Having performed on the Tony Awards telecast, Josh Groban had made no secret of the fact that he’d love to make his Broadway debut if he could find the right vehicle. To the surprise of many, the platinum-selling recording artist has chosen to star in “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” when it opens on Broadway next September. The 34-year-old Groban will play Pierre Bezukhov, the dissolute aristocrat snared in a miserable marriage to the amoral Helene, in this electro-pop opera directed by Rachel Chavkin and written by Dave Malloy, who based it on an excerpt from the Leo Tolstoy Russian classic “War and Peace.” The show has been something of a sensation since it opened in the fall of 2012 at the intimate off-Broadway venue Ars Nova. Greeted with rave reviews and numerous awards, the show was then presented in interactive productions in which the audience wined and dined in large tents in both the Meatpacking District and Midtown neighborhoods of Manhattan. Since those runs ended last year, there has been intermittent chatter of a Broadway transfer. But it gained more momentum when Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre announced it would mount the first proscenium-style production of the show this fall. “Great Comet” is currently in previews there prior to an opening on December 16. Set designer Mimi Lien has attempted to re-create to some extent the intimacy of the actors playing scenes amidst the audience as was so effectively done in the tent productions.Composer and librettist Malloy created the role of Pierre and played it during its previous runs in New York (Scott Stangland is assuming the role at ART). But, according to a recent report in the New York Times, he believed that the role was “underwritten” and he has already taken measures to enhance it, including a new song, “Dust and Ashes.” Indeed, prior to this, the character of Pierre was something of a Greek chorus, commenting on the central dilemma of Natasha who dallies dangerously with the sexy but faithless Anatole (Lucas Steele) while her betrothed Andrey is away at war. It appears that rewrites may now make Pierre a more active participant in the unfolding melodrama.Howard Kagan, who with wife Janet is the lead producer on “Great Comet,” approached Groban after he expressed enthusiasm for the show following his attendance at an off-Broadway performance in 2013. There is no indication of how long the recording star will be in the show — he has a new Grammy-nominated album of Broadway standards (“Stages”) and a jam-packed touring schedule. But the marquee value of his name should mean brisk premium ticket sales on Broadway, especially through next year’s holiday season and then some. Album sales of more than 25 million and counting mean a substantial fan base that will feed a lucrative run.And the revenues will no doubt be supplemented by album and program sales, not to mention the gallons of vodka poured at the theater bars during the run.
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