She’s bringing her quirky chess musical to an Off-Broadway theater
The work, called “The Opening,” is a musical comedy that riffs on a real-life chess cheating scandal involving chess grandmasters Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen, the No. 1 and five-time World Chess Champion.
Brooke Di Spirito is at it again.
Three years after premiering an original musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Beautiful and Damned” at the historic Jeanne Rimsky Theater in New York, the 2021 Northeastern University grad is set to make her Off-Broadway debut next year with a quirky chess-inspired musical.
The work, called “The Opening,” is a musical comedy that riffs on a real-life chess cheating scandal involving chess grandmasters Hans Niemann and Magnus Carlsen, the No. 1 and five-time World Chess Champion.
(It should be noted that Carlsen implied Niemann cheated during the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, but authorities ultimately cleared Niemann of those specific allegations.)
Still, the public spat provided excellent creative fodder.
“It’s just so funny and so ridiculous, and everyone knows about it,” Di Spirito says of the 2022 drama. “And people who don’t know it, their reaction is just priceless when they learn about it.”
And no, it’s not that chess musical — the one coming to Broadway this fall about a Cold War-era love triangle titled “Chess.” (The show is a reboot of the 1988 cult favorite featuring Emmy Award nominee Lea Michele, Tony Award winner Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher.)
So, Di Spirito says the marketing tagline for “The Opening” is, fittingly: The second-most famous musical about chess.
“We’ll see if New York City can handle two musicals about chess,” she jokes.
Di Spirito describes “The Opening” as a “bro comedy meets Faustian bargain” story about a young chess player named Newton Anderson, who tries to cheat his way through the world championships — including in a match against the reigning chess No. 1 Carson Marlson. (Chess lovers out there might do a double-take at that name.)
Newton does so with the help of Jim, a friend who, Di Spirito says, “knows absolutely nothing about chess,” but acts as a willing and devoted co-conspirator. The pair hatch an elaborate plan to win the tournament that involves, among other raunchy details, learning Morse code to communicate which moves to play during the matches. (As it turns out, Morse code had been used in a real-life cheating situation about a decade ago.)
“There are a lot of twists and turns related to the method of cheating,” Di Spirito says.
It’s been a busy few years for Di Spirito. In addition to her work in musical theater, she runs her own production company and a theater troupe called The Sparrows, based in Long Island. She had been commissioned by the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society to write an immersive show featuring jazz and swing dance that was performed over the summer.
All in all, she’s written six original shows that were performed by The Sparrows.
After graduating from Northeastern, Di Spirito moved to New York City to pursue a career in the performing arts in earnest. She currently teaches ballet, directs and choreographs musicals at a local high school, and performs as both a ballet and swing dancer.
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Di Spirito discovered the seed for “The Opening” while participating in a class held at the Musical Creators’ Institute in 2023. She and her writing partner, Mateo Chavez Lewis, developed the crux of “The Opening” while there.
They continued development while taking part in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, a prestigious musical theater writing program located at 7 World Trade Center.
The program is like boot camp for the most ardent musical theater artists, known for its rigorous training and competitive selection.
“I wanted so badly to get in — and, finally, I did get in,” Di Spirito says. “It’s where a lot of writing teams over the years have met.”
It was during one of the workshop’s seminars that she learned about a self-production residency put on by The Players Theatre that provided an opportunity to further hone the show, attract investors and eventually debut it.
She and Lewis applied and were accepted, securing a spot for the musical to be staged at the theater.
“The residency itself gives us the theater and means we’re on all of the major ticket holders,” she says.
A lifelong chess fan, Di Spirito says the show was inspired in part by her grandfather, who builds chessboards and helped spark a love for the game when she was a child.
“It was really unexpected,” she says. “This isn’t something I thought would come to me this early on in my career.”
The show is set to debut on Jan. 8, and is expected to run for one month.
“It’s funny, it’s a good time, it’s all original music, 90 minutes, no intermission,” Di Spirito says.
