BROADWAY
CHESS (Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th St; only until June 21, 2026)
Music & Lyrics by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus; New book by Danny Strong; Directed by Michael Mayer; Staring Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele, & Nicholas Christopher
The musical CHESS captures that excitement by pitting two, top chess champions -– a bad-boy American (“Freddy” Aaron Tveit) against a depressed Russian (“Anatoly” Nicholas Christopher) -- at the height of the Cold War. They are both also vying for the love and attention of the same woman, a brilliant chess strategist (“Florence” Lea Michele).
CHESS began as a concept album in 1984, based on an idea that writer Tim Rice (Andrew Lloyd Webber’s frequent collaborator) brought to ABBA’s Benny & Björn, who loved the concept. The album's success led to theatrical productions, first in London’s West End, then a short-lived Broadway run. Over the years, with several book rewrites, there have been many tours and West End revivals, plus various cast albums. This fabulous, upbeat and exciting production – its’ first Broadway revival – just happens to be in the same theatre where the show first ran in 1988. Go now!! It’s only up until June 21st.
[If you can’t make it to New York in time to see this terrific revival, view the fabulous 2008 London CHESS in Concert version featuring Josh Groban, Idina Menzel & Adam Pascal on YouTube.]
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| MOBY DICK (photo: Lucie Jansch) |
BAM and En Garde Arts are always presenting interesting work, so if you sadly miss these two shows, get on their mailing lists &/or follow their social media.
Friendly Reminder: Off-Broadway shows have limited runs, so get tickets right away.
Friendly Reminder: Off-Broadway shows have limited runs, so get tickets right away.
MOBY DICK
(BAM, 30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY; closed 5/3/26)
From the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus theater
Direction, Design & Lighting by Robert Wilson; Music by Anna Calvi. In German & English with supertitles.
Those who already love the work of avant-garde director Robert Wilson will be pleased, and the uninitiated are in for a treat. Once again, Wilson’s signature, striking visual style is on display in MOBY DICK, considered his last, realized production before his death in 2025.
Here, the essence of Herman Melville’s epic, 1851 novel Moby-Dick is revealed in a series of Wilson-style tableau vivant. The accompanying music and songs by British, singer-songwriter Anna Calvi beautifully express the melancholia of this human tragedy and whale tale.
That this piece is performed mostly in German is also oddly fitting as the late-18th-century German movement Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress"), characterized by dramatic, often tragic tales exploring inner turmoil, perfectly captures the fundamental nature of Moby-Dick. This combined with Wilson’s palette of haunting visual beauty, plus a new character “The Boy” adds some comic relief to the fate of the doomed whalers.
This production premiered at Germany’s Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, where Wilson created several other seminal works. It’s touching that that cast, including favorite performers Christopher Nell & Rosa Enskat, are part of this U.S. premiere of MOBY DICK here at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) which serves as a posthumous tribute.
Unfortunately, the show is up for just a few days – Run to Brooklyn, now!
73 SECONDS
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| 73 SECONDS (photo: David Gray) |
(The Lower Eastside Girls Club Planetarium, 402 E 8th St, NY; closed 5/18/26)
Presented by En Garde Arts; Directed & Co-Developed by Aya Ogawa; Created, Written & Performed by Jared Mezzocchi.
For years, En Garde Arts has been producing way-cool, site-specific work. This latest piece is no exception—staged in a little planetarium on the Lower East Side that who-knew-existed. The show is a sort of cosmic coming-of-age tale: a young man finds out his unassuming, math-teacher mom shoulda-coulda-woulda been an astronaut. He and we want to know more, but by the time he gets around to quizzing her about the time she spent at NASA, she’s already lost in space. 73 SECONDS proves it’s always interesting to explore the many mysteries of the cosmos and family life.
Presented by En Garde Arts; Directed & Co-Developed by Aya Ogawa; Created, Written & Performed by Jared Mezzocchi.
For years, En Garde Arts has been producing way-cool, site-specific work. This latest piece is no exception—staged in a little planetarium on the Lower East Side that who-knew-existed. The show is a sort of cosmic coming-of-age tale: a young man finds out his unassuming, math-teacher mom shoulda-coulda-woulda been an astronaut. He and we want to know more, but by the time he gets around to quizzing her about the time she spent at NASA, she’s already lost in space. 73 SECONDS proves it’s always interesting to explore the many mysteries of the cosmos and family life.
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