Last week, Chess announced that Lea Michele’s last performance will be June 21. Today the show announced that Grammy winning artist JoJo (Joanna Levesque) will star as Florence beginning June 23 through September 13. Lea told JoJo that she was the one who suggested JoJo take over her role when she left the production. JoJo was only 13 years old when her song “Leave (Get Out)” was released, making her the youngest solo artist to have a debut #1 single in the U.S. In 2020, she won a Grammy for her song “Say So” with PJ Morton.
Chess features the music of Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA. This production has a new book by Danny Strong (who you may remember as Jonathan on Buffy the Vampire Slayer – he went on to create, write, and direct both Empire and Dopesick, and he also wrote the screenplays for Mockingjay). The current production also stars Tony winner Aaron Tveit and Hamilton alumni Nicholas Christopher and Hannah Cruz.
Fun fact: Hannah Cruz, who plays Svetlana in Chess, is married to Edred Utomi, who is the current Hamilton on Broadway. They met while on the first national tour of Hamilton (she played Eliza and he started out as the standby for Hamilton/Burr/Washington). When Chess opened, Lin-Manuel Miranda told them that there is a secret tunnel connecting the Richard Rodgers Theatre and the Imperial Theatre. Last week, Lin showed up while both shows were running and brought Hannah through the tunnel to surprise Edred in the wings at Hamilton.
JoJo made her Broadway debut in 2023, starring as Satine in Moulin Rouge! She will be reunited with her Moulin Rouge! costar Aaron Tveit, who plays Freddie. JoJo recently starred in Working Girl, a musical adaptation of the 1988 movie starring Melanie Griffith, at the La Jolla Playhouse (with music written by Cyndi Lauper).
