December 23, 2025 • 21 mins
Host Christine Nagy sits down with Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham, now starring as The Arbiter in the historic Broadway revival of CHESS at the Imperial Theatre. From the thrill of bringing this legendary musical back to Broadway after nearly 40 years to the challenge of reimagining a role that bridges political intrigue and romance, Bryce shares behind-the-scenes stories, insights into Danny Strong’s bold new book and Michael Mayer’s visionary direction, and what it’s like working alongside a powerhouse cast including Aaron Tveit and Lea Michele.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartRadio Broadway presents Inside Broadway, the podcast about everything theater.
It's where you hear what happens from the ticket window
to the stage door, with the stars and creative forces
that make it all come alive. Here's your host, light
FMS Christine Nagy.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, Hey, it's Christine Naggy. Today we have a very
special guest Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham. So you know
him from his unforgettable performances in A Gentleman's Guide to
Love and Murder, The Heidi Chronicles, Holiday, in so many
other incredible roles, and now Bryce is starring in Chess,
the Revival at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. So it's
(00:43):
the first time we've seen Chess on Broadway in nearly
forty years. Brand new book music that we love. Bryce,
You're playing the Arbiter and we'll get into all the
details of that. Welcome so much. It's so great to
have you here at Inside Broadway.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thank you, Christine.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I love being here because I know that the best
of Broadway fans listen to you, and I'm happy, happy
to be here and have a chat about Chess.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I am definitely a big fan of yours. I saw
the show I'm going to I know, Entertainment Weekly said
you steal the show, and that's saying a lot in general,
but with your cast, tell us about your co stars,
because they're incredible as well.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, you know, New York City is the best place
on the planet for musical theater, as we all.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Know, and.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Coming to our show, you're going to see three of
the best musical theater performers alive, Aaron to Vate, Leah Michelle,
and Nicholas Christopher. And they're singing these abba songs nightly
that each one of them stops the show at a
different point of the show, and they're testing the structural
foundation of the Imperial Theater.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Night after night because the crowds are just going.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Nuts for them, and you're right, they're superstars. And the
fact that they're singing these songs that audiences have been
death spread to hear live in a full production of
Chess for decades now, it's this thrilling moment and we're
all living feels like we're living in the middle of
a musical theater history book.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So I'm having a blast.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, I think, yes, we get really excited about the music,
and by your performances, you're incredible. So tell us about
the Arbiter. Now, in this version, your role has definitely
expanded from maybe a version that we might know from before.
This could be the first time for a lot of
people seeing this show. But it does feel to me
like you get a lot of the comic relief, which
(02:35):
we appreciate definitely.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I think Danny Strong's goal with the Arbiter. First of all,
what is an arbiter. An arbiter is a referee for
a game of chess. So I'm actually in certain scenes
as a referee, but more importantly, I'm a narrator. I'm
a representative of the audience on stage. You know, I'm
a puppet master, I'm a hypnotist, I'm an emc.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I do lots of things, and that's kind of how
I like it, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I think the secret that I've been keeping is that
I think he's I think he's kind of a history
teacher who found himself caught in a musical, and so
a lot of my as you put it, comic relief
is commenting on some of the parts of chess that
might seem ludicrous if you took them too seriously. And
(03:25):
I think that was the goal of Danny Strong's book,
was to set up the songs, which everyone loves, for success.
And he's also built a story that is grounded in history,
the history of the Cold War. So we got this
love triangle between the two greatest chess players in the
(03:45):
world and the greatest coach in the world who Liah
Michelle plays, you know, and they're both in love with her.
And then we've also got spies plotting out how to
keep Russia and the US from blowing each other up,
and they're using the chess championship as a sort of
proxy for the Cold War. And in the middle of
all that, you've got me helping the audience follow all
(04:08):
that so that they can just also love the songs.
You know, this show has bangers. I've been telling people,
come for the bangers, stay.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
For the new book.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think, Yeah, there is a moment where the dancer's
place Aaron into his pants. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yes, I do, because it gets a reaction every night.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
I actually use it as a queue to come downstairs
and go, Okay, he just got into his pants.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I can come downstairs now.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I love that moment. I mean, there's so many, so
many great moments in this show. Why do you think
it's really resonating with audiences today? Because this was written,
as we said, like over forty years ago.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, when Chess was originally written, it was sort of
at the height of the Cold War, and so my
father in law, Sandy Strallin, was actually in the original
company of Chess in London, and my wife Scarlett Strallen,
remembers being brought to the theater. Some of her earliest
memories are of Chess the musical, and recently we were
(05:10):
able to bring R two, five and six to the
theater and hopefully some of their earliest memories will be
coming to see their dad in Chess. But the reason
I bring it up is because it was the eighties
and the Cold War was real, it was happening, and
I think audiences at that time felt that tension, and
we wanted to recreate that tension but also look back
(05:32):
at the Cold War with a sort of learned perspective.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That's why I bring up the kind of history teacher
of it.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
This is this is looking back to look forward ourselves,
and I think it resonates with people because we have
modern political humor that a lot of it comes through
my character. You know, that is satire, but part of
satire is that it stings a little bit, you know.
And so I think we the story of how politics
(06:04):
and international politics and the relationship between these two superpowers.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
You know, that's.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Something that that is that is maybe always going to
be tense and certainly resonates.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I will also say that the style.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Of music feels like, at least for me, the style
of musical theater that was being written in the eighties
and nineties.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
That was, you know what I fell in love with
musical theater from.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
You know this is these are lyrics by Tim Rice,
music by the Boys of Abba, you know, and they
wrote a little show called Mama Me.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I ever heard of it? And you know Tim Rice.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
The list goes on, but some of my earliest experiences
with musical theater were from these composers. And we have
a we have a full orchestra on stage playing the music.
So it feels like people are coming to a love
of musical theater that they maybe had as kids, or
you know, if they were fans in the eighties. We
(07:08):
have people coming saying I saw the original I've been
waiting thirty years for this.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Thank you so much. It delivered on everything I hoped
it would, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
So it's nostalgia for some and a sort of reintroduction
to a style of musical theater for others. And yeah,
it's definitely resonating. I mean, the response on a nightly
basis is unlike anything I've ever been in before.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, I can imagine. So what is it like for
you at the stage door afterwards?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Oh, it's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
You know the best part of this job is getting
to meet the people that you've impacted shortly after you've
impacted them, you know, and you can still sort of
see the glow of wow on their face.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And especially young fans.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I love meeting young fans at the stage door, and
you know, you can just see the sort of dreams
of Broadway in their eyes, and and I love thinking
about who they might become. You know. Leah Michelle made
her Broadway debut at the Imperial. I won't say how
many years ago because that would be untoward, but you know,
as a young person, and you know, each time I
(08:19):
meet a fan at the stage door, I'm like, that
could be the next Liam Michelle I'm talking to.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So it's really special.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
And you see families who've traveled from outside New York,
who've made you know, who've saved everything they could to
come see a Broadway show, and they've chosen ours.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
It's it's a special.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Moment to be a part of and to get to
enhance that their experience a little bit more by giving
them a few, you know, words of encouragement or a
little you know, insider joke from that night or something.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
You know, we had a thing go wrong tonight, did
you see it? Did it?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
You know, it makes them feel like they got something
you can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
You know, Broadway is a place.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
That you can't you know, AI can't produce Broadway. You
can't reproduce the feeling of being in a room of
sixteen hundred people all being moved by the same story,
laughing and crying together. And I'm just gonna riff on
that because I said laughing. I'm surprised by how funny
Chess is. You know, I think people think chess cold
(09:25):
war spies, you know, intellectual game.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But Danny's book is really funny.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
And I remember first preview being like, oh my gosh,
this is really funny. I thought it was, but you
never know, And I think audiences are delighted and surprised
by how much they're laughing in a show that could
be so dark and dreary and sort of intellectual.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's not that at all. You know. It's this incredible
pop rock score.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And then laughter throughout, I mean throughout the whole entire story,
which does have these high stakes, but at the same
time time feels like it feels like everything you want
in a night of Broadway theater. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I'm so glad you're saying that, because that's the feeling
I have had about it and definitely want to get across,
you know, to friends and family, like to check out
this show because it's touching on so many levels. I mean,
it's beautiful, it's romantic. It's like you said, it's nostalgic,
you know, it's the families are involved and yet joyful
(10:26):
not you know, don't think of it as this heavy
laden show. There is. This score is fantastic, and you
guys are just wonderful in it.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yeah, I think it's I think it's lighter than a
lot of people maybe expect, you know, and like there
are absolute moments, moments of you know, spy drama, and
you know, you feel like you're in a you're in
a James Bahond movie for a second.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
But then I come out and make a joke and
and it's sort of like.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
We go into the love story, and that is, as
you say, a huge part of the evening is watching
these three main characters figure out what love means to
them and what love they never got and how they're
going to replace it or how they're gonna make it
for themselves. And you know, that's not love is not
(11:16):
necessarily something you think of when you hear the word chess,
but but it's definitely in there. And you know, there's
like there's a lot of swoon worthy moments in our show.
