NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 Previews- Page 7

[newintown]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 8:51am

"This show, however, is not about the story."

This puts the finger right on the reason why I was ultimately bored by this show - I found it to be about effects/mood/gimmicks rather than people or a story.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 9:31am

I disagree....I adore and was very involved with story.  I think the spectacle fully supported the show.

[neonlightsxo]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 9:38am

As far as awards, they are a shoo in for the design awards. The others, less so, IMO.

[TFMH18]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 10:07am

""This show, however, is not about the story."

This puts the finger right on the reason why I was ultimately bored by this show - I found it to be about effects/mood/gimmicks rather than people or a story."

Absolutely. And as I said, if that's not what you want from a musical on a given night, choose elsewhere (Falsettos and Waitress both have touching stories!). See this show for interesting music and delectable visuals.

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 2:08pm

I saw it in the tent, and loved it then, and it has only gotten better. This is one of the most astonishing things I've ever seen! It has grown remarkably stronger by adding the big aria at the end of act 1. This has only become better by transferring into a bigger space. Denèe Benton is wonderful and Josh Groban is also fantastic. His voice is dark and harsh when it needs to be, powerful when it needs to be, and small and touching when it needs to be. I'll be rooting for this show come Tony time. 

[Steve C.]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 2:14pm

I'm seeing "Comet" on Wednesday and I gotta say I'm still kind of excited despite all the "diverse" thoughts. (Still trying to decide if I want to listen to the whole thing first, I've heard a couple of the songs).

I've seen some pics of the Imperial and I'm amazed.

[jennab113]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 6:14pm

I saw the show yesterday and absolutely loved it. I was in table seating and the interaction with the cast was fun. I loved the story and had no problems following along, though I have read War and Peace. I was so amazed by Denee Benton. She's fantastic. Josh Groban was masterful as well. I loved his take on Pierre. Honestly, I loved the whole cast and thought they were all well suited for their roles and everyone seemed to be having a ton of fun out there despite it being their 16th 12 hour day in a row (according to some of them at the stage door). 

Someone asked why Natasha would be ruined if she ran away with Anatole but it was okay for Helene to be a slut - the simple answer is that Helene is married and Russian society (in W&P at least) turned a blind eye to a married person's affairs, but young unmarried women were supposed to be chaste until they were married. 

[bwaybabe3]

Posted: 10/24/16 at 9:17pm

Ok, I'm not in the "I loved it" group.  In fact, I started laughing towards the end of the show when it just seemed to be one silly gimmick after another.  The little food boxes, shaky maraccas for audience participation, glow lights on sneakers, table lamps in the rows of seats that dimmed and glowed-- --they came off as a desperate plea of "please like me, I'll do anything you want" to me.  And they detracted from the value and gravitas of a broadway show.  I want my Broadway shows to be special and grand.  These kitchy things cheapened it.  I saw at least 10 people get in their cars and leave at intermission. I would have too, if I could have gotten my ticket money back.  

That's not to say the show doesn't have a lot of potential, but it seriously needs someone to pull it all together.  Like a whole class of students studying musical theatre.  That way they could break up into sections to address each trouble spot.. from story telling to casting to staging to musicality to props etc.   I realize that the show's been around for a while in this form, and so it's not likely to change much now that it is here, but it just isn't special enough for Broadway. Unpolished.  Un-grand.  It seems to want to remind us of that fact over and over.  It was such a hodge podge of schticks and disharmonic sounds, that it came off like a not-so-great high school production in parts. I left there thinking it was cheesy and disjointed.  

