An opera with an unwieldy title based on Tolstoy’s War and Peace seemed an unlikely crowd-pleaser, but I was thrilled when I saw it Off-Broadway, first at Ars Nova in 2012, and again in a circus tent in 2013. When they announced a Broadway run, however, I wondered how they could possibly pull it off.

They’ve done it! Now installed in the wondrously transformed Imperial Theater on Broadway, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is extraordinary, the freshest, most inviting show on Broadway this season. Great Comet is especially awesome in its stagecraft, as well as in its music, and in its performances. The large, exciting cast includes nearly two dozen who are making their Broadway debuts, including Denee Benton and Josh Groban as the titular characters….Director Rachel Chavkin and set designer Mimi Lien in particular deserve kudos for staging on Broadway something very close to the kind of immersive theater that’s lately been intriguing theatergoers all over the world – everywhere but Broadway, until now.

Full review on DC Theatre Scene

Click on any photographs by Chad Batka or Jonathan Mandell to see them enlarged.

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 with Josh Groban i

Great Comet

Denee Benton as Natasha

Denee Benton as Natasha and Brittain Ashford as her cousin Sonya

Amber Gray as Helene

Denee Benton as Natasha and Amber Gray as the villainous Helene

Lucas Steele as Anatole and Denee Benton as Natasha

what Natasha, Pierre looks like from the audience

The lobby of Broadway’s Imperial Theater turned into a hallway to an underground nightclub, complete with posters in Russian

View of one of the many “stages” onto which the ensemble perform

Dust and Ashes

Charming

Sonya Alone

The Prologue