CHESS Comes to Russia For the First Time Ever

The Russian premiere of the legendary musical CHESS, telling the story of a battle for world chess championship, set against the backdrop of the cold war between two superpowers - USSR and USA, is set to open in Novosibirsk May 2019 with a gala opening in Moscow in October 2019. This is a co-production between Moscow Broadway theatre company and Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (NOVAT).

The production will open in May at Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre the largest theatre in Russia, following which it will transfer to the main musical theatre stage of Russia - the MDM Theatre, Moscow Broadway's flagship venue, where it will begin its daily run. This is the first case of a co-production between a Russian state academic opera theatre and a Russian commercial theatre company.

CHESS was created in 1984 by three distinguished authors - EGOT-awarded dramaturge sir Tim Rice, together with composers Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the songwriters and participants of the legendary ABBA and the creators of MAMMA MIA!

"I am genuinely thrilled that in 2019 Chess will be performed in Russian, in Russia." Says sir Tim Rice about the Russian production. "The world was a very different place in 1984 when we wrote the piece, but if our show still has relevance 35 years later it is because human nature never changes whatever the political situation."

The new original Russian production of CHESS is produced by the Russian theatre producer Dmitry Bogachev (Broadway's ANASTASIA conceptor, producer of the Russian First Class productions of The Phantom of the Opera, MAMMA MIA! CHICAGO, The Sound of Music, Singin' in the Rain, and many more Broadway musicals in Moscow). "The score of CHESS is considered to be an unparalleled masterpiece in the history of musical theatre," says Dmitry Bogachev, "and the story is full of dramatism and is very relevant nowadays when the cold war is not just history anymore but once again - our new reality".

Vladimir Kekhman, NOVAT's Artistic Director: "For the first time on the stage of Novosibirsk Opera House we are creating a unique project - a genuine Broadway musical. We are confident that our creative and technical capabilities and collaboration with an international creative team will allow to present CHESS in the best traditions and to the highest standards of Broadway's best productions. We are turning the new page in the history of NOVAT producing a musical - breath-taking, ambitious and modern. And then we will present it to the Moscow audience".

The creative team includes: Director - Lindsay Posner, Musical Director and Conductor - John Rigby, Scenic Design - Gleb Filshtinsky (Multimedia Direction and Scenography) and Vyacheslav Okunev

(Scenography and Costume design), Choreographer - Irina Kashuba, Lighting Design - Alexander Sivaev.

All-Russian auditions for CHESS will take place in November 2018.