The first West End production of Chess since 1986 is to star Michael Ball, Alexandra Burke, Murray Head, Tim Howar and Cassidy Janson.
The production will open at the London Coliseum on 26 April 2018 (press night on 1 May 2018) for a strictly limited five-week season.
This is the fourth production in collaboration with English National Opera by Michael Linnit and Michael Grade, who brought Sunset Boulevard, Carousel and Sweeney Todd to the London Coliseum, the home of ENO. Linnit and Grade also produced 42nd Street, currently playing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
Michael Ball will perform the role of Anatoly. For 30 years Ball has been starring in musical theatre productions in the West End and on Broadway. He is a double Olivier Award winner, multi-platinum recording artist and radio and TV presenter.
Ball made his West End debut as Marius in the original London cast of Les Misérables; he starred in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love in the West End and on Broadway, in the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion and as Caractacus Potts in the West End musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
In 2005 he returned to Broadway as Count Fosco in The Woman in White, which transferred from the West End, and in the same year made his New York City Opera debut as Reginald Bunthorne in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience. In 2007 he made his debut with English National Opera as Haj/The Poet in Kismet. In 2008 Ball made box office history with his Olivier Award-winning performance as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray which he then took on tour across the UK. In 2013 he won his second Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his critically acclaimed lead role in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 2015, Ball starred as Mack Sennett in Mack and Mabel at Chichester Festival Theatre which then went on to tour the UK.
Combined sales of his recent Together albums, recorded with Alfie Boe, are now in excess of one million copies.
Alexandra Burke is Svetlana. Burke rose to fame after winning the fifth series of The X Factor in 2008, and currently stands as one of the most successful winners of the show selling well over 4 million records in the UK alone. She released the winners’ single ‘Hallelujah’, which became the current European record holder for single sales over a period of 24 hours, selling 105,000 in one day. The song also became the top-selling single of 2008 within the UK and became the UK’s Christmas No. 1. Her follow up album, Overcome, debuted at number one in the UK Album Charts achieving four number one singles on the UK Singles Chart and Irish Singles Chart.
In 2014 she made her West End debut playing the lead role of Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard. A UK tour followed. In August 2016, Alexandra starred as Deloris Van Cartier in the musical Sister Act, a new production directed by Craig Revel Horwood which toured the UK. In September 2017, Alexandra joined the cast of Strictly Come Dancing, reaching the final and then performed in the four-week Strictly Come Dancing UK arena tour. This year saw Burke sign a new album deal with Universal/Decca. The album entitled The Truth Is is released in March 2018 with a headline tour in September ’18.
English actor and recording artist Murray Head is most recognised for his international hits ‘Superstar’ (from Jesus Christ Superstar) and ‘One Night in Bangkok’ from Chess. He performed the role of world chess champion Frederick ‘Freddie’ Trumper in the original London West End stage production that premiered on 14 May 1986. He has also performed in Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair in the West End. He will take on the role of The Arbiter.
Singer Tim Howar is best known as the lead vocalist with Mike + the Mechanics. He made his West End debut as the male lead in Peggy Sue Got Married. He has also appeared in West End productions of Rent and Rock of Ages. In his native Canada he starred in Broadway productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Miss Saigon, Tommy, The House of Martin Guerre and Les Misérables. He will perform the role of Freddie.
Cassidy Janson is Florence. Her most recent project was the Leading Ladies trio along with Amber Riley and Beverley Knight. Previous to this Janson played Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Other theatre credits include Ruth in Dessa Rose at the Trafalgar Studios opposite Cynthia Erivo, Tick Tick Boom for the Menier Chocolate Factory starring alongside Neil Patrick Harris, Blood Wedding at the Courtyard Theatre, Rooms: A Rock Romance at the Finborough, Lend Me a Tenor at the Gielgud Theatre playing the principle role of Maggie, Company at the Southwark Playhouse and Kate Monster/Lucy the Slut in Avenue Q at the Wyndham’s Theatre. Janson was a member of the original London cast of Wicked and played standby Elphaba.
Chess was written in 1984 by ABBA songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice and the original London production starred Elaine Paige, Murray Head and Tommy Korberg. That production, which ran for three years at the Prince Edward Theatre, followed a highly successful recording featuring the same stars.
Featuring English National Opera’s award-winning Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by John Rigby with choreography by Stephen Mear, this new West End production will be directed by Laurence Connor, whose recent credits include School of Rock and Miss Saigon on Broadway and in the West End and Les Misérables on Broadway.
Chess is presented by Michael Linnit and Michael Grade in collaboration with English National Opera, by arrangement with Three Knights Limited, The Shubert Organisation Inc & Robert Fox Limited.
Tickets for Chess are available HERE
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