Great Comet vs Evan Hansen

[Xxxbroadway]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 11:56am

What do we think?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 12:01pm

I mean, this is kind of the great divide of this theatre season thus far. I, for one, am an unequivocal Great Comet fan. 

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 12:23pm

I love both shows deeply, but I would give my vote to Dear Evan Hansen.

[Wick3]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 12:31pm

I enjoyed seeing both shows. As to which one is better, I'd say it depends on my mood!

I just read this morning that Josh Groban and Brittain Ashford saw Dear Evan Hansen's performance last night and enjoyed it! Awesome to see how the bway community supports each other.

I didn't realize DEH has Sunday evening performances until now.

[jbird5]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 12:47pm

I saw DEH Saturday night. Great show, Ben Platt is amazing. However, it hasn't really stayed with me. NP is more of an experience.

[Wick3]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 12:50pm

jbird5 said: "I saw DEH Saturday night. Great show, Ben Platt is amazing. However, it hasn't really stayed with me. NP is more of an experience."

What is NP? Also, did you see Neil Patrick Harris that night? From Twitter he states he watched it that evening ... and recommends DEH to anyone between ages of 16-45.

 

[ebontoyan]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 12:50pm

I left at intermission of Great Comet, so DEH it is! Although DEH hasn't really stayed with me like a Hamilton did

[ethan231h]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 1:26pm

Dear Evan Hansen. Ben Platt is easily giving the best performance in recent years. The supporting cast is also quite amazing especially Rachel Bay Jones. The message of the show is so relevant to today's society I can't recommend it enough. Natasha Pierre I found to be confusing and not exciting even though of it's immersiveness 

[SarahNYC2]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 1:49pm

I LOVED DEH. Obviously everyone has their own opinions, but I cannot get the show out of my mind. I cannot wait until they release the Cast Recording.

I enjoyed Comet-Josh Groban has a beautiful voice and it is definitely an experience.

I plan to take my 9 year old this summer to DEH. I know I will get some flak-but she's pretty mature and understands what suicide means. She loves the songs she's heard so far-we listen to Broadway Sirius in the car.

If you can't see both, see DEH.

[akmiller_98]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 1:54pm

If you want a fun, visual experience, then Great Comet wins.

If you want an emotional and pleasant auditory experience, DEH wins.

I prefer DEH.

I really disliked the Great Comet score. It felt like when I was a little kid and my friend and I decided we were going to sing everything we wanted to say instead of talk. Very little of it, besides the opening number, was memorable. But that's just my personal taste.
I LOVED some of the DEH score and was lukewarm about some parts. But overall, Ben Platt is what would make me go back and see it again.

 

[bdn223]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 1:55pm

I see this as a Ragtime vs Lion King Debate. Where the sum of one is vastly greater then the parts on their own. 

The Great Comet is the better production like Lion King, while DEH has the better book and score. I honestly must say I think DEH is one of if not the best Book Musical in nearly a generation. The problem is that The Great Comet is probably one of the most inventively staged productions of all time.Yes Once was staged in a bar, but The Great Comet literally transforms the Imperial into a Russian Super Club. 

[RaisedOnMusicals]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 2:08pm

Wick3 said: "jbird5 said: "I saw DEH Saturday night. Great show, Ben Platt is amazing. However, it hasn't really stayed with me. NP is more of an experience."

What is NP? Also, did you see Neil Patrick Harris that night? From Twitter he states he watched it that evening ... and recommends DEH to anyone between ages of 16-45.

Well, being considerably older than the stated age of 45, I'd continue the thought and recommend DEH to those between age 45 and death. 

 

 

 

 

[dramamama611]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 5:37pm

I'm not sure I could pick between them, they each have their strengths and weaknesses.

  I am seeing them in the same week next month, maybe then I'd be able to choose. 

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 5:40pm

Natasha Pierre for me. 

[Just_John]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 5:51pm

I hated Comet with a passion.  Dear Evan Hansen was one of my favorite productions I've ever seen and I've seen practically everything on Broadway in the past 15 years. Lin Manuel has already given his blessing to Evan winning, so I'm going to go with that. 

[Born in a Ditch]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 5:54pm

Great Comet all the way. One of my favorite theatre experiences in recent memory. I liked Evan but I thought some of that score was laughably bad and am a bit confused by all the praise on here. It's just another half baked contemporary musical with great performances by Platt and Bay Jones.

 

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 5:59pm

Just_John said: "Lin Manuel has already given his blessing to Evan winning, so I'm going to go with that."

Not sure why Lin's opinion on what should win should matter that much but if you're talking about his tweet to Pasek and Paul last night, he wasn't referring to the Best Musical award in specific, just them getting love on Tony night. He is also a big fan of Natasha Pierre and has been since its off-Broadway days. It's where he and Tommy Kail discovered Phillipa Soo for Eliza.

