turned to me and he just went, danny, this is fantastic. You know, so they've just loved it and have been on board, you know, right from the get go, and have been a part of the process. You know, they've got ideas. They, you know, musically, story wise, dialogue wise, and they've been, you know, collaborators with it.
- [38:38]
H
So what do you hope this new Chess for a new generation adds to the legacy of Chess on Broadway?
- [38:46]
G
Well, my hope was. My hope was less to do about Chess on Broadway, and it was more of a, you know, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita have been done for the last 45 years all over the world, non stop. And this is a. This is the next historical rock musical that Tim Rice did right after he did those pieces. Right. This is the third one, and it's never done. And it feels to me that there's no reason in a world in which this show works and fires on all cylinders. Right. It can't be done all over the world for the next 40 years as well. I just viewed it as it should be in the catalog of musicals that are just performed and not just this sort of niche musical theater fandom, but appreciated by audiences everywhere. He did very famously with Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar, Navita, and those scores are incredible. And then he went and did this with abba, and their score is incredible. Like, it deserves to have a life for decades that it hasn't had before, in my opinion.
- [39:56]
F
Yeah. And I really like. The album's gonna be sick.
- [40:01]
G
Yeah. It's gonna be killer.
- [40:02]
F
It's gonna be great. And I feel like what Danny did, I just have to like KVEL a little bit.
- [40:09]
G
Go ahead.
- [40:10]
F
The way that he has constructed makes the songs actually feel completely inevitable because they feel like they're coming right out of the story right from the characters. That's a very difficult thing to do when you've got existing material. These things sometimes will feel shoehorned or something, but he's captured, he's managed in some ways, what makes him a great writer is that he can take what's baked into these songs, into the lyrics, into the music, and then infuse that into right into the characters that he's creating. So they go from the scene into the song. It's the same person. We're hearing it slightly differently because the character that he's created might be presented differently than it was originally. But then the song has complete authenticity to those characters in those scenes. It's remarkable, and it makes it feel like one piece. It doesn't feel like we've taken something and we're applying a new idea to it. This is very. It feels like it's coming from inside it, not being put on from the outside. That's my experience of what you think.
- [41:25]
G
That was the goal and the challenge,
- [41:31]
A
and that's gonna do it. For this episode of the Broadway show Uncut. Until next time, I'm Tamsen Fadal.