<\/p>\n
Like many of us, Danny Strong watched a concert version of the musical Chess, and wasn\u2019t entirely sure what was happening.<\/p>\n
But rather than giving up on the complicated plot and letting the rock score by Benny Andersson and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus of ABBA wash over him, Strong was compelled to do something about it.<\/p>\n
More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, I had this delusional thought, which was, \u2018Geez, maybe I can fix the show,\u2019\u201d Strong said.<\/p>\n And so Strong, who created TV series including Empire and Dopesick, rewrote the book to musical which follows two chess grandmasters, one American and one Soviet, during a chess tournament in the midst of the Cold War, and amid a love triangle. His version, starring Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, starts previews on Broadway Oct. 15, ahead of a Nov. 16 opening.<\/p>\n The show, famous for its muddy storyline which also involves subplots about defection, a lost family member and more, was originally penned by Tim Rice and ran in the West End in 1986, where it lasted several years, and on Broadway in 1988, where it closed after about two months. The British and American versions also have different plot points, further confusing the matter, but the score has endured and developed a cult-following.<\/p>\n Strong approached Rice and the original creative team for permission, which was quickly granted, before honing in on his version of Chess, which heightens the politics of the era, and introduces a narrator to guide the audience through the plot. He teamed up with director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening) on the show and held a short run at the Kennedy Center in 2018, and a one-night concert on Broadway in 2022.<\/p>\n While Strong is known for his roles in the film and TV world, including as an actor, he\u2019s also penned a few theatrical shows, including the book to the musical Galileo, directed by Mayer, which he also hopes to see on Broadway in the next year. Mayer saw the same concert as Strong (\u201cIt was a musical event, and I was completely confounded by the story, such as it was,\u201d he said), but signed on to the project because of his belief in Strong\u2019s ability.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought he was uniquely qualified to marry a large political story with the interpersonal drama that was inside that larger context,\u201d Mayer said. \u201cI think he just does that so well, and has such a great ear for not only the wonkiness of politics, but as evidenced in \u2018Empire,\u2019 he\u2019s got a really good sense of drama to really bring the emotional, passionate story of this love triangle together.\u201d<\/p>\n Strong spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the first preview of Chess about what drew him to the project and how he thinks he may have cracked the code for the show (even as he warns there will be more tweaks during previews).<\/p>\n When did you first become involved with <\/strong>Chess<\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was listening to it one day, and it\u2019s very famous for not working, because the music\u2019s very beloved amongst musical theater nerds like myself. And so I was listening to the music, and I was thinking, why doesn\u2019t the show work? Because no one ever performs it. They just do\u00a0Chess In Concert, because it doesn\u2019t make sense. You can\u2019t really follow the show. So then I watched a video of the Josh Groban, Idina Menzel Chess In Concert. As I was watching it, my brain started to go into rewrite mode, and I started to try to figure out what was the problem and how I would fix it. And then, all of a sudden, I had this delusional thought, which was, \u201cGeez, maybe I can fix the show.\u201d<\/p>\n So then I had a friend reach out to Michael Mayer, and she texted him and said, \u201cDanny wants to fix \u2018Chess\u2019, and he wants you to direct it.\u201d And it was sort of a joke, almost. And then I woke up the next morning with an email from Michael, and he said, \u201cI\u2019m in\u201d and then he said, \u201cTom Hulce is producing, so you have a producer too.\u201d<\/p>\n What made you think you could be the one to fix it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I didn\u2019t go into it, watching the concert, thinking, \u201cOnly I can fix Chess. I will be the hero.\u201d It was more I just wanted to check it out. And then, as I was watching it, ideas started to come into my head of what could be done. It\u2019s not so crazy, because this is sort of what I do on projects. Sometimes I\u2019m brought into rewrite projects, and then sometimes I\u2019m brought in post to recap projects. And one time I was brought in to recut an entire season of television So I\u2019ve done this kind of work before, many times on films and TV shows. It was applying that skill set to a stage musical.<\/p>\n What do you think the problem is with the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n The show was very hard to follow. There were things that would happen too quickly, things where story would turn within song. So you couldn\u2019t really pick up what had happened, because it\u2019s buried in song lyrics. And I also thought, I\u2019d love to figure out a way to increase the stakes. How can you raise the stakes, so it\u2019s more than just the love story and just the chess matches? And I thought the way to do that is the Cold War. When they had written this show, the Cold War was happening, they were living it. And there\u2019s flicks of the Cold War throughout the music. But I thought if I could infuse Cold War storylines and take true life Cold War events and put it into the story and intersect it with the love story and with the chess tournaments, it could perhaps be this kind of high-stakes dynamic story. That was my main approach to it.<\/p>\n It sounds like you put more dialogue into the production too.