Theatre News

Revel Horwood’s Chess plays out at the Mayflower

A brand-new production of the legendary West End and Broadway musical Chess runs at The Mayflower Theatre, Southampton from 16 – 20 November as part of a major UK tour.

Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood directs an amazing company of actors and musicians in this extraordinary new staging of the classic musical. Written by Tim Rice and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Chess has one of the greatest musical theatre scores of all time including ‘One Night In Bangkok’, ‘Pity The Child’, ‘Anthem’, ‘You And I’ and, of course, ‘I Know Him So Well’ which became a number one hit for Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson.

Two of the world’s greatest chess masters battle it out at the world chess championships but their greatest contest is for the love of one woman. Amidst political intrigue and international conspiracies, the American and the Russian fight to win the heart of Florence Vassy in a romantic triangle that mirrors the heightened passions of the Cold War all set to an explosive score by the composers of Mamma Mia and the lyricist of Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita.

A superb cast of West End stars including James Fox (Fame Academy, Jesus Christ Superstar), Shona White (Wicked), Daniel Koek (West Side Story), Poppy Tierney (Mary Poppins, Aspects of Love, The Witches of Eastwick), James Graeme (The Phantom of the Opera) and David Erik (Dirty Dancing, The Phantom of the Opera) lead a cast of actors and musicians in this un-missable production.

Craig Revel Horwood has previously won huge critical acclaim for his thrilling productions of Boublil and Schönberg’s Martin Guerre, Spend Spend Spend, Hot Mikado and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard which transferred to the West End. His regular collaborator, Musical Supervisor and Orchestrator Sarah Travis won the Tony Award for her work on the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd.