Last fall’s most exciting sensation wasn’t a big Broadway musical but a scrappy outsider sneaking in under the radar.
At first glance, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” looked like it had little chance to make a lasting impression. This sung-through adaptation of a subplot from “War and Peace” — not hot! — featured a cast of no-names. It played fewer than 40 performances at tiny Ars Nova, on the edge of Hell’s Kitchen.
Yet Dave Malloy’s inventive, ravishing, full-on romantic “Comet” gained a cult following that just wouldn’t let it die.
Happily, the show has reopened with essentially the same cast at Kazino, a new venue that, like Ars Nova before, has been customized to accommodate director Rachel Chavkin’s immersive vision. This life is
a cabaret — a Russian one, complete with red drapes and booths, and paintings of Napoleon and snowy scenes.
We’ve lost a bit of magic in the transfer. Kazino is twice the size of Ars Nova, and while waiting we’re subjected to tacky trance techno.
Tickets have ballooned, too, going from $30 last year to $125, and $175 for a seat at a premium table — though those price include better food than the earlier run’s humble pirogi.
But as soon as the music starts playing, the doubts disappear. Once again we find ourselves transported into a self-contained world where ardent Russian aristocrats and head-over-heels passion still thrive.
Young Natasha (Phillipa Soo) is new to high-society Moscow, and feeling lonely with her fiancé off at war. She’s ripe to fall for Anatole (Lucas Steele), unaware that the dashing cad is 1) already married and 2) in love with his own hair.
Malloy’s pop-inflected score brilliantly mixes modern beats and acoustic arrangements, but don’t expect hip, detached irony.
Like “Once,” this is a musical that takes affairs of the heart seriously, including friendship: A highlight is the heartbreaking “Sonya Alone,” in which Natasha’s cousin, Sonya (Brittain Ashford), despairs at the turn of events.
So many things feel special here, like the way the actors always move about the room, creating a feeling of intimacy.
Or the fact that when Soo sings lines like, “You are so good for me/I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you,” she does it with a startlingly pure conviction.
Or the final epiphany of the sensitive family friend Pierre (Malloy himself), which ends the show on a joyous note that’ll make you cry.
Sure, “Comet” doesn’t come cheap. But then nothing about this show is.