By Talia Carlisle

Invite out your friends and put on your best faux fur, because Witch Music The­atre is back in town. Don’t let the cold weath­er stop you from expe­ri­enc­ing the best night out this side of Broad­way, with Wellington’s own rev­o­lu­tion of musi­cal genius onstage at Han­nah Play­house until Sat­ur­day.

Fol­low­ing a mem­o­rable and mag­i­cal sea­son of Into The Woods last year, comes the incom­pa­ra­ble and award-win­ning work of com­pos­er Dave Mal­loy in The New Zealand pre­miere of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.

This musi­cal adap­ta­tion of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace is noth­ing you would expect from a war nov­el, and every­thing you could want in an escape from every­day Welling­ton to the opu­lent back­drop of 19th-cen­tu­ry Rus­sia.

There aris­es from the ash­es of war our talk of the town, Natasha Ros­to­va, new in Moscow, and ready to reunite with her bat­tle-worn fiancé… but adven­tures await them both and the musi­cal may­hem begins!

Show­cas­ing the finest musi­cal tal­ent Welling­ton has seen, it’s the per­fect cap­ti­vat­ing and heart warm­ing show this win­ter with glo­ri­ous music, bound­less ener­gy, satin and charm with dance moves and har­monies to lift anyone’s spir­its.

The pas­sion to bring this show to life, and get the rights for this riotous affair is a love sto­ry of its own that Witch Music The­atre was deter­mined to suc­ceed in. As a result, they are the first to stage it in New Zealand, and describe the oppor­tu­ni­ty as “a dream come true”.

It’s a dream for us all in the audi­ence, being instant­ly trans­port­ed from the glam up of Han­nah Play­house to the high soci­ety par­ty play­ground of Rus­sia, a light­ing feat by oper­a­tor Scott Max­im, programmed by Tech­ni­cal Pro­duc­er Joshua Tuck­er-Emer­son, that looks effort­less and jaw-drop­ping, no doubt influ­enced by Cre­ative Pro­duc­er Ben Tuck­er-Emer­son (who also designed the gor­geous cos­tumes).

Mov­ing chan­de­liers make up their own mem­ber of the cast, lift­ing and drop­ping with dra­mat­ic effect, and the band form part of the set and cast sprin­kled like addic­tive fairy dust in and around the stage, pour­ing the most sul­try tunes to car­ry us away with the cast.

Cel­e­brat­ed direc­tors Maya Han­da Naff and Nick Lerew ensure the cast are the glit­ter­ing cen­tre­piece, each wor­thy of host­ing their own cen­tu­ry defin­ing par­ty in their own musi­cal sto­ry, with the vocals, charis­ma and dance moves to steal the show.

Our hearts and minds are already stolen by angel­ic Natasha Ros­to­va (Lane Cor­by) who lays out the can­vas for romance with her fiancé Andrey (mul­ti­tal­ent­ed genius Glenn Hors­fall). Romance heats up how­ev­er with bad boy Ana­tole (Hen­ry Ash­by), until our the­atre queen, and Natasha’s fierce pro­tec­tor Marya (Frankie Leo­ta) has had enough.

Every­one needs a guardian angel and she arrives tonight, always on time, with per­fect pitch­ing, enun­ci­a­tion and heav­en­ly hugs. Her pres­ence calms, and her solo pours into our souls.

Natasha is adored and dot­ed on by her pro­tec­tive cousin, Sonya (Ãine Gal­lagher), who shines brighter than any comet in the heart steal­ing Sonya Alone.

Reach­ing high­est of heights close to that is aeri­al­ist Jack­son Cordery who mas­ter­ful­ly manip­u­lates his body and tal­ent to wow the room, before slip­ping back into the incred­i­ble par­ty. I can’t help but notice my fel­lows from pre­vi­ous Welling­ton Foot­lights Soci­ety pro­duc­tions, Kirsty Husz­ka, Kevin Orlan­do, and Patrick Jen­nings who blow me away with every show they do.

I also enjoy Rachel McSweeney as Mary, the spin­ster daugh­ter of Prince Bolon­sky who hosts our guests most sweet­ly, and mul­ti-musi­cal Pierre (William Duig­nan) amazes us with his musi­cal­i­ty, backed up by a whole orches­tra includ­ing the most inspir­ing oboe solo by Calvin Scott.

For a jaw-drop­ping low price of $36–56, includ­ing new­ly released bal­cony seats, this show is a steal for per­fect­ed musi­cal romance which com­bines the musi­cal worlds and gen­res of Oz, Abba, Chica­go and Cirque de Soleil.

You can’t find more beau­ti­ful music than that led by musi­cal direc­tor Hay­den Tay­lor, syn­chro­nised per­fect­ly into art by chore­o­g­ra­phers Gre­ta Casey-Sol­ly (Te Ati­awa) and Emi­ly McDer­mott.

If you’re more fash­ion inclined, there are tan­ta­lis­ing tex­tures of silk, vel­vet, mesh, frills, lace and leather. But what­ev­er your tastes, your best mem­o­ries will include Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 — if you snap up the chance to see it. There’s only a few tick­ets left for Fri­day, so you may need a rock­et to get there, but the places this musi­cal will take you are out of this world.