And I know because I spend a good amount of
time on stage, you know, kind of watching from a
privileged perch where I can see all the action, but
I can also see the audience and I see tears,
(11:38):
I see jaws drop, I see I see couples lean in,
you know, and have a little cuddle so and families,
you know, I see parents look over at their kids
who are just wowed by what they're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Maybe for the first time.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
So I'm very lucky that I get to I get
to see it all from where I sit.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So wonderful. And and your family, your little ones came
to see the show, and so what was their reaction
seeing their dad on stage in this epic show.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So they haven't seen they haven't seen the performance yet,
they've come to the theater, they've seen daddy's dressing room,
they've been on the stage, and they've seen the picture
of me outside the theater.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
In what some might call a dance moment.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I would never call it that, but you know, I've
got a picture of the outside of our theater with
the sort of contortionist pose going on. And my kids
loved it and immediately ran up and tried to imitate me,
and it was a special family moment for us.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
We think that we're gonna get them.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
They're five and six, so we think we're gonna bring
them in for Act one so they can see my
main song, and who knows, maybe they'll maybe they'll stick
around throughout the entire evening. But they're they're you know,
they're a little more trained on things like Blueye that
have you know, thirty thirty minutes chunks, right, So.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well, like you said, so little by little, maybe over
the course of a few shows, that's right, And.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Maybe we'll run it long enough that they can their
their attention spans can expand long enough to take in
the whole show.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Right, But they've got to be well, they've got to
be so proud. I know they're little, but they've got
to be so proud of their dad.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And of course they do. They do.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
They like knowing, they like knowing and telling people what
I do for a living, and they love like today
they said, oh, Daddy's going to be on the radio today.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know, it's these are these are very cool things.
That's so sweet for them.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Please say hi to them for us.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I will hello, Winnie and Wilder. It's Daddy on the
radio on iHeartRadio Broadway.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That is perfect. So yeah, so they won a future
in radio or theater. We're here for them. Okay, Well,
thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Bryce.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Your show is running through at least may third correct at.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Least yeah, I think we'll. You know, we learn in
this business not to look too far ahead. But I
think all indications are that the show's doing well. People
are loving the show, and I don't think any of
us are looking to stop doing this amazing piece anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So glad to hear that. So Bryce Pinkham, thank you
so much. You can catch Bryce in Chess at the
Imperial Theater. Visit Chess Broadway dot com and Bryce, if
you don't mind just sticking around a few more minutes,
because we do like to go behind the scenes, kind
of pull the curtain back and let our audience know
what artists are up to you bringing you know, Broadway
(14:35):
magic to life. So if you have a moment please.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
For your fans, Christine, I will do it.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Thank you well, Christin Nagy. Welcome to behind the Scenes
where we turn off the stage lights and uncover what
truly drives Broadway's most remarkable talents. And today we're joined
by the incredible Bryce Pinkham, who brings the Arbiter to
life in Chess at the Imperial Theater, and we have
(15:00):
just discussed the show with you. Bryce is absolutely wonderful,
highly recommend it. It's got to take, you know, a
little bit of a ritual or something to get into
character and get that energy up before you go on stage.
Can you tell us if there's any pre show ritual
or something that you do.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, every show's a little different, and it's sort of
a ritual that I discover during previews. You know, I
try to try and find what do I need to
get out there and do this particular performance. You know,
sometimes it's a lot of warming up, you know, gents guide,
I knew I was going to be out there for
an hour before I got a break, and so I
really needed to get my blood moving and kind of
(15:40):
make sure I was loose. That is also true for
the arbiter. I'm out there for the first twenty minutes
without a break. But the energy that I try to
bring to the beginning of our show is really playful,
and really, you know, my responsibility.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Is talking to the audience.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
So one of the things I've discovered that I do
in my pre show ritual is I go around, you know,
before the overture starts.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
The entire cast is you know, backstage getting ready.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
I just go around and I start banter with people.
