Listen to ‘Chess’ star Nicholas Christopher sing ‘Where I Want to Be’ (exclusive)

“Everybody asks the question — what happens when a dream is deferred? But what happens when a dream is met?”

This is how Nicholas Christopher (Sweeney Todd, Hamilton) describes the precipice that Anatoly, also known simply as the Russian, stands on at the beginning of Chess, which is making its triumphant and long-awaited return to Broadway this fall.

The cult favorite musical, with music from Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA and lyrics by Tim Rice, is getting a Broadway revival with a revised book from Danny Strong (Empire). Last week, Entertainment Weekly debuted a clip of Aaron Tveit as Freddie Trumper, a.k.a. the American, singing radio hit “One Night in Bangkok.” Christopher stars opposite Tveit and Lea Michele in this highly anticipated revival.

Now, we bring you Christopher, who wowed audiences as Pirelli in the Josh Groban revival of Sweeney Todd, delivering his take on “Where I Want to Be,” the song that introduces the audience to his character, Russian chess grandmaster and world champion, Anatoly Sergievsky. (Listen below.)

“We meet Anatoly where he’s been part of his system for his whole life,” Christopher tells EW. “He’s been working toward one goal for his whole life. Now, he’s at the precipice of meeting that goal and he’s wondering, ‘Well, what the heck happens next? This isn’t how I thought it was going to be. This isn’t how I thought it was going to feel.’ In fact, he feels more manipulated and more of a loss. Because under the particular political structure of Russia that we are both depicting and imagining within Chess, his best friend has just disappeared because he lost a chess match.”

The star continues: “His next chess match becomes truly life or death. What Anatoly is really grappling with is do either of those choices matter? Whether I live or whether I die? I have nothing to live for, and I have nothing to die for, therefore, what am I doing with my life? That question ends up getting answered throughout the show because he realizes that love is the answer.”

Much like Tveit, who was first introduced to Chess via theater nerd friends, Christopher first discovered the musical while at a summer theater camp. “My earliest memory of Chess was listening to one of my friends sing ‘Anthem,’ and I was like, ‘What song is that? It sounds like musical theater, but it sounds classical and like rock at the same time.’ It boggled my mind.”

Fans of Chess might have expected Christopher’s exclusive first track to be “Anthem,” considering it is Anatoly’s most famous ballad in the show and a highly popular song at musical theater showcases and cabarets. But Christopher says audiences will have to bide their time when it comes to that track. “‘Anthem’ is the heart of the whole show,” he teases. “I want to keep that close to the chest for a little while, for as long as I can, until people get to come see the show.”

There’s also the fact that Christopher never dreamed he would get to sing “Anthem” outside of the context of a cabaret. “How often would a half Black, half white guy get a chance to play a Russian on Broadway?” he quips. “It wasn’t on my radar at all.”

But then director Michael Mayer saw Christopher in Sweeney Todd, in which the actor did three different dialects, and called up Christopher to do a reading of the newly revised show. Once the show was an official go on Broadway, Christopher threw himself into learning the Russian dialect, but also sought out everything he could about Russian culture and the game of chess.

“I was going down to Brighton Beach and playing chess down there on the beach with my Russian friends now, learning there,” he says. “It’s opened up such a curiosity to me both culturally and as a brain exercise.”

Christopher is also drawing on every aspect of his training and previous career highlights to bring Anatoly to life. “I get to really pull from Motown in terms of my musical phrasing,” he explains. “I get to pull from Hamilton with how I allow the language to lead me. Then, I get to pull from Sweeney because of the full epic-ness of this whole thing. I get to use all different parts of myself — my voice and my musicality — all the things that I’ve learned over my career, and I’m able to really funnel it into Chess.”

That’s what Christopher is taking from (and giving to) Chess, but he hopes audiences find the broader truths at the show’s heart. “Sometimes we have to sacrifice our immediate comfort for the greater good,” he reflects. “There’s a difference between fact and truth, but this show is rooted in such truth that everyone in the audience can identify with somebody else on that stage. They can ask themselves these hard questions about what it is to be human and allow their imaginations to soar.”

“And,” he adds, with a laugh, “you don’t need to know about chess to come experience Chess.”

Chess begins performances at the Imperial Theatre on Oct. 15 with an official opening night set for Nov. 16.