Alumni Josh Groban and Denee Benton will both make their Broadway debuts in this fall’s premier of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Groban has been eager to appear on Broadway for some time, but hadn’t found the right part until he encountered Pierre. Benton is making the transfer from the mounting of the production at Boston’s American Repertory Theatre.

Groban tells Entertainment Weekly:

“I didn’t want to jump into anything as a stunt-cast kind of thing — I wanted to do it the right way,” says Groban, a lifelong musical performer and, in the best connotation, a pure theatre geek. “I saw they were thinking of bringing it to Broadway, so I reached out on a whim, kind of at the same time they reached out, really. That led to drinks with Rachel and Dave, and some very open and honest discussions about whether we felt this was something we could really knock out of the park together. To have their belief in me, and to have such a belief in the show, it feels like it’s the right time, the right show, and let’s just have the best time ever.”

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