I start, you know, I'll say something funny that occurred
to me that day. I'll try just try and get
a back and forth going. So really, what I'm doing
as my ritual is I'm trying to make my castmates laugh.
And you know the success rate on that is they
can tell you, But but I do try and you know,
(16:30):
get out of my own head by focusing on an
audience member or pretend audience member in front of me
and just trying to just trying to get a get
a connection going with them. So I guess you could
call it impromptu stand up that I'm doing backstage. And
I'm also you know, I'm stretching my body making sure
(16:52):
it's ready to go, hydrating, doing all my vocal warm ups.
But I think the one that's unique to this show
is I'm doing a lot of talking backstage, even during
the overture.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
One night, I think the stage mayor is like, can.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
You keep it down during the overture like the overture
has started?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
How is that for you? By the way, because you
are talking to the audience. Do you like that? You
know it's a little different for a theater performer.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I love it because there's no more thrilling and terrifying
connection than an actual connection with a live audience. And
you know, it means that the response can be different,
and that's really like it is a high wire act
in some ways and in others, like I feel comfortable,
(17:39):
you know, I love giving the Broadway Care speech during
Broadway Care Season, and a lot of my performance reminds
me of just talking to the audience.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
You know, and.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Helping them understand the issues of the night, which in
our case are the you know, narrative strains of Chess,
the musical, the Cold War musical as I call it.
And I think, you know a lot of the things
that happened in the first five minutes are me sort
of setting the table for the cast of superstars to.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Come out and you know, eat and leave no.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Crumest do a great job. So what's something about being
a theater performer that you think people might not realize?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I think, you know, I'm always comparing I grew up
playing sports, and I am always comparing Broadway performers to athletes,
because I really think especially members of our company, such
as are Swings, they have.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
To know ten different tracks.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
At you know, at any given moment, they could be
asked to step into the show with you know, almost
no notice and go and do the show. I mean
that is like if the if if Broadway is the Olympics,
they the decathletes, you know, they can do ten different things.
And so I think being a Broadway performer, as much
(19:08):
as it is about being an artist, it's also about
being an athlete, taking care of your body, showing up
every day whether you want to or not. You know,
I think about the Yankees, you know, showing up having
to play baseball, and all the people that show up
to see them, and you know, pile their savings so
that they can buy that Yankee ticket. They want to
(19:30):
see Aaron Judge hit a home run. And maybe Aaron
Judge doesn't feel like home runs that day, Well guess what,
It's his job and and it gets paid a lot
of money to do it. So, you know, I think
a Broadway performer is in a similar light. You know,
there are some days where, quite frankly, we're not you know,
it's not our it's not our day, and our job
(19:53):
is to show up and do it and to deliver
for those fans who are there to see it for
the first time. And that takes a certain mindset, a
certain discipline. And one thing I want to say about
our show in particular is our three leads Lia Michelle
Aaron to debate and Nicholas Christopher. They are vocal athletes
who have crafted a very impressive vocal performance that crucially
(20:21):
can be replicated night after night. And that is like,
that's like having a good swing at the plate, you know,
like you can't just hit the ball over the fence once,
like you got to hit it over the fence every night,
and so you have to craft it in a way
that you can do that sustainably, And that to me
is like peak. Peak Broadway performer is the one who
(20:47):
can not only do it as if it was a
one night concert, but can do it sustainably over months
and months and months. And if you know some of
the music that you know these three have to sing.
Aaron to Evate sings Pity the Child like the same
way every night, and every night he stops the show,
and every night people lose their minds Like that is
(21:07):
so impressive to me, it's like being an athlete.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
All of you are so so wonderful in this show.
Can't recommend it enough. Bryce Pinkham, thank you so much.
Thanks for taking us behind the scenes on Inside Broadway.
You can catch Bryce in Chess now playing at the
Imperial Theater. For tickets, visit chess Broadway dot com and
thank you for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe to
the Inside Broadway podcast so you never miss an episode.