There were tiny pockets of awesomeness. The opening number, for example. I wish they'd carried that theme through the show.  (and Andre isn't here) --or at least build the intervening music around the framework of the notes in that chorus.  And JG and DB were awesome--and not just because they have voices you could listen to all day, but because they didn't over act and they were staged to be separate from the folksy hoe-down feel of actors running through the audience with guitars.  . Another strong voice was Natasha's cousin. Others in the cast weren't nearly as strong. And the differences were noticeable.   I realize that the part of Anatole has been played by the same actor for quite a while, but his voice couldn't compete, and his look should have been handsome dark, Russian and strong. Not blond/white, and lanky. And the part of the aunt (marya), could truly be a Tony-winning part, but it is played as angry, and actually IRATE at times (which got a little overboard and creepy), when it could be played as grand and robust and sage and authoritative. I think when a show has to list a character guide in the program (and the typing on this is so teeny you can't see it in the dim light of the theater--so it's essentially useless until intermission), you gotta wonder if maybe it's because the play is hard to follow. The music is NOT melodious, and frankly, didn't sound like a musical score in most parts. Rather, it sounded like the warm up in the extemporaneous jazz band I was in in HS.  And the singing of the narrations reminded me of the way the priests sing the offertory in Catholic church --rambling between 3 notes over and over with no real tune.  It was painful and boring and uninspired. And didn't even remotely sound like it was actually the written notes. It sounded like someone said "Ok you guys, I am going to play this ...(plays 5-6 beat run of notes) and you sing whatever you want that might go with it."  And I was expecting the sung-dialogue/and narrative to at least rhyme at--or have an endpoint-- but it didn't. In fact, some of the lyrics sounded so contrived or unnatural or trite that we got the giggles. ("my face is now displaying anxiety".   I think the show would do much better to actually have a narrator/narrators take some of the droning aimless summaries from the actors, so they could stick to the acting and dialogue between characters. In fact, a narrator was just about the only 'broadway play' concept that this play didn't have. It had the costume party, the older aunt/barmaid, the raucous drinking song, the let's-have-4-people-sing-at-4-different-parts-of-the-stage about the same issue for different reasons, the stare-at-someone-and-reflect-about-them song (daughter/king), the involve-an-unsuspecting-audience-member-into-the-show moment, the "meaningful" singular spoken line.... etc etc.    And then-- and then--after all these unnecessary extras and kitchy moments, the actual COMET is curiously ordinary and bland and uninspired.  It's a  lightbulb. Yup.  One lightbulb hanging from some 70s art-deco sunshine-shape suspended from the ceiling. That's it. And it arrives in the final moments of the show...like an inconvenient afterthought.  I don't think it was ever mentioned before this, even.  So random that it also seemed so contrived....just to make sense of the title of the show. 

Sigh.  

Somewhere, amidst all these over-trying concepts, the show loses its path and the audience loses the storyline.  Someone needs to trim it, hone it up, and rewrite the musical narration part.  It's got a lot of good stuff and "potential,"  but in its current form, it just isn't worth the money.   

[FiddleMeThis]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 9:13am

I very much agree with this assessment. 

[aimeric]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 12:19pm

And I disagree in the strongest terms possible.  You are entitled to your opinions, of course, but some of your points are not opinions, just blatantly false or bizarre statements.  For example.  "The music is NOT melodious, and frankly, didn't sound like a musical score in most parts" and "didn't even remotely sound like it was actually the written notes."  Huh?  Okay.  And what, pray, does a "musical score" sound like, then?  I shudder to wonder how you would describe recitative music in other Broadway shows--Les Miserables comes to mind.  Your description of the comet is untrue and silly: that it's "one lightbulb" and a "random" "contrived" "inconvenient afterthought" intended "just to make sense of the title of the show"...?  You...do know this was based on source material, right...?  Source material that also includes a comet?  A comet that has deeper meaning for both the characters and the overall narrative?  Hmmm.....It sounds like your impression of the comet is a metaphor for how much you missed in the show as a whole: you see only one measly lightbulb, while ignoring the whole tail of glittering bulbs backing it up and bringing out its full beauty.

(P.S.--Any set piece that saves us from having to see a comet represented as a cheesy set projection, I'm all for it.)

 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 12:22pm

I saw at least 10 people get in their cars and leave at intermission.

They all had cars?!

[haterobics]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 12:23pm

bwaybabe3 said: "I saw at least 10 people get in their cars and leave at intermission."

Wow, pretty impressive for that many people to get street parking across from the theater in midtown.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 12:24pm

Is it a drive-in theatre?

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 1:55pm

Mister Matt said: "Is it a drive-in theatre?

 

"

I think it was a drive thru.

[Alexander Lamar]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 2:16pm

Haven't you heard about the innovative on-stage parking?

[Soozie]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 2:32pm

bwaybabe3:

 

You are certainly entitled to your opinion on this show. I don't expect with any show that everyone will like it.  I haven't seen it on Broadway, but I saw it 3 times Off Broadway. 

I cannot agree with your critique of the talent in the cast (beyond your positive mention of Josh Groban, Denee Benton, and Brittain Ashford.  The cast is chockfull of some incredibly talented actors. 

Also, the show has gone through many iterations already.  Rachel Chavkin is a highly regarded director (I have seen other work of hers as well).

It seems to me that you dislike musical theater that is unconventional.  Myself, while I love traditional musical theater, I really enjoy creative innovation in new works like this one. 

Lastly, your post lost some validity, in my opinion, when you said you saw 10 people get in their cars.  You would have had to leave the theater to see that and even then, you would not have seen it right outside the venue.  I'm sure people leave at other shows too.  Not all shows are for all people.  Clearly this one was not your taste, though I don't think that makes it a bad production needing to be reworked. 

[FiddleMeThis]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 3:47pm

Sorry- I love experimental theater, and atypical scores, but bwaybabe was right: this show isn't working for a great number of people. I saw lots of walkouts the night I went, especially during the torturous strobe light scene. And yes- the "great" Comet is indeed a single light bulb. There is no arguing about that. 

[Kad]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 4:09pm

...who cares if the comet is a single lightbulb? I mean, really? That's where people draw the line?

