LHS Grad's Musical Hits Broadway

The Ranger Way has made it to the Great White Way! Class of 1994 graduate David Malloy wrote the book and score for the musical, “Natasha & Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812,” which opened on Nov. 15 in Broadway’s Imperial Theater. The production earned rave reviews after its Opening Night.

The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood called the show starring Josh Groban and Denee Benton, “the most innovative and the best new musical to open on Broadway since ‘Hamilton.’” Isherwood offered high praise for Malloy’s score as well: “Although much of it is inflected with Slavic folk music, the score ranges from soaring balladry that would not be out of place in a more traditional musical … to songs that would not be out of place today at a rave in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Miraculously, Mr. Malloy manages to weave from the music’s myriad textures a cohesive tapestry.”

After graduation from LHS in 1994, Malloy, who describes himself on his website davemalloy.com as a composer/writer/performer/sound designer, attended Ohio University and earned a degree in Music Composition. “The Great Comet” is his 11th musical. Previous musicals, which have earned numerous awards, include “Ghost Quartet” and “Three Pianos.” He based “The Great Comet,” which he calls an electropop opera, on Book 8 of Tolstoy’s “War & Peace.”

Before its Broadway debut, “The Great Comet” had played a sold-out run in Boston’s American Repertory Theater and prior to that on off-Broadway starting in 2012. It has earned numerous (17) awards and nominations, including an Obie Award. For more information on the show, visit www.greatcometbroadway.com.

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Volume 12, Issue 24, Posted 4:35 PM, 11.22.2016