(21:31):
Follow iHeartRadio Broadway across social platforms. Check out the iHeartRadio
Broadway channel to stream Broadway hits free on the iHeartRadio app,
and add it to your presets to keep the magic
of Broadway with you wherever you go. Until next time, Bryce,
thank you once again. I'm Christine Nagy. This is Inside Broadway.
iHeartRadio Broadway presents Inside Broadway, the podcast about everything theater.
It's where you hear what happens from the ticket window
to the stage door, with the stars and creative forces
that make it all come alive. Here's your host, light
FMS Christine Nagy.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, Hey, it's Christine Naggy. Today we have a very
special guest Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham. So you know
him from his unforgettable performances in A Gentleman's Guide to
Love and Murder, The Heidi Chronicles, Holiday, in so many
other incredible roles, and now Bryce is starring in Chess,
the Revival at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. So it's
(00:43):
the first time we've seen Chess on Broadway in nearly
forty years. Brand new book music that we love. Bryce,
You're playing the Arbiter and we'll get into all the
details of that. Welcome so much. It's so great to
have you here at Inside Broadway.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Thank you, Christine.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I love being here because I know that the best
of Broadway fans listen to you, and I'm happy, happy
to be here and have a chat about Chess.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I am definitely a big fan of yours. I saw
the show I'm going to I know, Entertainment Weekly said
you steal the show, and that's saying a lot in general,
but with your cast, tell us about your co stars,
because they're incredible as well.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, you know, New York City is the best place
on the planet for musical theater, as we all.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Know, and.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Coming to our show, you're going to see three of
the best musical theater performers alive, Aaron to Vate, Leah Michelle,
and Nicholas Christopher. And they're singing these abba songs nightly
that each one of them stops the show at a
different point of the show, and they're testing the structural
foundation of the Imperial Theater.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Night after night because the crowds are just going.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
Nuts for them, and you're right, they're superstars. And the
fact that they're singing these songs that audiences have been
death spread to hear live in a full production of
Chess for decades now, it's this thrilling moment and we're
all living feels like we're living in the middle of
a musical theater history book.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
So I'm having a blast.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, I think, yes, we get really excited about the music,
and by your performances, you're incredible. So tell us about
the Arbiter. Now, in this version, your role has definitely
expanded from maybe a version that we might know from before.
This could be the first time for a lot of
people seeing this show. But it does feel to me
like you get a lot of the comic relief, which
(02:35):
we appreciate definitely.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I think Danny Strong's goal with the Arbiter. First of all,
what is an arbiter. An arbiter is a referee for
a game of chess. So I'm actually in certain scenes
as a referee, but more importantly, I'm a narrator. I'm
a representative of the audience on stage. You know, I'm
a puppet master, I'm a hypnotist, I'm an emc.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I do lots of things, and that's kind of how
I like it, you know.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
I think the secret that I've been keeping is that
I think he's I think he's kind of a history
teacher who found himself caught in a musical, and so
a lot of my as you put it, comic relief
is commenting on some of the parts of chess that
might seem ludicrous if you took them too seriously. And
(03:25):
I think that was the goal of Danny Strong's book,
was to set up the songs, which everyone loves, for success.
And he's also built a story that is grounded in history,
the history of the Cold War. So we got this
love triangle between the two greatest chess players in the
(03:45):
world and the greatest coach in the world who Liah
Michelle plays, you know, and they're both in love with her.
And then we've also got spies plotting out how to
keep Russia and the US from blowing each other up,
and they're using the chess championship as a sort of
proxy for the Cold War. And in the middle of
all that, you've got me helping the audience follow all
(04:08):
that so that they can just also love the songs.
You know, this show has bangers. I've been telling people,
come for the bangers, stay.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
For the new book.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I think, Yeah, there is a moment where the dancer's
place Aaron into his pants. You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yes, I do, because it gets a reaction every night.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
I actually use it as a queue to come downstairs
and go, Okay, he just got into his pants.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I can come downstairs now.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I love that moment. I mean, there's so many, so
many great moments in this show. Why do you think
it's really resonating with audiences today? Because this was written,
as we said, like over forty years ago.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Well, when Chess was originally written, it was sort of
at the height of the Cold War, and so my
father in law, Sandy Strallin, was actually in the original
company of Chess in London, and my wife Scarlett Strallen,
remembers being brought to the theater. Some of her earliest
memories are of Chess the musical, and recently we were
(05:10):
able to bring R two, five and six to the
theater and hopefully some of their earliest memories will be
coming to see their dad in Chess. But the reason
I bring it up is because it was the eighties
and the Cold War was real, it was happening, and
I think audiences at that time felt that tension, and
we wanted to recreate that tension but also look back
(05:32):
at the Cold War with a sort of learned perspective.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
That's why I bring up the kind of history teacher
of it.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
This is this is looking back to look forward ourselves,
and I think it resonates with people because we have
modern political humor that a lot of it comes through
my character. You know, that is satire, but part of
satire is that it stings a little bit, you know.
