# why CHESS is closing early on Broadway | the reason the revival will end when Lea Michele leaves Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/mickeyjotheatre-6907341/why-chess-is-closing-early-on-broadway-the-reason-the-revival-will-end-when-lea-michele-leaves Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/mickeyjotheatre-6907341/why-chess-is-closing-early-on-broadway-the-reason-the-revival-will-end-when-lea-michele-leaves.md Podcast: [MickeyJoTheatre](https://stenobird.com/podcast/mickeyjotheatre-6907341) Published: 2026-05-27T10:10:40+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/mickeyjotheatre/episodes/6a16c32083dd9b6e1107df5f Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6859c85ac95a56eb6a774829/e/6a16c32083dd9b6e1107df5f/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mickeyjotheatre-6907341/episodes/why-chess-is-closing-early-on-broadway-the-reason-the-revival-will-end-when-lea-michele-leaves Duration seconds: 1701 ## Resource In breaking Broadway news, it was just announced that the current revival of CHESS at the Imperial Theatre will end its run earlier than planned, on June 21st. The musical, first seen on stage in the 1980s, depicts a chess-centred love triangle in the midst of cold war tensions, written by Benny Anderson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Sir Tim Rice. This new production, with a rewritten book by Danny Strong, stars Lea Michele (Funny Girl), Nicholas Christopher (Sweeney Todd), and Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge! the Musical) as well as Bryce Pinkham and Hannah Cruz. The show will now end with the departure of leading lady Lea Michele, but that's just one of the factors to consider when we answer the question: why is Chess closing early...? • 00:00 | introduction 03:08 | closing details 13:08 | the reasons why 21:16 | what comes next? 26:37 | conclusion About Mickey-Jo: As one of the leading voices in theatre criticism on a social platform, Mickey-Jo is pioneering a new medium for a dwindling field. His YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MickeyJoTheatre⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is the largest worldwide in terms of dedicated theatre criticism, where he also share features, news and interviews as well as lifestyle content for over 95,000 subscribers. With a viewership that is largely split between the US and the UK he has been fortunate enough to be able to work with PR, Marketing, and Social Media representatives for shows in New York, London, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Toronto, Sao Pãolo, and Paris. His reviews and features have also been published by WhatsOnStage, for whom he was a panelist to help curate nominees for their 2023 and 2024 Awards as well as BroadwayWorldUK, Musicals Magazine and LondonTheatre.co.uk. Instagram/TikTok/X: @Mi… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/mickeyjotheatre-6907341/episodes/why-chess-is-closing-early-on-broadway-the-reason-the-revival-will-end-when-lea-michele-leaves/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/mickeyjotheatre-6907341/why-chess-is-closing-early-on-broadway-the-reason-the-revival-will-end-when-lea-michele-leaves.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.