<\/strong><\/p>\n It feels now much more like a traditional book musical. There are rich scenes, and then we go into the songs, and then sometimes we\u2019ve got long sequences of just music, and then sometimes we have few sequences of back-to-back scenes. And they also let me cut songs, so I was able to pare down the music. I, along with every other musical theater nerd that loves Chess, we just think it\u2019s one of the great rock musical scores of all time. So getting to pare it down and get to the essence of all the 20 incredible songs that were there also had a powerful effect on the show.<\/p>\n There are diverging plot points between the American version and British version, including different winners of the chess tournament. Are you following one version more than the other?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ll confess something to you. I have no idea what\u2019s in the American one. I never read it. They wrote a whole book for the American one, and I just never read it. The original authors are not fans of it, and they were very unhappy with that version. And I just thought, I\u2019m going to work off of the songs, and the London one is pretty much sung-through. So I just use the songs as the base for the show, and then came up with these Cold War storylines.<\/p>\n Were you nervous about the reaction to cutting songs?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s been 40 years, and I just thought, I need to follow my instincts and just try to put the show together in a way where it can be a really effective piece of storytelling, and that\u2019s all I can think about is. And I wasn\u2019t even thinking about Tim or Benny and Bjorn, what would anger them, or what would bump them. I just really tried to follow my instincts on how to make this show work. And lo and behold, Tim and Benny and Bjorn were incredibly receptive to it once they read it, and they didn\u2019t have a problem at all with the songs I\u2019d cut.<\/p>\n And then when we did it at the Kennedy Center \u2013 and I\u2019ve done a pretty big rewrite since the Kennedy Center \u2013 it was this kind of proof of concept, and I was sitting between all three of them. And at intermission, Benny just looked at me beaming. And he gave me a big thumbs up. And Bjorn patted me.<\/p>\n And how about among the fans?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I hope the Chess fans come in open minded, because I see them online, and there\u2019s a lot of debating over their favorite version and their favorite recording. And there\u2019s so many recordings, and people are constantly posting questions at me and the truth is that we\u2019re ultimately guided by the macro of how can we just make this show as dynamic and engaging as the show could be? As if you\u2019ve never seen it.<\/p>\n What sparked more rewrites after the Kennedy Center concert?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n There were things that worked that we wanted to expand upon. There were things that didn\u2019t work that we wanted to eliminate. And it was a really helpful kind of moment in the process of how to do the show. We had a narrator, the Arbiter. He narrates the show. And it worked so well. I was surprised at how well it played. And he does it kind of with this sardonic tone. And it killed. So we just built that into the show more.<\/p>\n And so you\u2019re saying that myself and everyone who comes will be able to understand what\u2019s happening in your version of<\/strong> Chess.<\/strong><\/p>\n I believe so. I believe it\u2019ll be crystal clear, actually. And I feel like if it is, then we\u2019ve already won. Like just that alone will be a victory. But, I think the music is so incredible, and the songs are so dynamic that it started with \u201cLet\u2019s just make this clear and legible\u201d and then it went to, \u201cHow can we create a show that\u2019s as special as this music?\u201d So our ambition absolutely grew as the process began.<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that this is coming after the success of the recent Broadway revival of <\/strong>Merrily We Roll Along<\/strong>, which also famously didn\u2019t work when it premiered. Do you think that there\u2019s more of an appetite for reworking these kinds of shows?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I think it\u2019s sort of a coincidence, because the Kennedy Center was in 2018. So I didn\u2019t even know about Merrily, but Merrily was great for us, because it was a template and a show that\u2019s beloved, that famously didn\u2019t work, and then they redid it, and it was wildly successful. I think that was really helpful for us to getting the show to Broadway and getting investors interested. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s necessarily an appetite. I think it\u2019s an element of just people love these shows. They love this music. And so the idea that a show that almost never gets done, Merrily never gets done, Chess rarely ever gets done. The idea that, OK, if you can make this work and the show can be done. Well, the fans of these shows, they\u2019re very excited to come see them.<\/p>\n You may have Galileo coming to Broadway, but is there more theater or more Broadway that you want to take on?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have one other show that I\u2019ve that I\u2019m writing, but I don\u2019t want to say what it is, because it hasn\u2019t been announced, and it\u2019s a few years away. I haven\u2019t even started the script yet. It\u2019s a musical.<\/p>\n This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. <\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like many of us, Danny Strong watched a concert version of the musical Chess, and wasn\u2019t entirely sure what was happening. But rather than giving up on the complicated plot and letting the rock score by Benny Andersson and Bj\u00f6rn Ulvaeus of ABBA wash over him, Strong was compelled to do something about it. 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