Updated On: 10/25/16 at 04:09 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 4:16pm

Probably didn't clap for Tinkerbell either.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 4:20pm

I found the comet at the end to be quite effective.

[Soozie]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 4:27pm

It's funny to read comments about the light bulb comet.  That was so insignificant to me as to what I took away as highlights of the show (when it was Off Broadway).   I came away with awe of the score, the great talent in the cast, the creativity and innovation of the immersive staging,along with set, and just simply a unique piece of theater. The musicians were very good.  Also, many actors also played instruments. I liked that the whole show didn't follow a formula for a musical.  I appreciated the creativity that went into it. 

[Steve C.]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 4:32pm

You Guys!!!   I gotta admit, onstage parking and drive in theater ...hahaha. It's so nice when the shade bursts through the sunshine.

 

[StageStruckLad]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 4:43pm

I saw the show in the tent in Chelsea, and I remember being really moved by the comet at the end. The music certainly helped too. Is the comet in the Imperial Theatre really not as impressive?

[willep]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 5:10pm

Similar to previous incarnations, the comet starts as a single bulb, which grows to a gorgeous chandelier (much bigger than previous incarnations).

[bwaybabe3]

Posted: 10/25/16 at 6:03pm

omg you guys are cracking me up.  You'd think I slapped your baby --so much so, that I wonder if you are relatives of the cast... or perhaps you ARE the cast, and you're feeling like your job performance has been assessed unfairly.  A person's opinion is just an opinion.  Though I do have a background in music. So maybe I was a bit overly sensitive to the instantly forgettable music of Great Comet.  (which was immensely unlike music from Les Mis... or Evita or..phantom.. or hamilton or jesus CS or joseph and ATD....or any of the other sung-through scores I know by heart).   Come on, you seriously didn't think the song about 'in 19th century Russia we write letters' was completely awkward and trite and disingenuous???   The words fit the music fits the show, like a  bikini fits a horse fits inside an ice cube tray.     

Nothing personal here.  Just didn't think the show was worth it after the first $100.  I'd have paid the first $100 to have Josh Groban singing 10 feet away from me any day. And that part was awesome and cool and worth every penny.  And Denee --I think she is going to go far.  So it was worth $100 to see someone early in their career and be able to say "I saw her when...."   But those $100s run concurrently.... not consecutively... 

That said, lighten up on the personal attacks, ok?  I'm allowed to think the show was very much a confused and inconsistent mix of crappy gimmicks and uneven talent that didn't know what century-- let alone decade or year--it was set in (despite the title).  It wasn't "art" to me.   Or if it was, it was as much like art to me as a box of broken crayons and magic markers and chalk and maybe some brownie chunks would be art if they were all mixed in a bucket of paint---without any means by which to be expressed in a compelling or coherent way-- or in a way that suggests there was ever an artist's hand (or vision) behind all these mediums being dumped together.  And ya ya ya , I know--you say this "everything but the kitchen sink" approach IS the art.  It's "the spectacle."  whatever.  ok.  You can think that and I won't insult you.  But for me, this technique diluted the important moments and moved every event, every actor, every scene toward confusing sameness...unspecialness... because of a failure to discern or discriminate or hone or underline the important moments that move a show forward.  And this will be what does this show in.  (that and the legal issues between ars nova and the producers).  

Beyond that, if we look at what is actually thrown in this bucket-o'-gimmicks, maybe I'm just not a fan of glow-light-strips on sneakers or twerking strobe-lite-simulated sex acts super-imposed on some early 1800 comet in Russia that's never mentioned til the last 3 minutes of the show.  This, of course, is the ultimate irony--since "LIGHTS" has just about been another cast member the whole time.  And then, when the comet IS mentioned-- (and knowing how important LIGHTS have been) --The comet--the object with the title role--is a light bulb. Not a flashing light bulb.  Not a colored light bulb.  Not a big or tiny or anything special or glowinthedarkstreakacrossthesky light bulb.  Just a straight-up generic light bulb... which, come to think of it, is a pretty good metaphor for a show that came with bright promise and ended up being a forgettable 2+ hours because it didn't know what to make special and what to throw out.  It was just one more example of the projectile dysfunction (think pirogie and maraccas AND comet here) that added to the show's impotency. 

and ps-- the people who got in their cars had drivers waiting for them outside.  One car full of 4 people, the others were deuces.   And there might have been more than 10.  I only saw 10 ----but I didn't go outside  till the very end of intermission. lots of folks mentioned it. One person noted he'd been to Cherry Orchard a couple of nights previously, and while he thought that was worse (despite a great cast, he said), he'd never leave a show like these people were doing.  

But your jokes about people leaving are quite funny. especially the ones about the theater being a drive thru, or on-stage parking.   But they also sound kind of like they're coming from that hurt/shocked place an overprotective Mom comes from when she can't imagine how someone didn't want to keep playing with their little Mikey.   just saying.