[Just_John]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 6:12pm

I was just giving my opinion and repeating what Lin said. He's only the greatest musical theatre composer of his generation. I'm aware that most people love comet. But a lot of people have not liked it at all, while everyone loves Hansen. 

edit: also going to add that I think the set design of comet being so innovative brainwashes people into thinking it's an incredible  piece of theatre. It's on par with American Psycho for me, which I also hated more than anything though I know a lot of people thought it was the best thing ever. 

Updated On: 1/9/17 at 06:12 PM

[aaaaaa15]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 6:22pm

'Everyone loves Hansen' just isn't true. Go look back at the preview threads for it on this board.

And I didn't like American Psycho either (despite admiring the design elements) but thought Natasha Pierre was excellent. So I think your theory is a little off there.

[Mike66]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 6:37pm

DEH

Saw them both this weekend.

Liked DEH.  Hated Comet.

I respect everyone opinion about the arts.  But I confess that I sat thru Comet hoping to like it and hoping it would get better.  But it was simply awful.  Almost all the music is recitative of the most annoying type and the "cuteness" of characters singing in the third person --  Andrey is walking or Natasha is thinking or whoever is whatever wore out its welcome in about 10 minutes.

I actually thought about leaving at intermission -- which I've never ever done.  At least in the second act, I got a plastic egg that my cats like. $200 for a ticket.  One egg.  Almost sounds right.

(Go see DEH.  It's a derivative of Next to Normal meets Once.  But it wont make you want to listen to fingernails on a chalkboard for auditory relief).

Updated On: 1/9/17 at 06:37 PM

[PerfidiousRaoul]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 6:42pm

I was completely blown away by the Great Comet 100%. I could honestly see no way they could possibly improve the production, and I adore the score. The sound design was phenomenal, the performances amazing and we all know how great the theatre looks.

Dear Evan Hansen hit pretty close to home too, but I didn't find it as groundbreaking as Great Comet. Ben Platt is hands down giving the best performance I have ever seen, but other than Evan the characters aren't fleshed out at all. The actors were all amazing,  but the characters seemed to be as generic as it gets (baseball dad, overworked mother, bully stoner older brother, and Laura isn't given much to work with at all). I also found the score uneven, but when it soared man it was bloody brilliant. 

Overall, I'm team Comet but that Tony is Ben's for the taking.

Updated On: 1/9/17 at 06:42 PM

[mullein]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 6:52pm

Comet all the way for me. The book and score of DEH were enormously dull and disappointing after reading all those raves.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 7:12pm

Saw them 48 hours apart Christmas week, and enjoyed both immensely. They actually have zero in common, other than appearing in the same B'way season.  "Evan..." is a show that will be beloved to/by many. It strikes emotional notes, both daringly and gracefully, and manages to do many astonishing things, including to turn a liar into an empathetic protagonist unlike any seen on the B'way stage, No, not remotely like "Next to Normal," which I believe is actually nothing like DEH, in the final (storytelling) analysis.  "DEH" has that access, that leading role that we can't look away from, can't help but invest in because we see some small part of ourselves in him.  "Comet" is closer to a "Candide" -like experience -- especially the 1st Hal Prince BAM "Candide" some of us saw in the 70s ensconced at the B'way theater.  Malloy is a musical theater iconoclast, and no matter what you feel at the intermission, I say: hang on until the final 15 minutes, when the evening's structural design pulls the threads together for a beautiful, satisfying conclusion that we suddenly realize was set up from the moment Groban sings "Pierre."  It's not a show for everyone, okay, but I'd argue, maybe a production for most people. It's just unlike anything else (currently), making "Hamilton" seem very traditional in comparison (I say that only in terms of cataloging theatrical shorthand employed by the productions).  "Comet" also has one of the most gifted casts we've seen, at least since ... oh, "Hamilton."  Not that "DEH" does not. But the company at "Comet" becomes the show, whereas in "DEH" it's Platt and some wonderful support. 

For any serious fan/advocate/aficionado of the musical theater both are unmissable.  That's the bottom line for me. 

[HSky]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 7:13pm

I love the experience at Great Comet and appreciate the story more and more each time I've seen it but give the edge to Dear Evan Hansen if I were offered the chance to go see either because of the way it resonates with me emotionally. I'd gladly recommend either but feel like there's slightly more "risk" recommending Great Comet because I can see how the structure and immersive nature might be tougher to sit through if you don't end up enjoying the style of the show. 

[tja928]

Posted: 1/9/17 at 7:27pm

I saw both shows Christmas weekend. I enjoyed Great Comet, but loved Dear Evan Hansen. Comet was fun if just for the sheer innovation of the show. But, like others have said, DEH just struck a chord with me.