How Danny Strong Became the Guy to Fix the Musical ‘Chess’ 

Like many of us, Danny Strong watched a concert version of the musical Chess, and wasn’t entirely sure what was happening.

But rather than giving up on the complicated plot and letting the rock score by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA wash over him, Strong was compelled to do something about it.

“All of a sudden, I had this delusional thought, which was, ‘Geez, maybe I can fix the show,’” Strong said.

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.

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.

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.

While Strong is known for his roles in the film and TV world, including as an actor, he’s 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 (“It was a musical event, and I was completely confounded by the story, such as it was,” he said), but signed on to the project because of his belief in Strong’s ability.

“I thought he was uniquely qualified to marry a large political story with the interpersonal drama that was inside that larger context,” Mayer said. “I think he just does that so well, and has such a great ear for not only the wonkiness of politics, but as evidenced in ‘Empire,’ he’s got a really good sense of drama to really bring the emotional, passionate story of this love triangle together.”

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).

When did you first become involved with Chess?

I was listening to it one day, and it’s very famous for not working, because the music’s very beloved amongst musical theater nerds like myself. And so I was listening to the music, and I was thinking, why doesn’t the show work? Because no one ever performs it. They just doChess In Concert, because it doesn’t make sense. You can’t 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, “Geez, maybe I can fix the show.”

So then I had a friend reach out to Michael Mayer, and she texted him and said, “Danny wants to fix ‘Chess’, and he wants you to direct it.” And it was sort of a joke, almost. And then I woke up the next morning with an email from Michael, and he said, “I’m in” and then he said, “Tom Hulce is producing, so you have a producer too.”

What made you think you could be the one to fix it?

I didn’t go into it, watching the concert, thinking, “Only I can fix Chess. I will be the hero.” 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’s not so crazy, because this is sort of what I do on projects. Sometimes I’m brought into rewrite projects, and then sometimes I’m brought in post to recut projects. And one time I was brought in to recut an entire season of television So I’ve done this kind of work before, many times on films and TV shows. It was applying that skill set to a stage musical.

What do you think the problem is with the show?

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’t really pick up what had happened, because it’s buried in song lyrics. And I also thought, I’d love to figure out a way to increase the stakes. How can you raise the stakes, so it’s 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’s 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.

It sounds like you put more dialogue into the production too.

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’ve 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’s 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.

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?

I’ll confess something to you. I have no idea what’s 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’m 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.

Were you nervous about the reaction to cutting songs?

It’s 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’s all I can think about is. And I wasn’t 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’t have a problem at all with the songs I’d cut.

And then when we did it at the Kennedy Center – and I’ve done a pretty big rewrite since the Kennedy Center – 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.

And how about among the fans?

I hope the Chess fans come in open minded, because I see them online, and there’s a lot of debating over their favorite version and their favorite recording. And there’s so many recordings, and people are constantly posting questions at me and the truth is that we’re 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’ve never seen it.

What sparked more rewrites after the Kennedy Center concert?

There were things that worked that we wanted to expand upon. There were things that didn’t 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.

And so you’re saying that myself and everyone who comes will be able to understand what’s happening in your version of Chess.

I believe so. I believe it’ll be crystal clear, actually. And I feel like if it is, then we’ve 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 “Let’s just make this clear and legible” and then it went to, “How can we create a show that’s as special as this music?” So our ambition absolutely grew as the process began.

It’s interesting that this is coming after the success of the recent Broadway revival of Merrily We Roll Along, which also famously didn’t work when it premiered. Do you think that there’s more of an appetite for reworking these kinds of shows?

I think it’s sort of a coincidence, because the Kennedy Center was in 2018. So I didn’t even know about Merrily, but Merrily was great for us, because it was a template and a show that’s beloved, that famously didn’t 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’t know if it’s necessarily an appetite. I think it’s 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’re very excited to come see them.

You may have Galileo coming to Broadway, but is there more theater or more Broadway that you want to take on?

I have one other show that I’ve that I’m writing, but I don’t want to say what it is, because it hasn’t been announced, and it’s a few years away. I haven’t even started the script yet. It’s a musical.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.