NEW YORK — “Chess” had a crazy, ridiculous plot when I first saw it in London in 1986 and in the sizzlingly sexy new Broadway version starring Lea Michele, Aaron Tveit and Nicholas Christopher, the show ditches its decades-long attempts at serious musical rehab and leans into its own retro ridiculous, cheekily calling itself “our Cold War musical” with eyebrows archly raised and little contemporary anachronisms about Donald Trump and RFK Jr. seemingly inserted on a whim.

Even David Rockwell’s arch, self-aware set — basically a neon title, digital images of whatever, illuminated music stand and lots of little chess pieces — feels like part of book writer Tim Rice’s decades-long joke, telegraphing to audiences that the musical with perhaps the most loathsome group of characters ever written

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