Famous singer Josh Groban learned to play the accordion for his new Broadway play “The Great Comet” The video is from CBS News Sunday Morning which aired on October 30, 2016. In a studio on New York’s 42nd Street, the cast of the new musical adapted from Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” rehearses for opening night. Twenty-four members of this production will be making their Broadway debuts, including the leading man, Josh Groban. “I’m coming from another world,” the 35-year-old singer told Anthony Mason, “and I wanted to make sure that it was known, right off the bat, that I was coming to this world with the maximum amount of respect for it.”
In order to be in the show, Josh Groban had to learn the accordion. So he bought one. “I came into the store, like I had sucker written all over my face!” he laughed. “I’m just like, ‘Hi, listen. I know this is gonna be a real pain in the butt. But I have a lot of money and I’ve never played before. And I need and instrument ‘cause I’m in this Broadway show.’”
He named the accordion “Olga,” and took her on tour with him this summer to train. “The accordion that I walk out with at the top of the show, that I play throughout the show, that accordion has been to New Zealand, it has been to South Africa, it has been to Australia. That accordion has been on my back for the last year learning these songs.”
Mr. Groban, 34, will star in the Broadway premiere of “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” a musical adaptation of a 70-page section of Tolstoy’s masterwork, “War and Peace.”
Excerpt from the show’s website:”Mr. Groban, who has sold more than 30 million records and maintains a busy touring schedule, is best known as a traditionalist, whose success has been built around soaring interpretations of classics and love songs. “The Great Comet,” on the other hand, is an electro-pop opera born of the experimental theater movement; the initial production was a boisterously immersive gambol set in a makeshift supper club at which vodka and pierogi were served to the audience.”
Josh Groban is making his Broadway debut in this show. He will also be making his “accordion debut”!! What a great combination!
For more information on the broadway musical please visit www.greatcometbroadway.