And so I think we the story of how politics
(06:04):
and international politics and the relationship between these two superpowers.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
You know, that's.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Something that that is that is maybe always going to
be tense and certainly resonates.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I will also say that the style.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
Of music feels like, at least for me, the style
of musical theater that was being written in the eighties
and nineties.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
That was, you know what I fell in love with
musical theater from.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
You know this is these are lyrics by Tim Rice,
music by the Boys of Abba, you know, and they
wrote a little show called Mama Me.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I ever heard of it? And you know Tim Rice.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
The list goes on, but some of my earliest experiences
with musical theater were from these composers. And we have
a we have a full orchestra on stage playing the music.
So it feels like people are coming to a love
of musical theater that they maybe had as kids, or
you know, if they were fans in the eighties. We
(07:08):
have people coming saying I saw the original I've been
waiting thirty years for this.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Thank you so much. It delivered on everything I hoped
it would, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
So it's nostalgia for some and a sort of reintroduction
to a style of musical theater for others. And yeah,
it's definitely resonating. I mean, the response on a nightly
basis is unlike anything I've ever been in before.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, I can imagine. So what is it like for
you at the stage door afterwards?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Oh, it's wonderful.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
You know the best part of this job is getting
to meet the people that you've impacted shortly after you've
impacted them, you know, and you can still sort of
see the glow of wow on their face.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
And especially young fans.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I love meeting young fans at the stage door, and
you know, you can just see the sort of dreams
of Broadway in their eyes, and and I love thinking
about who they might become. You know. Leah Michelle made
her Broadway debut at the Imperial. I won't say how
many years ago because that would be untoward, but you know,
as a young person, and you know, each time I
(08:19):
meet a fan at the stage door, I'm like, that
could be the next Liam Michelle I'm talking to.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So it's really special.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
And you see families who've traveled from outside New York,
who've made you know, who've saved everything they could to
come see a Broadway show, and they've chosen ours.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
It's it's a special.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Moment to be a part of and to get to
enhance that their experience a little bit more by giving
them a few, you know, words of encouragement or a
little you know, insider joke from that night or something.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
You know, we had a thing go wrong tonight, did
you see it? Did it?
Speaker 4 (08:57):
You know, it makes them feel like they got something
you can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
You know, Broadway is a place.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
That you can't you know, AI can't produce Broadway. You
can't reproduce the feeling of being in a room of
sixteen hundred people all being moved by the same story,
laughing and crying together. And I'm just gonna riff on
that because I said laughing. I'm surprised by how funny
Chess is. You know, I think people think chess cold
(09:25):
war spies, you know, intellectual game.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But Danny's book is really funny.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
And I remember first preview being like, oh my gosh,
this is really funny. I thought it was, but you
never know, And I think audiences are delighted and surprised
by how much they're laughing in a show that could
be so dark and dreary and sort of intellectual.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It's not that at all. You know. It's this incredible
pop rock score.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And then laughter throughout, I mean throughout the whole entire story,
which does have these high stakes, but at the same
time time feels like it feels like everything you want
in a night of Broadway theater. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
I'm so glad you're saying that, because that's the feeling
I have had about it and definitely want to get across,
you know, to friends and family, like to check out
this show because it's touching on so many levels. I mean,
it's beautiful, it's romantic. It's like you said, it's nostalgic,
you know, it's the families are involved and yet joyful
(10:26):
not you know, don't think of it as this heavy
laden show. There is. This score is fantastic, and you
guys are just wonderful in it.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Yeah, I think it's I think it's lighter than a
lot of people maybe expect, you know, and like there
are absolute moments, moments of you know, spy drama, and
you know, you feel like you're in a you're in
a James Bahond movie for a second.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
But then I come out and make a joke and
and it's sort of like.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
We go into the love story, and that is, as
you say, a huge part of the evening is watching
these three main characters figure out what love means to
them and what love they never got and how they're
going to replace it or how they're gonna make it
for themselves. And you know, that's not love is not
(11:16):
necessarily something you think of when you hear the word chess,
but but it's definitely in there. And you know, there's
like there's a lot of swoon worthy moments in our show.
