The Figs

There’s going to be a new queen at the Imperial this summer. Lea Michele will depart Chess on Sunday June 21. The new Florence Vassy will be announced at a later date. A new block of tickets will go on sale next week.

Michele made her Broadway debut at the Imperial Theatre 30 years ago in Les Miserables. Since then, she has become a household name for her performance as Rachel Berry on Glee, and took Broadway by storm as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. 

In Chess, she stars alongside Tony Award winner Aaron Tveit, and Nicholas Christopher. Chess also features Hannah Cruz, Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham, Bradley Dean, Tony Award nominee Sean Allan Krill and an ensemble that includes Kyla Bartholomeusz, Daniel Beeman, Shavey Brown, Emma Degerstedt, Casey Garvin, Adam Halpin, David Paul Kidder, Sarah Michele Lindsey, Michael Milkanin, Aleksandr Ivan Pevec, Aliah James, Sydney Jones, Sean MacLaughlin, Sarah Meahl, Ramone Nelson, Fredric Rodriguez Odgaard, Michael Olaribigbe, Katerina Papacostas, Samantha Pollino, Adam Roberts, Regine Sophia, and Katie Webber.

Chess features a new book by Emmy Award winner Danny Strong, with music and lyrics by Emmy and Tony Award nominees ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award winner Tim Rice. It is based on an idea by Tim Rice. The production, which is the first Broadway revival of Chess, is directed by Tony Award winner Michael Mayer and choreographed by Drama Desk Award nominee Lorin Latarro with original orchestrations by Anders Eljas, orchestrations by Anders Eljas and Brian Usifer, and music supervision by Brian Usifer.

Chess features scenic design by Tony Award winner David Rockwell, costume design by Tom Broecker, lighting design by four-time Tony Award winner Kevin Adams, sound design by John Shivers and video design by Tony Award nominee Peter Nigrini. Johanna McKeon serves as Associate Director, Travis Waldschmidt serves as Associate Choreographer and Music Direction is by Ian Weinberger. Casting is by Jim Carnahan C.S.A. and Jason Thinger C.S.A. Hair, Wig and Makeup Design are by Luc Verschueren for Campbell Young Associates.

Chess runs at the Imperial Theatre on West 45th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

The warning signs came early. I got a bad feeling early in Antigone (That Play I Read In High School) when our contemporary narrator, the play’s one-woman “Chorus,” concluded her quick-here’s-the-backstory recap of Oedipus’ tragic fall—slept with mother, murdered father—with a quippy: “So…that wasn’t great.”

Yikes! All the same, I did my best to stick with playwright Anna Ziegler’s remarkably inept new work, a temporally displaced feminist riff on Sophocles’ Antigone now at The Public Theater through April 5. But despite some intriguing structural choices and a few strong performances, Ziegler’s play quickly grows mired in tonal confusion and a frustratingly thin takeaway.  

In this Antigone, our guiding Chorus has a single voice: the soothing tones of two time Tony Award-winner Celia Keenan-Bolger, a welcome presence. She speaks of discovering Antigone’s tale of defiance in high school, and recalls its profound impact on her. Now an adult, she is unexpectedly pregnant, and faces a decision similarly complicated by the shifting whims of powerful men.

Alongside and around the Chorus’ fragmented narration, a reframed version of Antigone’s story plays out. In this telling, the events are dislodged from a clear time, classical and modern mushing together. And rather than seeking burial for her brother, the dilemma for Antigone (Susannah Perkins) is also a pregnancy, and the question of who decides her own body’s future. 

At its core, this reframing works, attacking the original play’s questions around bodies and familial duty from a new angle. But Ziegler’s text baldly underlines the point, while never providing her characters a dimensionality that might allow us to invest emotionally. 

