The Great Comet appreciation thread — Page 3

I stumbled upon Great Comet quite accidentally. I was reading the NY Post on the subway in the fall of 2012, and I don't even usually read their theater reviews. But something about the photo or the headline caught my eye, and I read the rave that they gave this very strange-sounding show at a theater I'd never heard of -- Ars Nova. As soon as I got to work, I bought four tickets.

It was a cold and snowy November night when I saw the show, which of course made perfect sense. It's hard to describe what it was like to see Great Comet at Ars Nova. The entire theater was smaller than the current Broadway stage, and the energy from the cast was astonishing. I remember reading the bios in the program before the show began, "Phillipa Soo graduated from Juilliard this past June" or something like that. When the show was over I looked the program to make sure I'd read it right. All I could think of was, "are you kidding me?"

It wasn't just Phillipa Soo, it was Lucas Steele and Brittain Ashford and the entire cast and the incredible staging and costumes, the accordions, the humor, the passion, the laughter, and of course Dave Malloy.

Since then, I've probably seen Great Comet about ten times -- at both tents, in Boston, and multiple times on Broadway -- and I've never seen another show more than once. I've sent tons of friends to the show, brought friends in from LA, and harassed other friends over and over who never quite made it to NYC. Like many of you here, I guess I was obsessed.

I won't be at the final performance today (I'm out of town), but I'm listening to the soundtrack as I type this. I don't want to dwell on how sad it is that the show is ending today. So to Dave Malloy, Phillipa Soo, Denee Benton, Josh Groban, Rachel Chavkin, Brittain Ashford, Lucas Steele, Mimi Lien, and everyone else who worked on the show, thank you so much for bringing this astonishing creation to life.

https://twitter.com/greatcometbway/status/904480080361123840

Made me tear up. So grateful for this show! Ugh.

BroadwayConcierge said: "Call_me_jorge said: "This made me sob to no end. Rachel Chavkin is the greatest and I can't wait to see what she does nexthttps://instagram.com/p/BYjlxKiALwZ/"

I still can't believe that woman didn't win the Tony."

She has transforming the imperial in her blood! http://www.playbill.com/article/64-years-before-great-comets-director-tore-down-walls-at-the-imperial-theatre-her-great-great-uncle-did-the-same-thing

This is what I posted on my Facebook page this morning...apologies for its Tolstoyan length.



In a few hours "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" will take its final bows on Broadway after 368 performances, ending a volume in an epic journey that for much of the cast began in a tiny 87-seat venue back in 2012.

It's hard to express all that this show has meant to me since I stumbled upon it and began listening one night while shovelling snow in the moonlight back in December. The score is fantastically deep and complex, and the story has resonated with me on a profound level--with all due love and respect to "Hamilton," I don't think a show has spoken to me like this since "Les Misérables" (another adaptation of a 1,000+ page 19th century novel that was staged at the Imperial Theatre) first awakened my love for musical theatre over a decade ago.

It inspired me to pick up "War & Peace" within weeks of discovering the show, which I worked on over the course of six months. It felt that parts of this book, and Pierre Bezukhov's journey, were meant for me to read. While I've never had an existential crisis on the level of Pierre's, at 27 I found a literary classic about a 27 year old man living through a turbulent era, struggling with self-doubt and aimlessness. This felt somehow planned.

My wife caught the bug too and eventually, after I woke up in a "eureka" at about 2am one morning in March, I realized we NEEDED to see this in New York and we scheduled a special one-day prelude to our Montreal honeymoon solely to see it. We decided to aim for seats on the stage, at a table in the middle of the action so we could capture the full immersive wonder that is this experience. It's the most I've ever spent on tickets to anything but it honestly was worth every penny.