And I know because I spend a good amount of
time on stage, you know, kind of watching from a
privileged perch where I can see all the action, but
I can also see the audience and I see tears,
(11:38):
I see jaws drop, I see I see couples lean in,
you know, and have a little cuddle so and families,
you know, I see parents look over at their kids
who are just wowed by what they're experiencing.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Maybe for the first time.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
So I'm very lucky that I get to I get
to see it all from where I sit.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
So wonderful. And and your family, your little ones came
to see the show, and so what was their reaction
seeing their dad on stage in this epic show.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
So they haven't seen they haven't seen the performance yet,
they've come to the theater, they've seen daddy's dressing room,
they've been on the stage, and they've seen the picture
of me outside the theater.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
In what some might call a dance moment.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
I would never call it that, but you know, I've
got a picture of the outside of our theater with
the sort of contortionist pose going on. And my kids
loved it and immediately ran up and tried to imitate me,
and it was a special family moment for us.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
We think that we're gonna get them.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
They're five and six, so we think we're gonna bring
them in for Act one so they can see my
main song, and who knows, maybe they'll maybe they'll stick
around throughout the entire evening. But they're they're you know,
they're a little more trained on things like Blueye that
have you know, thirty thirty minutes chunks, right, So.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well, like you said, so little by little, maybe over
the course of a few shows, that's right, And.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Maybe we'll run it long enough that they can their
their attention spans can expand long enough to take in
the whole show.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Right, But they've got to be well, they've got to
be so proud. I know they're little, but they've got
to be so proud of their dad.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
And of course they do. They do.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
They like knowing, they like knowing and telling people what
I do for a living, and they love like today
they said, oh, Daddy's going to be on the radio today.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
You know, it's these are these are very cool things.
That's so sweet for them.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Please say hi to them for us.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I will hello, Winnie and Wilder. It's Daddy on the
radio on iHeartRadio Broadway.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
That is perfect. So yeah, so they won a future
in radio or theater. We're here for them. Okay, Well,
thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
Bryce.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Your show is running through at least may third correct at.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Least yeah, I think we'll. You know, we learn in
this business not to look too far ahead. But I
think all indications are that the show's doing well. People
are loving the show, and I don't think any of
us are looking to stop doing this amazing piece anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So glad to hear that. So Bryce Pinkham, thank you
so much. You can catch Bryce in Chess at the
Imperial Theater. Visit Chess Broadway dot com and Bryce, if
you don't mind just sticking around a few more minutes,
because we do like to go behind the scenes, kind
of pull the curtain back and let our audience know
what artists are up to you bringing you know, Broadway
(14:35):
magic to life. So if you have a moment please.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
For your fans, Christine, I will do it.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Thank you well, Christin Nagy. Welcome to behind the Scenes
where we turn off the stage lights and uncover what
truly drives Broadway's most remarkable talents. And today we're joined
by the incredible Bryce Pinkham, who brings the Arbiter to
life in Chess at the Imperial Theater, and we have
(15:00):
just discussed the show with you. Bryce is absolutely wonderful,
highly recommend it. It's got to take, you know, a
little bit of a ritual or something to get into
character and get that energy up before you go on stage.
Can you tell us if there's any pre show ritual
or something that you do.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, every show's a little different, and it's sort of
a ritual that I discover during previews. You know, I
try to try and find what do I need to
get out there and do this particular performance. You know,
sometimes it's a lot of warming up, you know, gents guide,
I knew I was going to be out there for
an hour before I got a break, and so I
really needed to get my blood moving and kind of
(15:40):
make sure I was loose. That is also true for
the arbiter. I'm out there for the first twenty minutes
without a break. But the energy that I try to
bring to the beginning of our show is really playful,
and really, you know, my responsibility.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Is talking to the audience.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
So one of the things I've discovered that I do
in my pre show ritual is I go around, you know,
before the overture starts.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
The entire cast is you know, backstage getting ready.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
I just go around and I start banter with people.
