Chess, The Legendary Musical, Makes Its Move On Newcastle

A brand-new production of the legendary West End and Broadway musical Chess opens at The Theatre Royal Newcastle from 30 August 2010 as part of a major UK tour.

Strictly Come Dancing's Craig Revel Horwood directs an amazing cast of actors and musicians in an extraordinary new staging of the classic musical.

Written by Tim Rice with ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, Chess features one of the greatest musical theatre scores of all time. Set during the era of the 'iron curtain', it is a clever allegory of the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. A romance develops between one player and the manager of the other - love uniting nations, or treachery on the world stage?

The first production of Chess opened in the West End in 1986 and played for three years. The score of Chess includes the well-known numbers One Night in Bangkok, Pity the Child, Anthem, You and I and, of course, I Know Him So Well which became a best-selling single for Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson.

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, who is working alongside Craig on Chess, won the Tony Award for her work on the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd.

"I'm really looking forward to staging what will be a very special, new production of Chess," says Craig Revel Horwood. "The terrific lyrics of Tim Rice, combined with the brilliant musical talents of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, make Chess one of the most enduring musicals ever written." Craig added.