Lea Michele is used to pressure. In many ways, it’s been the undercurrent powering her career, starting with being cast—at eight years old without any training—in Les Miserables, arguably the biggest musical of all time, to originating the female lead in the frenzy-causing 2006 musical Spring Awakening to her star-making, and often scrutinized, years on Glee. And then there was her defiant, record-breaking return to the stage as Fanny Brice in 2022’s revival of Funny Girl, which the New York Times called a “fortune-reversing” role for the actor, whose several nightly standing ovations were frequently chronicled in the press and on social media.
For more than two decades, it seems every professional choice she’s made has come with a heightened level of expectation and, for some, the sense that maybe she’s not inhabiting characters so much as playing versions of herself. It’s unlikely, however, that this narrative will apply to her next high-pressure act.
On November 16 she’ll step into the role of Florence Vassy, the female lead in the long-awaited Broadway revival of Chess, the 1986 Cold War–era musical known for its sweeping score, fusion of high camp and high art, and Reagan-era political undertones. Unlike vaudeville entertainer Brice, who feels like a character Michele was born to play, inhabiting Vassy—an advisor to an American chess grandmaster who finds herself falling for his married Soviet rival—is a departure from what we’re used to seeing the 39-year-old do.
For starters, her role in Chess is not funny—impeccable comedic timing and brassy verve do not apply. For Michele, this presented a challenge.
“Even as myself, I’ll use humor as a safety net or a security blanket,” she says over lunch on a sunny Friday in New York. “But Florence is strong and determined, and me leaning into that feels so much more naked and exposed. And that’s scary. But I want to do things that push me as a performer.”
On paper Chess feels like the setup to a joke no one quite gets: What happens when the celebrated theatrical lyricist Tim Rice and the guys from Abba decide to write an opera that’s also an ’80s synth-pop concept album about the game of chess that’s also a metaphor for long-held US versus USSR tensions that’s also a love story set against the paranoia and propaganda of the 1980s? The punchline, of course, is a musical that believes so earnestly in its own gravitas that it accidentally becomes a time capsule, a monument to the decade when pop music thought it could solve geopolitics. But for all its melodrama, Chess is a wildly impressive project that’s too majestic to dismiss and—as many cult favorites are—was probably ahead of its time.
After debuting as a concept album in 1984, Chess found moderate success on London’s West End in 1986; a revamped version premiered on Broadway two years later but closed after a handful of performances and is generally considered a notorious flop.
The musical surfaces every few decades, usually as limited theatrical events with starry casts, yet it took almost 40 years to find the right time to return to Broadway—an unusual fact given the constant churn of revivals. But the timing feels fated as tensions between the US and Russia have dominated the news cycle. But the cast that prolific director Michael Mayer has assembled is what will likely set Chess up for success, helped by an updated book by Danny Strong.
The combination of Broadway It guy Aaron Tveit and buzzy rising star Nicholas Christopher is potent—and both received rapturous applause upon their entrances in the preview performance I attended. Throw Michele into the mix, who brings capital-C celebrity appeal but also bankable Broadway chops, and the alchemy feels undeniable.
Across just seven October preview performances, Chess brought in close to $1.9 million, an early figure that would bode well for any Broadway show, but especially one that closed after 68 performances almost four decades ago.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Michele, the latest in Glamour’s In Frame interview series, held in August as rehearsals were underway, the actor—married to businessman Zandy Reich with two young children—opened up about why Chess resonates now, how she’s recalibrated her relationship to ambition, whether she could ever see Rachel Berry coming back to life, how motherhood has shifted her world view, and more.
Glamour: Talk to me about the reception when it was announced Chess was coming back to Broadway and you’d be costarring. What was it like?
Lea Michele: I’d been sitting on the news for a while. Michael Mayer approached me with the possibility of doing this show together in 2022 when I was doing Funny Girl and he had just done a one-night concert of Chess. I was very jealous that I wasn’t a part of the night. I felt a pull to the show without being able to verbalize why. So when he called me to talk to me about it, the first thing I said was, “I hoped this is why you were calling.” The second was, “But I have to have another baby.” He was so wonderful in understanding that expanding my family was really important to me, and that I needed to step away to have my daughter. But luckily the timing worked out.
I think people forget about the schedules of Broadway actors—eight shows a week is such a massive undertaking, not to mention being hard on the body and hard as a parent—like, you’re not home for bedtime. I could see wanting your family in place before accepting such a big role.
Right. And Funny Girl was such a huge experience but also a big commitment for my family, so I spoke to my husband [about Chess] and I was like, “How does this sound for us now we have two kids?” He’s so supportive and knows that I love doing this so much; he’s known that from the minute we met.
I’m not a vocalist but I know the Chess material well. It’s an extremely demanding and challenging score. The scale is very grand, which is the word I’d use.
Oh, absolutely. Fanny Brice could be classified as one of the harder Broadway roles, but Florence is even more challenging in some ways than Funny Girl because of the style of singing. Chess is all over the board vocally—it’s everything from using my most classic Broadway soprano all the way to rock, belting, pop. It is one of the hardest scores I’ve ever done.
