“Chess” Star Made All the Right Moves to Get to Broadway

She’s worth the wait.

“Chess” audiences must wait in anticipation to see Hannah Cruz, who makes her grand entrance at the start of Act 2 in the Broadway revival of the musical, which opened at the Imperial Theatre on November 16 after nearly four decades.

The Connecticut native, who serendipitously listened to the “Chess” soundtrack in high school, told Straus News that during the first act, she is backstage prepping, so gets to hear the audience’s reactions to the show, which has amassed a cult following since it premiered on the Great White Way in 1988.

“I know how hungry people have been for this. At least from the audience reaction we’re getting from the stage every night, it’s really positive,” she said. “I think I’m biased, but Nick, Aaron and Lea–this is some of the best singing I’ve ever heard on Broadway.”

Cruz stars alongside Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher in the production, set in the Cold War era, which centers around rival chess players from the US and Russia, Freddie and Anatoly, played by Tveit and Christopher.

The men are embroiled in a love triangle with Michele’s character, Florence, and Cruz plays Svetlana, the woman Anatoly is still married to and the mother of his children.

The actress, who lives in Battery Park with her husband–whom she met while on the “Hamilton” tour–recalled first meeting Michele at the stage door nearly 20 years ago, when the “Glee” star was in “Spring Awakening” on Broadway.

“I was a baby, and she was a baby. I must have been in high school at that point,” she said.

“Who knows if that picture will ever see the light of day, but it’s very cute and really wild.”

You grew up in Newtown, Connecticut. When did you know you would pursue theater professionally?

Theater was very big in my town. There were not only the high school shows that I would do, there was also a community theater. So I was doing three to four musicals a year. It was all I did. I always wanted to do it, but I wasn’t sure if it was a viable career path until we took a trip with my high school and saw Patti LuPone in “Gypsy” at the St. James. I had no idea you could give so much of yourself to a performance and put so much into it. And I fell in love and was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life.’

Then you went viral for your “Gypsy” performance.

I auditioned at 10 schools for musical theater. I got into one for musical theater, and I got into one for acting, and I ended up not going to either. Because we ended up doing “Gypsy” at my high school that year after seeing it, and I played Mama Rose and that was a time where I was watching all these kids who went to the University of Michigan put their videos online. YouTube videos of musical theater majors were huge in 2009, 2010. So I put up all the videos of me in “Gypsy,” and “Rose’s Turn” [finale song] ended up going viral for the time and a casting agent reached out and asked if I would audition for the “Legally Blonde” tour and I skipped school and I went and ended up booking it and I convinced my parents to let me do that instead of going to college.

Tell us what the audition process was like.

So I was getting ready to go on my honeymoon. We were going to Greece. Before I left, I was like to my agents and my managers, ‘I’m not positive I want to do another musical. It has to be the right thing.’ Then my agent called me and said, ‘Well, ‘Chess’ is kicking around, so would you be interested in going in for Svetlana?’ I had to do my own research for a bit, because at first I thought she sang someone else’s story, and I knew she was only in one act. So I was like, ‘That’s not a lot of singing, so perhaps that is something I would like to do.’ So I said, ‘Let’s circle back once I get back from Greece, but tell them I’ll come in.’

Right when I got back from Greece, I was very relaxed, very tanned, and I was doing a reading or something at the time, so I couldn’t come in when everybody else was. I came in on a separate day, so we did everything on the one day and I only came in once. We did all the scenes, I got to sing, “I Know Him So Well” with Lea. We had a great time in the room just playing, and it felt super creatively connected, which is always a good sign, so I left that room feeling really good about it. Later that week, I was doing a reading in the same building, so I could hear everyone else auditioning for Svetlana. It was very weird. But I kind of just let it go. I was like, ‘If it’s mine, it’s mine. If it’s not, it’s not.’ And then I got a call one morning ... they said that I got it and it just felt right, which does not happen all the time.

How did you perfect Svetlana’s Russian accent?

I had played Polish before when I did “Suffs” Off-Broadway at The Public [Theater]. I played Ruza and Dawn-Elin [Fraser] was my dialect coach back then, and she was really great in giving me that foundation for an Eastern European accent, and Russian is not too far from Polish. This time around, we worked with Kate Wilson, who is brilliant, as our dialect coach. She teaches at Juilliard and I’ve worked with her before and I’m just obsessed with her. We had a Zoom right before we started rehearsals and she gave me some general rules.

Russian is very back of the throat, very grounded, very earthy. Your mouth doesn’t move a lot. I also listened to a lot of Russian women. There’s this really great documentary about Alexei Navalny, the political opponent to Putin in Russia, and his wife was super helpful to listen to.

Do you know how to play chess?

My husband did teach me. He gifted me a chess set when I booked the show and we would actually sit and listen to–there’s this beautiful part which we don’t have in our show anymore–this beautiful orchestral and choir piece, and we would listen to it and we would play chess. I really like playing now, and he gifted me another chess set for opening, and I have it in my room, so I want to play with more people.

Does the cast hang out after shows?

Not really, everybody in this cast has children. I think between the leads, there’s five kids. And a lot of the kids are very young, and the show is long. So we get done at like 10:30 and everybody’s going right home.

Which celebrities have come to see it?

Jesse Tyler Ferguson came, Gayle King, Aubrey Plaza, Neil Patrick Harris and his husband, Jane Krakowski. Sarah Michelle Gellar came because Danny Strong, who wrote the book [script in Broadway terms], was on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and when they were on the show together, I guess they talked about their love of this musical, which is crazy.

You met your husband on the “Hamilton” tour, right?

I did, yeah. We met in 2018 and we didn’t get together until 2021. It took us a while to find each other in that way. But we were very, very, very good friends.

Was Michael Urie in your bridal party?

Yeah, he was my Man of Honor. There’s not many people I’m more obsessed with than him. There’s very few people that I speak to on the daily, and he is one of them. I love him so much. We met doing a play in Maine. We did the American premiere of “The Da Vinci Code,” and we just fell in love.

I heard you named your cat after your “Chess” character.

Actually, Lea did name her. We were backstage together. We have this one section during the song “The Deal,” where her and I get to chat and catch up. We were deep in previews and I was like, ‘I’m getting a cat tomorrow’ and she was like, ‘Who gets a cat in previews? You’re insane.’ And not just a cat, a three-month old kitten. She was like, ‘You have to name her Svetlana. There’s no other choice.’ I hadn’t even thought about it, but it fits her so well.

What would be a dream role for you on Broadway?

I would love to play Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” I would love to do “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and I would love to do some classical theater. I’d love to do some Shakespeare. That would be amazing.

To learn more, visit chessbroadway.com