Lea Michele is leaving her starring role in the hit Broadway musical CHESS on June 21, and she’s being replaced by an early-2000s pop star.
Joanna “JoJo” Levesque will take over the role of Florence Vassy in the show starting June 23. It’s her second stint on Broadway following an appearance in Moulin Rouge! The Musical. She’s best known for her hits “Leave (Get Out) and “Too Little Too Late” and her million-selling 2004 debut album JoJo. In 2024, she wrote her New York Times bestselling memoir Over the Influence.
JoJo is also featured on Jonas Brothers’ live album Friends From Your Hometown, which documents the night she joined them onstage during their Greetings From Your Hometown tour.
A new block of tickets for the show is now on sale through Sept. 13 via ChessBroadway.com.
CHESS, with music and lyrics by Tim Rice and ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, is set during the Cold War. It’s about two chess grandmasters, one American and one Soviet, and Florence, the chess strategist who is caught between them as they’re used as pawns by the U.S. and Soviet governments.
The musical’s best-known songs are “One Night in Bangkok,” which hit the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985, and “I Know Him So Well,” which topped the U.K. chart in 1985.
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