Was it difficult to inhabit the character of Florence Vassy? She feels like a departure for what people expect you to play. The singing is intense and mature. Jazz-hands Broadway this is not.
Florence is a woman. I’ve typically played roles that are younger, or roles that start out young and then get older, but she is a woman in a man’s world. And I can’t lean on comedy. This is honest and vulnerable, and she has a strength to her. And these are all things that are challenging for me to portray. What Funny Girl did was it made me realize what I’m capable of, and now I want to take that and attack this as hard as I possibly can.
Michael Mayer is such an inventive director—can you share anything about how this revival draws on the still-relevant political undertones that run through the material?
It’s in the conversation—there’s such relevance and we definitely comment on how we’re not far now from where we were then. And we communicate to our audience in a very direct way. I don’t want to give it away; you’ll see how it’s done. But our show is narrated, which is new.
Are you nervous?
Every day. I was nervous every single day before I went on for Spring Awakening. I was nervous every single day before I went on for Funny Girl. But my nerves are my superpower.
How?
If I’m nervous, it means that what I’m doing is challenging, which means what I’m doing is important, which means what I’m doing is right.
Let’s go back a little. You were born in New York, right?
Born in the Bronx. My father’s family is Jewish from Long Island, but I really grew up spending a lot of time with my mom and her big Italian family in the Bronx. And then we moved to New Jersey when I was about seven years old, which is where—do you know the story of how I got into this?
Not in detail.
So, my mother was a nurse and we were good friends with the people who owned the hospital that she worked at. They had a lot more money than we did and I became friends with their daughter, who would take me to go see Broadway shows. Then there was an open call for the Broadway show Les Miserables in our hometown. She was going to audition, but the night before, her father got sick so her mother called my mom and asked if she could take her daughter to the audition. And I said, “Well, I want to audition too.” My parents were like, “But you don’t sing.” But I had just seen Phantom of the Opera, and I practiced a song in my room over and over.
I think I know how this story ends.
I walked into the audition with no music, no headshot, nothing. And they came up to my mother afterward and they said, “She’s pretty good. We’re going to call her back.” And I said to my mom, “I think I’m going to get this.” She said, “Things like this don’t happen to people like us.” But sure enough, two weeks later I was performing on Broadway in Les Miz at the Imperial Theater, which is where I’m now going to be doing Chess 30 years later. And I heard Chess for the first time in my dressing room in that theater when I was eight.
The synchronicity! Did you know after Les Miz that performing was your future? Or did you think it was a one-off experience?
After that, I knew. I remember every day working at the Imperial—it’s where my memory starts. I remember some things prior, growing up with my family of course, but my true memory begins at that theater at eight years old.
What were you like as a kid?
Not like what you’d expect. I wasn’t running around doing routines for people. I certainly wasn’t shy, but I wasn’t the show kid.
Are you an only child?
Yes. But I spent a lot of time with my mom’s big Italian family. Big Italian dinners. I was always with my family, always in that big family setting, is what I remember. It wasn’t until I got Les Miz that it’s like that’s who I became, who I was supposed to be.
Did you have your eye on bigger things?
I never wanted to be a movie star. I wanted to be a Broadway star. In 1999, I went to see the Broadway Divas live concert at Carnegie Hall in 1999—Marin Mazzie, Audra McDonald, Jennifer Holliday…
All the girls.
Look at my chills! That’s what I wanted. And I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of those women and learn from them. And so much of what I’m about to do is a compilation of everything that I have learned over my career that I am honored to be able to now put into motion. But Les Miz was a fast education. It wasn’t like I was at home singing show tunes before that audition. It was when I was actually on Broadway that I started to learn.
It seems you have a knack for choosing roles that have the potential to be forever embedded in the zeitgeist, like Rachel Berry, but also roles that—even when they’ve been played by others—seem to become yours. Fanny Brice and now Florence Vassy. Is that by design?
I think I’ve been really fortunate to be a part of productions and projects that are really special. I would put Spring Awakening on that list for sure. It was, in many ways, like a mini Glee but on Broadway. We all became little rock stars, and the show was so important. I never tried to be on television. I met Ryan Murphy when I went out to LA [during] Spring Awakening and he wrote Rachel Berry for me. I never expected it. I never thought that that was going to be a part of my life. I only ever wanted to do Broadway, and then I was in California for 15 years.
There are only a handful of recent pop culture projects I’d group Glee with. Friends in the ’90s, maybe, or Hamilton during its peak. It was pure mania.
I mean, it was massive.
Was that hard–going from the relative confines of Broadway to that?
Look, I love Glee, I love Rachel Berry. I’m so proud of the work. But nothing could really prepare anyone for what that experience was like—massive, and it occurred during your most memorable years. I’m beyond grateful for that journey and for everything that I’ve learned and the fact that I’ve made my way back to New York and that it was Funny Girl that really kind of solidified my return back to Broadway. Like I said, I’ve only ever planned to be here and do shows, but the universe brought me there and now it’s brought me back home. It’s all connected.
