Inspired by a 70-page slice of War and Peace, this "vibrant, thrillingly imagined new musical" (The New York Times) is "stunning and blazingly original" (Entertainment Weekly) and brings us just inches from Tolstoy's brash young lovers as they light up Moscow in a "heaven-sent fireball" (The New York Times) of romance and passion.
NATASHA IS YOUNG, ANATOLE IS HOT, AND ANDREY ISN'T HERE... BUT WHAT ABOUT PIERRE? Natasha is a beautiful ingenue visiting Moscow while she waits for her beloved fiance Andrey to return from the war. In a moment of indiscretion, she is seduced by the dashing (but already married) Anatole and her position in society is ruined. Her only hope lies with Pierre (Groban), the lonely outsider whose love and compassion for Natasha may be the key to her redemption... and to the renewal of his own soul.
"One of the decade's best musicals" (Time Out New York), THE GREAT COMET has "rousing music and ravishing performances" (Daily News) with a groundbreaking score that mixes rock, pop, soul, folk and electronic dance music with classic Broadway. THE GREAT COMET arrives fresh off its sold-out run in Boston and its critically acclaimed Off-Broadway premiere. Its renowned creative team has reimagined the Imperial Theatre as an opulent Russian salon, where every seat provides a unique perspective and an unforgettable experience which is "thrilling, a feast for the senses" (Associated Press) and "inventive, ravishing and full-on romantic" (New York Post).
Josh Groban - he of the mellifluous lung power so dynamic it could lift a tall ship's sails - is the marquee attraction of 'Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,' the vivacious new musical that had its official opening Monday night at the Imperial Theatre. And as it turns out, he's neither an overbearing blowhard nor a star adrift. Rather, Groban proves to be a thoroughly winning team player in an offbeat pop opera that is ultimately more memorable for technical dexterity than emotional texture.
'Great Comet' goes so much further than any of those aspirational predecessors, with Lien and her team sending part of the audience through a faux-Soviet backstage, building a series of walkways that can carry actors to the back of the balcony, installing ramps and catwalks throughout the orchestra and stuffing the stage with risers and banquettes that really do look like they were built with the rest of the theater. (Bradley King's lights seem to explode everywhere.) It's a seamless work of retrofit design that will, I think, carry historical import. Especially when combined with Malloy's quirky, unconventional and thoroughly beguiling suite of songs.
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