Theatrical lighting designer Kevin Adams already has a shelf full of Tony Awards, three for Best Lighting of a Musical for Spring Awakening (2007), American Idiot (2010), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014), and one for Best Lighting Design of a Play: The 39 Steps (2008). He has been nominated multiple times and this year is nominated again, this time for the Benny Andersson, Tim Rice, and Björn Ulvaeus musical, Chess. Set during the Cold War, the story focuses on an American and Russian chess grand master in a tournament, symbolizing the tension between the US and the former Soviet Union at the time. The scenic design (David Rockwell) is stripped down, evoking Soviet-style utility, but Adams lights the anthemic songs with what one reviewer called, "an extra punch of dynamism." He talked to Live Design about the influence of Soviet propaganda on tone and palette and the importance of a silent lighting rig.
Production: Chess opened on Broadway in November 2025 at the Imperial Theatre.
Collaborators
Michael Mayer Director
David Rockwell Set Design
Tom Broecker Costume Design
John Shivers Sound Design
Peter Nigrini Video Design
Luc Verschueren For Campbell Young Associates Hair, Wig, and Makeup Design
Lighting Team
Lighting Designer Kevin Adams
Associate Lighting Designer Timothy Reed
Assistant Lighting Designer Emily Schmit
Lighting Programmer Paul Toben
Production Electrician Steve Long
Head Electrician Adam Cavanaugh
Deck Electrician David Spirakes
Lead Followspot Operator Tommy Obermaier
Followspot Operator Jeff Dodson
House Head Electrician Manny Diaz
Live Design: What was your intent with the design, and where did your inspiration come from?
Kevin Adams: The songs, of which there are many, are so over the top and often veer into fantastic opera land. The songs are grand and heroic and I wanted the lighting to be grand and heroic and Soviet. I bought a book of Soviet propaganda posters and looked through it often, looking at tone and palette. But I also liked how humorless and heavy the Soviet work is and thats what I wanted the lighting for Chess to look like at times, in a good way. Ultimately the songs and the stories of the leads guided me where to go with the lighting.
LD: What gear did you rely on for your design choices?
KA: My associate Tim Reed and I prioritized two things when making the plot: we wanted a rig that was silent and we wanted to use all LED sources that contained lime green chips. Tim and I did Swept Away before Chess and we had a rig that was absolutely silent. The director, Michael Mayer, and sound designer John Shivers and Tim and I LOVED this and after experiencing that silence in the room, we never wanted to go back to a noisy rig that is always loudly humming. I work on mostly dark-toned music theatre pieces and the silence around the spoken word is so helpful in telling these dark stories. The other thing that Tim and I like on Swept Away is that the lime green LED movers could light humans as well as gelled conventionals could. Finally! So for Chess I have a 100% LED rig. No gel in the show at all, except for the two follow spots.
LD: What was the biggest challenge?
KA: The biggest challenge is just making two dozen songs look different. You have to have visual variety between numbers and because there was very little scenery, the lighting had to do a lot of the visual lifting of the show. I asked David Rockwell, the set designer of the show, if we could not have masking overhead so that the spectator could see every penny spent on lighting. And so that the lighting could better define each number.
LD: What do you think made this design so successful?
KA: The songs and performances make this design special. They both make it so easy to light. Well, not easy. Satisfying. And I really did my homework on this show, making color collages and drawings for specific number ideas.
