Tim Rice Reveals 'Team is in Place' to Bring CHESS Back to Broadway

On a recent episode of his podcast, lyricist Tim Rice revealed not only that plans for a Broadway revival of Chess are underway, but also his hopes of eventually turning the 1984 musical into a movie. "The musical I wrote in the early 80s with Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Chess, has had by far the most complex history of any of the shows with which I have created," Rice explained. "All I wanted to do was to tell a straightforward story of a love affair between a Westerner and a Soviet in the time of the Cold War in the mid 1970s with an international chess tournament- the event that brought the lovers together."

"All in all, despite enumerable mishandlings, Chess has more than held its own on the stages of the world. And we plan to come back to Broadway one day fairly soon. A team in in place. And above all, I'd love there to be a movie version. The Queen's Gambit has shown how well that could work."

Sir Tim Rice is an author and Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Emmy Award, Tony Award, and Grammy Award-winning lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita; with Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA, with whom he wrote Chess; for additional songs for the 2011 West End revival of The Wizard of Oz; and for his work with Alan Menken on Disney's Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and the musical King David. He also worked with Elton John on Disney's The Lion King, the musical Aida, and DreamWorks Animation's The Road to El Dorado and Ennio Morricone.

One of the most celebrated lyricists in British popular culture, Rice was knighted by Elizabeth II for services to music in 1994. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, is an inductee into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, is a Disney Legend recipient, and is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. The 2016 Sunday Times Rich List values Rice at £150m; the 15th-richest music millionaire in the UK. He is one of fifteen artists to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award.