Have you done any Glee rewatching?
I get asked that question a lot. Jonathan [Groff] and I went through a phase where late at night when we were hanging out, we’d be like, “Oh my God, that number we did on Glee—let’s watch.” But I haven’t done a season one to season six rewatch before.
Are you going to show it to your kids?
I definitely will. I’m so proud of it. I think Glee is an incredible show for children to watch.
How long do you think before there’s a reboot?
Oh my gosh. I mean, I don’t know. I think that I would always love to say hello to Rachel Berry, and I love Ryan and we’re dear friends. He officiated my wedding. And so I’m always open to that world and seeing Rachel again.
I want to ask about being a celebrity in general. Fame seems exciting, but also incredibly stressful as it opens a person up to endless scrutiny. How do you stay true to yourself?
I mean, I know I can read and write.
What even is that? It’s such an odd thing to say about somebody.
Isn’t it wild? I did meet someone the other day who didn’t know about [that rumor], and I was like, “Wow, this is refreshing. You’re unaware of the conspiracy theory behind me!?”
Do you think that rising celebrities are treated differently in the media than the way your generation was?
I think that there’s been a positive shift. I also do feel though that we live in a world now, with social media, where anyone can say anything they want to say.
Do you read the comments?
I don’t subscribe to any of that. I don’t have any access to that in my life. I wake up at 5 a.m. with my kids, and my life is about being home and taking care of them. And then I have to be able to do the show and give everything there too. So I try really, really hard to protect my mind and my brain and my body.
Right. In a profession like yours, you can’t just show up to the office and think to yourself, t was a tough morning with the kids; I’ll get to my work tomorrow. You have to do your job at 100% every night.
Completely. And I think if you allow yourself to access [the negativity], it’ll take up a lot of space.
When women in your field are noticeably ambitious and laser-focused on doing a good job—which we all should be in our work, obviously—it seems like the public gets fed a narrative that they’re difficult or too ambitious. Have you ever felt that women in the industry get an unfair shake for caring about the job that they do?
I can only sort of speak for myself, but one thing that I loved about doing Funny Girl was my experience onstage as well as offstage and the connections that I made with the people around me. When I was younger, I was just so driven and had this need for more and wanting to just do so good and make everyone so happy. I look back on a lot of experiences, and I don’t remember the whole picture. But when I look back on that show, I remember the whole experience. And becoming a mom opened up my eyes to so many more things around me. I feel like I can still be just as laser-focused and driven, but while really having such joy and appreciation for [other] things.
Fanny Brice was a role you’ve always wanted to play. Was it what you expected?
And more. It was living in me. I was just waiting. I knew it would happen. I knew it would come and it was supposed to come. It was going to happen at one point and then it wasn’t and then it was and then it wasn’t, the whole thing. And I got out there, and I don’t know, it just came from a place that you can’t even explain. And I played the part and did it exactly in the way that I knew I had it in me.
Do you read the reviews?
I don’t.
Come on.
I don’t. I really don’t. I knew everything was good because we were breaking box office records.
People really wanted to see you in that role.
I was so grateful. I was so happy to keep everyone in that theater for as long as I could. I would’ve done it for longer, but it’s hard. But yeah, I could feel it every night from the audience.
As I was prepping for this conversation, I watched a clip of you on Extra, of all places, saying you felt motherhood had definitely softened you and that “I probably could have used a little softening.” What did you mean by that?
Having my son changed me in so many incredible ways, and so did meeting my husband. My life had been so focused on career and finally having it also be filled with love and family just opened up my heart in more ways than I could ever explain. It’s so incredible having your first child. And then I had my daughter, and she’s brought strength to me that I didn’t even know was possible. Both of my children have helped me to grow in so many ways.
Isn’t that amazing how much we can learn from kids who don’t know nearly as much as we do?
Having my children has brought an amazing balance into my life. Being able to have this wonderful family and my ground that I stand on. They give me the capability to go and do what I love and do it from a different place. I’m going to be 40 next year, which is crazy.
Are you where you thought you’d be at 40?
If I was eight years old on Broadway in Les Miz at the Imperial Theater, and they’d said, “Okay, in 30 years you’re going to be back here doing another show. You have two kids and you’re married.” I would say, “I do not.” I mean, how lucky to be doing what you love and have a family, and to be near your own family? It doesn’t get past me. I’m very grateful.
What are you hoping for when Chess opens? I don’t mean just good reviews, but what are you hoping the legacy will be for the version of the show you’re a part of?
In addition to hoping everyone loves it, I hope that it’s as fun as it is challenging. Myself, Nick, and Aaron all have children, and they have wives. We have five kids among the three of us, and we obviously get to include our families in this whole experience. But I just really want to show what I know that I’m capable of doing with this character while also having a joyful experience.
Well, as a lifelong Chess fan, I can’t wait to see it.
I think you’re really going to love it.
This interview has been edited for clarity and condensed for length.
Stylist: Brian Meller @brianmeller
Hair: Marki Shkreli @marki
Makeup: Carolina Dali @carolinadali
Nails: Joyce Zheng