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NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 Send This Review to a Friend
The environment in which this show is staged is paramount for the Ars Nova production of “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” a musical riff on part of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” Previously done in a smaller space, the extravaganza now unfurls inside a huge tent in the meat packing district. Before one even sees the show, one is impressed by what has been constructed. Inside the tent, there is a posh-looking restaurant with artistically decorated walls, massive overhead theatrical lighting and assorted platforms and byways from which the musicians and actors entertain us. Servers dressed Russian-style deliver dinner starting an hour before what might loosely be called curtain time, and dinner is included in the price of admission.
My server was a nice looking chap who spoke with a distinctly Russian accent. “Are you and actor or a waiter?” I inquired. “You’ll never know,” he replied, accent intact.
The musical swirls from amidst the audience from one end of the restaurant to the other, with the musicians perched in different locations. Cast members pop up everywhere, often coming close to where people are seated so you get extra opportunities to see tearful eyes and emotional expressions close-up. Occasionally there is interaction, even a kiss on the cheek.
I wonder what this musical would look like performed on a regular stage, but that is quite beside the point. The charm lies in this being environmental theater at its height,
but fortunately one can be seated while the action engulfs us, not the other way around of having to march from room to room.
As far as the ingredients are concerned, Dave Malloy’s score is the strongest asset of the show. It bears listening to repeatedly, as it combines classical style with an upbeat contemporary flavor, always offering plenty of oomph, and on various occasions also offering exquisite solo numbers expressing love, angst, longing and sadness. Malloy also wrote the lyrics and did the orchestration, and if that were not enough, he in addition plays the key role of aristocratic Pierre. Direction and musical staging is by Rachel Chavkin, choreography by Sam Pinkleton.
Phillipa Soo makes a beautiful and compelling Natasha, who loves her fiancé Andrey, away at war. She has the best numbers and makes the most of them with an impressive voice and involving emotion. Trouble arrives in the person of Anatole, a handsome officer, effectively portrayed by Lucas Steele, but a seducer without a conscience. Natasha falls for him and his promises with cruel results.
Other cast members have their moments in the spotlight, and the musical has some particularly inventive and striking scenes. A visit to the opera, where Moscow society parades, is presented with special creativity. Malloy has the knack of sketching various concepts and plot points economically, and that makes so much of this tour de force visually exciting.
If you want to see theater that is so totally different from anything else playing today, go to see this production. I wonder what Tolstoy would have made of it all. At Kazino, 13th Street at Washington Street. Phone: 877-704-2821. Reviewed May 13, 2013.
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