It's a bit of a cliché to call any great experience "one of the best nights of my life" but this show, my first ever experience on Broadway, really was that. As soon as we walked into the venue and looked upon Mimi Lien's gorgeous set and Bradley King's amazing lights (somehow, these two deserving Tony winners were the only success the show had at those awards), we were overcome with emotion. Cast members whose faces and voices we'd come to adore over the months constantly walked around and amongst us over the next two and a half hours. Early in the show, at the end of what might be the score's best song, Natasha sat down on the steps next to us and sang one of the final lines directly to my wife. As long as I live, I imagine that every live theatre experience I have will be placed in the "non-Great Comet" category. It's just unfair otherwise.

The circumstances around its premature closing will be talked about for a long time, but this isn't the place for it.

Farewell to the Comet. Thanks for giving my wife and I something incredible and profound to bond over. Thank you to Dave Malloy, Rachel Chavkin and the countless others who brought it to life five years ago and allowed this crazy, unlikely, unconventional, and gorgeous show to crash Broadway. Here's to happiness, freedom, and life. I hope it's not too long until the comet appears to us again.

"I feel not only that I cannot disappear, as nothing disappears in the world, but that I will always be and have always been."--Tolstoy, "War & Peace"

Wow. From various Instagram posts today. My heart is breaking

https://instagram.com/p/BYrKeD6nMA6/

Another heartbreaking photo from Brittain's instagram.

Tho a very sweet note from Josh in the comments:

"I'm honored I got to stand next to you the first time you stood on the stage, the first time you stood in the spot you would eventually sing Sonya Alone hundreds of times. I'm honored to stand next to you anytime anywhere in the future. Xo"

Kennedy Coughell did an Instagram Live early this morning that mentioned a rehearsal the cast had with Mandy and said it was incredible. I think another cast member also mentioned a rehearsal way back when it was originally announce. Oh, what could have been!

I really want to know which Comet members are going to be at Scott's 54 Below show. Perhaps Pearl, Billy, and Paul based on Billy's Instagram Story from earlier today?

I hate to think what might happen to those beautiful lights. From Great Comet to Moby Dick? Okay...just wonder how he'll do the ocean scenes, but if it's anything like GC, it should be great.

hmph said: "Kennedy Coughell did an Instagram Live early this morning that mentioned a rehearsal the cast had with Mandy and said it was incredible. I think another cast member also mentioned a rehearsal way back when it was originally announce. Oh, what could have been!

I really want to know which Comet members are going to be at Scott's 54 Below show. Perhaps Pearl, Billy, and Paul based on Billy's Instagram Story from earlier today?"

Yeah hearing people talk about Mandy in rehearsals and how amazing he sounded, it's just so frustrating

When I revisited TGC last week, I was in the first row of the front mezz. Had hoped that'd help me get a letter though based on the discussions I've read here, my chances were hampered by being a guy. No letter aside, I'm so glad I chose this spot for my second visit! I do wish I had had the opportunity to sit onstage at some point in the run though, just to take in 'Dust and Ashes' with the ensemble up in the mezz - ended up more focused on Dave Malloy this time, and from the rear mezz you're behind it all.

Regardless, I wanted to put this inquiry out there as I'm curious how many of the littlest moments are scripted. I realize that nearly everything is choreographed, however, when the pages of War and Peace are thrown in the air from the mezz, Pearl Rhein ended up right in front of me and yelled "It's War and Peace!" and then at the end of the number, "Read the book!" - so my question for the masses is whether those were ad libs?

My biggest appreciation is that Oak didn't close out the show

I was sitting in the stage right banquettes and at one point the whole ensemble was running up the stairs to head backstage and, I think it was Alex Gibby, yelled out, "I smell so bad!" And someone answered and he exclaimed again how he stunk. Definitely seemed not within the Show, but it was pretty hilarious

schubox said: "Malloy and Groban debuted a new song from one of the epilogues from War & Peace. It’s from last weeks NYTW gala



https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/josh-groban-great-comet-of-1812-song-epilogue.html"

WOW!

Thanks for posting x