New York City
Josh Groban and Denée Benton costar in the new Broadway musical.
The new Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 will release an original Broadway cast recording with Reprise Records on May 19. The album was recorded at DiMenna Center New York on February 12 and 13 by Kevin Killen, who recently received a Grammy for his work on David Bowie’s Blackstar.
Inspired by a small section of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, The Great Comet was created by Dave Malloy and is directed by Rachel Chavkin. The musical was originally commissioned and developed in New York at Ars Nova, where it had its world premiere in fall 2012, and was transferred to a custom-built venue in the Meatpacking District for summer 2013. The show and the entire venue were transferred to the Theater District, where The Great Comet continued its run into spring 2014. It played a pre-Broadway engagement in 2015 at the American Repertory Theater in Massachusetts. The Broadway mounting opened November 14, 2016, at the Imperial Theatre.
The Broadway cast stars Josh Groban as Pierre and Denée Benton as Natasha (both in their Broadway debuts) alongside Brittain Ashford as Sonya, Gelsey Bell as Princess Mary, Nicholas Belton as Bolkonsky/Andrey, Nick Choksi as Dolokhov, Amber Gray as Helene, Grace McLean as Marya D., Paul Pinto as Balaga, Lucas Steele as Anatole, and Scott Stangland as the standby for Pierre.
The two-CD and digital albums are available for preorder today from all participating retailers and at joshgroban.com.