The Queen's Gambit, The Musical?
It looks like the popular Netflix series The Queen's Gambit will be turned into a musical. The production company Level Forward has won the rights to adapt Walter Tevis's 1983 novel for the stage.
"It is a privilege for Level Forward to lead the charge of bringing The Queen's Gambit to the stage through the beloved and enduring craft of musical theater," said Level Forward CEO Adrienne Becker and producer Julia Dunetz in a statement. "The story is a siren call amidst our contemporary struggles for gender and racial equity, and we're looking forward to moving the project forward."
Level Forward is a film, television, and theater production company focused on projects that extend the influence and opportunity of creative excellence and supports new voices. It was co-founded in 2018 by Abigail Disney, a grandniece of Walt Disney.
The company did not yet announce a creative team or any other details of the project. Therefore, it is not certain yet whether there will be an actual production.
The Queen's Gambit on Netflix has been a massive hit as it was watched by 62 million households in its first month. It recently won two Golden Globe awards as well as two Critics Choice awards.
If the series makes it to the stage, it wouldn't be the first musical about chess. In the 1980s, the musical "Chess" was highly successful, with a storyline set around a Cold War-era chess event and with music by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. After many performances all over the world, it premiered in Moscow only a few months ago, around the time The Queen's Gambit appeared on Netflix.
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
Peter's first book The Chess Revolution is out now!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: [email protected] FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