Tonally speaking, the adaptation feels muddled. Dramatic confrontations are undercut by constant, abrupt shifts into juvenile humor. Most arrive in the form of the awkward King Creon (Tony Shalhoub, doing Moss Hart-as-despot) and buffoonish retinue (the trio of Ethan Dubin, Katie Kreisler & Dave Quay). The tonal whiplash is evidently deliberate, but I confess bafflement at the goal. True, many Greek tragedies are surprisingly (if darkly) funny—but not self-mocking, as this Antigone often feels. 

Nothing is clarified in Tyne Rafaeli’s frequently clumsy direction. Overly conspicuous blocking distracts in many scenes—circling, always these actors are circling!—and leaves tender moments feeling artificial, or forced. Rafaeli leans into the script’s tonal dissonance, and her actors struggle to make sense of the contradictions. 

Antigone herself is a mess, here. At first, deliberately so: Perkins has a lot of fun playing the grieving, horribly depressed Antigone’s descent into debauchery, particularly in an early scene where she throws herself at a hipster bartender named Achilles (no, he sighs, not that Achilles). Later returning to the palace, Antigone spars enjoyably with her betrothed (and also cousin), Haemon, played with moving open-heartedness by the always excellent Calvin Leon Smith. Perkins is enjoyably prickly both here and with her sister, Ismene, though Haley Wong never quite communicates Ismene’s intense attachment to her sister that will later be crucial. 

Yet Antigone’s motivations grow messy as the play proceeds. Her naivety at the consequences of a back-alley abortion betray the character’s intelligence up to this point. Would Antigone really be so shocked at Creon’s willingness to discard her? Would she waste her breath attempting to reason with him, in an extended debate that hashes out obvious points vis-à-vis morality and politics? When Antigone finally strips before Creon and guides him through each part of her body, entreating him to recognize her humanity, the words are too evidently aimed at us—us the audience, us the world of today. Yet Ziegler has not motivated any of it within the action of this story.  

Equally frustrating is the play’s conclusion, which circles back to the Chorus’ identification with Antigone without deepening it. “Antigone inspired me” is a fine starting point, but feels thin as a dramatic conclusion, and the closing attempts at profundity ultimately fall flat. 

Perkins and Keenan-Bolger are nonetheless excellent throughout, bringing heartbreaking warmth and aching humanity to a play that never finds enough depth to equal their powerful work. 

‍Antigone (That Play I Read In High School) is now in performance at The Public Theatre. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Kara Young back on Broadway! The two-time Tony Award winner is joining the cast of Proof on Broadway, directed by Thomas Kail. She joins Ayo Edebiri, Don Cheadle, and Jin Ha in the limited 16-week engagement. Proof begins performances at the Booth Theatre on March 31, with official opening set for April 16. 

Young will be playing the role of Claire in the production. Samira Wiley, who was previously announced to play the role, is withdrawing from the production due to a treatable medical condition that calls for her full attention. Wiley has the production’s full support and well wishes. 

Young was most recently seen Off-Broadway in Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries. Last year, she made Broadway history by being the first Black performer to win two consecutive Tony Awards for Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose in 2025 and Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious in 2024. This year, Young will also star in the film adaptation of Alesha Harris’ Is God Is and appear in Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters which also features her Proof co-star Cheadle. 

Proof features original music by Academy and Emmy Award winner Kris Bowers, scenic design by Teresa L. Williams, costume design by Tony Award winner Dede Ayite, lighting design by Amanda Zieve, sound design by Justin Ellington and Conor Wang, hair and wig design by Academy and Emmy Award winner Mia Neal, and casting by Daniel Swee. The production’s stage manager is Sara Gammage, and Baseline Theatrical is the general manager. 

The first Broadway revival of the play tells the story of Catherine, played by Edebiri, the brilliant but restless daughter of renowned mathematics professor Robert (played by Cheadle). She is thrust into turmoil when a notebook containing a revelatory proof is discovered after his death. As debate erupts over its true authorship, Catherine must confront the power of legacy, and the cost of proving herself.

Proof begins performances at the Booth Theatre on West 45th Street in New York City on March 31 for strictly limited 16-week engagement. For tickets and more information, visit here.