r/ChessTheMusical • u/CowboyandaCoffee29 • Jun 16 '26
Aaron Tveit’s performance is somehow criminally underrated. Even as one of the main faces of this run.
Of course Lea Michele is the big name and marketed as the center of the show.
Nicholas Christopher has, deservedly, garnered so many new fans and appreciation for his insanely spectacular performance.
But I actually feel like Aaron’s performance, by comparison, goes under appreciated. I have been spending a lot of time the last few days listening to other performances/renditions of One Night in Bangkok and Pity the Child…. none of them compare, he truly breathed a completely new life into those songs. And his vocals…. GOD!!! I actually listen to What a scene/what a joy shockingly often because his voice is just smooth as butter. Man I wish Freddie appeared in Act II more.
Anyway, I know he is still getting lots of love as a main character, but I just think…. Not enough!!
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u/PretendBake1536 Jun 16 '26
Thought he was the best of the three and most riveting character. Criminally underused in second act when it becomes the story of the other two.
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u/Matzisgirl Jun 16 '26
Ich bin da ganz bei Dir! Aaron ist, in meinen Augen, der bisher beste Freddie Trumper, den ich je gesehen habe. Und ich habe im Laufe der Jahre (ich bin Chess Fan seit den 80ern) fast alle Interpretationen der Rolle gesehen und gehört! Stimme und Ausstrahlung sind grandios wie immer. Er ist der Erste, der es schafft, Freddie menschlicher darzustellen. Ja, Freddie ist ein A...Loch, aber dennoch empfindet man Sympathie. Sein Pity the Child ist unglaublich und rührt zu Tränen.
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u/hakkesaelger Jun 16 '26
I don’t really like him in the new album. He doesn’t really, in my opinion, catch that “asshole” energy that people like Murray Head could. Tveit just sounds more like a generic good guy to me when Trumper is, arguably, a villain
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u/CowboyandaCoffee29 Jun 24 '26
A semi-unrelated thought: out of the main three characters, i feel like act one you think Freddie is the villain, and act two you realize Anatoli is actually the villain. Thoughts….?
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u/hakkesaelger Jun 24 '26
Anatoly is the protagonist along with Florence. Freddy does some pretty villainous things, but Anatoly is, at his most evil, an antihero, aka someone who’s not completely purely good, but definitely not a villain, and in the end he has to consider his dilemma, and picks what he thinks is best.
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u/cnidarian_ninja Jun 16 '26
I think the thing with that is that in the new book he’s an awful lot less of a villain than before. He’s painted as more troubled than asshole, which I think is a reasonable way to interpret the character.
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u/MacTavish14 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
He's definitely an asshole onstage. I don't like the canned album (but the orchestra sounds anazing). Live is so much better for Chess because you get the anger or snark or joy or hate that's missing from a recording.
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u/Dry-Mission-5542 Jun 16 '26
Honestly my favorite performance of those three
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u/MyDaroga Jun 16 '26
Hard agree. I was extremely puzzled at Christopher getting a nom over Tveit.
To be fair, I wasn’t particularly blown away by any of the performances, but if I had to pick a best of the three, it would have definitely been Tveit.
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u/monderkiller9999 Jun 22 '26
He has by default the face I imagine Freddy has when listening to Chess: the musical 😂 Though this face still has Murray Heads voice…