I start, you know, I'll say something funny that occurred
to me that day. I'll try just try and get
a back and forth going. So really, what I'm doing
as my ritual is I'm trying to make my castmates laugh.
And you know the success rate on that is they
can tell you, But but I do try and you know,
(16:30):
get out of my own head by focusing on an
audience member or pretend audience member in front of me
and just trying to just trying to get a get
a connection going with them. So I guess you could
call it impromptu stand up that I'm doing backstage. And
I'm also you know, I'm stretching my body making sure
(16:52):
it's ready to go, hydrating, doing all my vocal warm ups.
But I think the one that's unique to this show
is I'm doing a lot of talking backstage, even during
the overture.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
One night, I think the stage mayor is like, can.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
You keep it down during the overture like the overture
has started?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
How is that for you? By the way, because you
are talking to the audience. Do you like that? You
know it's a little different for a theater performer.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I love it because there's no more thrilling and terrifying
connection than an actual connection with a live audience. And
you know, it means that the response can be different,
and that's really like it is a high wire act
in some ways and in others, like I feel comfortable,
(17:39):
you know, I love giving the Broadway Care speech during
Broadway Care Season, and a lot of my performance reminds
me of just talking to the audience.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
You know, and.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Helping them understand the issues of the night, which in
our case are the you know, narrative strains of Chess,
the musical, the Cold War musical as I call it.
And I think, you know a lot of the things
that happened in the first five minutes are me sort
of setting the table for the cast of superstars to.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
Come out and you know, eat and leave no.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Crumest do a great job. So what's something about being
a theater performer that you think people might not realize?
Speaker 4 (18:25):
I think, you know, I'm always comparing I grew up
playing sports, and I am always comparing Broadway performers to athletes,
because I really think especially members of our company, such
as are Swings, they have.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
To know ten different tracks.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
At you know, at any given moment, they could be
asked to step into the show with you know, almost
no notice and go and do the show. I mean
that is like if the if if Broadway is the Olympics,
they the decathletes, you know, they can do ten different things.
And so I think being a Broadway performer, as much
(19:08):
as it is about being an artist, it's also about
being an athlete, taking care of your body, showing up
every day whether you want to or not. You know,
I think about the Yankees, you know, showing up having
to play baseball, and all the people that show up
to see them, and you know, pile their savings so
that they can buy that Yankee ticket. They want to
(19:30):
see Aaron Judge hit a home run. And maybe Aaron
Judge doesn't feel like home runs that day, Well guess what,
It's his job and and it gets paid a lot
of money to do it. So, you know, I think
a Broadway performer is in a similar light. You know,
there are some days where, quite frankly, we're not you know,
it's not our it's not our day, and our job
(19:53):
is to show up and do it and to deliver
for those fans who are there to see it for
the first time. And that takes a certain mindset, a
certain discipline. And one thing I want to say about
our show in particular is our three leads Lia Michelle
Aaron to debate and Nicholas Christopher. They are vocal athletes
who have crafted a very impressive vocal performance that crucially
(20:21):
can be replicated night after night. And that is like,
that's like having a good swing at the plate, you know,
like you can't just hit the ball over the fence once,
like you got to hit it over the fence every night,
and so you have to craft it in a way
that you can do that sustainably, And that to me
is like peak. Peak Broadway performer is the one who
(20:47):
can not only do it as if it was a
one night concert, but can do it sustainably over months
and months and months. And if you know some of
the music that you know these three have to sing.
Aaron to Evate sings Pity the Child like the same
way every night, and every night he stops the show,
and every night people lose their minds Like that is
(21:07):
so impressive to me, it's like being an athlete.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
All of you are so so wonderful in this show.
Can't recommend it enough. Bryce Pinkham, thank you so much.
Thanks for taking us behind the scenes on Inside Broadway.
You can catch Bryce in Chess now playing at the
Imperial Theater. For tickets, visit chess Broadway dot com and
thank you for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe to
the Inside Broadway podcast so you never miss an episode.
(21:31):
Follow iHeartRadio Broadway across social platforms. Check out the iHeartRadio
Broadway channel to stream Broadway hits free on the iHeartRadio app,
and add it to your presets to keep the magic
of Broadway with you wherever you go. Until next time, Bryce,
thank you once again. I'm Christine Nagy. This is Inside Broadway.
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