If you have been reading these articles for a long time, firstly, thank you! Secondly, you'll know I'm a fan of musicals(especially those with unconventional premises), and especially those with skillful wordplay. So, it probably wouldn't be a surprise to hear that I've been enamored with another show. While I don't quite consider it another Hamilton --while the press certainly does-- it is certainly one of my favorites.

Do you know the book War and Peace? The famous behemoth of a Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy? No, they didn't turn the entire thing into a musical, that thing's over a thousand pages long, and you get less leeway since there's already a plot and you don't have to superimpose one like with Hamilton. Just about 70-such pages. And it's an opera. That sounds like techno and folk music had a baby.

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 features Natasha, a young maiden engaged to Andrey, a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, and Pierre, a wealthy, mildly-existentially-depressed man wondering what is the point of life beyond his books, vodka, and unhappy marriage. Of course, there are a large number of other important characters, but the prologue spells everything out.

I'd say practically every song in the show(except for parts of the entr'actes) is derived almost perfectly from Tolstoy's prose. I haven't really had a chance to check; that'll be one of my summer projects, I'll tell you about that. The lyrics are beautiful, and the music captures the intended tone elegantly, crossing into many different genres.

Of course, this was the show my family saw as a Christmas present this year. This is a good, new tradition--if you can call it that after only 2 years. We saw it over Easter break(so it doubled as a birthday present as well. Yay!) Oh boy. Where do I begin? With an interesting concept and strong music,Great Comet would have been a good show in my book.

What made it great is everything else.

Sure, you can just have actors perform the songs, but that's just a concert, not a musical; and that's boring. The staging, costumes, choreography, lighting...those make it a show. In those regards, Great Comet nails it. They turned the entire Imperial Theatre into a mock-up of an old Russian nightclub, little side tables with little lamps scattered throughout the seating. You could even sit "on" the stage, although the stage was all around the audience; a bit of it was even right in front of our seats. Members of the cast danced upon it during the group numbers--even Natasha was there once.

The costumes were about as eclectic as the music; while the named characters dressed plausibly 19th-century Russian, the ensemble is dressed in anything from corsets to punk skirts that seem both incredibly modern and incredibly antique. It's hard to describe the choreography; things were happening everywhere at once, placing us almost inside the show. Due to the intimacy of the venue, audience interaction happened a lot: not only were we thrown dumplings at the beginning of the show, some audience members were drafted to deliver a love letter to Natasha from the playboy Anatole(which his friend wrote).

The lighting was the most technically impressive part of the show. The little lamps on the side tables flickered in time with the music, and chandeliers raised and lowered as needed. During Natasha's big solo number, the theater looked like a starry, Russian night, thanks to the dangling incandescent lights, positioned just so to give a sense of depth. A particularly effective lighting effect was during a club scene; while Pierre was getting drunk with his friend Anatole, the entire theater was lit with strobe lights, as if it was a dance club. Now, I almost never had had problems with strobe lights in the past, but my God. I could see everything, but perceive nothing: I had no idea what I was looking at for almost a minute. I will admit that this is a very...effective effect. I would probably hate nightclubs.

Music and singers does not necessarily a good Broadway show make: it takes the village of lighting designers, set designers, costume designers, and choreographers to take the show and bring it to life, creating a true shining star. Oh, and Josh Groban. Did I mention Josh Groban is Pierre? You can thank him for bringing this to Broadway, and a nice solo number halfway through act 1. This is a good present.