Is the Great Comet really that confusing — Page 5

Definitely not confusing.

I personally listened to the cast recording a million times before going, so I'm not a fair judge, but I went the first time with my father – who went in blind beyond hearing the prologue once on the radio – and he understood it perfectly well. And take my word for it; he usually doesn't understand anything. I did The Crucible freshman year of high school and he watched it three nights in a row. After the last night, he asked me "why the mean girl [Abigail] didn't like the tall boy's [Proctor's] wife." (Aka, he tends to just go along with the spectacle without investing any thought) By the end of TGC he was going off about how interesting Hélène's relationship with Pierre was (he even knew the characters' names!) and clearly had a deep understanding of it.

The second time I went I took a friend, who's a big musical theatre fan but also went in nearly blind (I had explained a few things beforehand to him, but nothing major) and I think the only question he had at the end was regarding Anatole's marital state, which I do admit is rather poorly explained (it's a throwaway-sounding line by Dolokhov in the middle of Act One) but ultimately not super important to the plot.

And one of my great frustrations with criticism of theatre and other art forms is when people say 'they tried to make it artsy' as if that's a bad thing. Yes Great Comet has made an attempt at being artsy, because that's what the creators were going for just like the creative team for something like Come From Away went with a more basic form of storytelling. Neither one is right or wrong, both fit the specific stories. It would be boring if every musical was presented in a basic and simple way.

BobbyD3 said: "One of my great frustrations with fellow theatre people is their blind adoration for things with zero openness to potential flaws.

Clearly I am on one side of the fence, but to say things like "you're not listening" or "I would be less surprised if Rent confused you" is silly.

As the originator of the Rent comment, I can assure you that I don't have a blind adoration of Great Comet. I thought it was okay -- didn't love it, didn't dislike it. I think it has a number of flaws, but being confusing isn't one of them. I'm just saying, Rent has a more complicated plot.

No confusion here; we just decided to grab seats for Dave Malloy. Has anyone seen him in previous productions? Surprised that some really goods seats are available.

JudyDenmark said: "Ok, I saw the show again, and now that I could actually see the actors from where I was sitting, had no trouble following the story. What a difference!

Two things I didn't quite get, that I'm hoping someone can explain: Other than setting up the initial distrust between Natasha and Mary, what was the point of the whole "yes father, yes father" scene? Did I miss something about why the father is relevant to the story?

Also, I didn't quite get why Dolokhov and Pierre decided to duel. What were they arguing about?

Thanks!



"

The "yes father" scene is Private and Intimate life, right? Just wanted to make sure. The point of it is to show us Andrey's family and the awful situation they're living in (an abusive parent/child relationship, for one thing, and a child helping her father struggle through dementia). It also establishes foreshadowing for what Andrey will become later in life, which establishes doubt in Natasha's mind about her engagement to Andrey.

In the Duel, Dolokhov is making out with Helene, and basically flaunting it in Pierre's face (there's a lot of talk of Pierre being a "cuckold" which pushes Pierre over the edge to challenge Dolokhov. ("How dare you touch her?" "You can't love her!"

When a show includes a synopsis of the plot and main characters in the Playbill and begins the proceedings by advising the audience to refer to those Cliff Notes to minimize confusion, it seems pretty clear that the people who created the show don't have much confidence in their storytelling prowess.

PaulWom said: "Lot666 said: "When a show includes a synopsis of the plot and main characters in the Playbill and begins the proceedings by advising the audience to refer to those Cliff Notes to minimize confusion, it seems pretty clear that the people who created the show don't have much confidence in their storytelling prowess."

Or, it was a deliberately cheeky reference to the Opera style of the show. But you do you."

Perhaps, but many operas are performed in other (non-English) languages, so they have a built-in obstacle to overcome that isn't the fault of the composer/writer. But you do you.

PaulWom said: "also, the synopsis is no longer in the playbill, and most people follow along fine."

So I've read, but that doesn't change the fact that they opened with doubts about the show.

PaulWom said:

also, the synopsis is no longer in the playbill, and most people follow along fine.



Thank you for clearing that up. When I saw it in November I read the synopsis and it really helped. When I went back just last month with friends, I was looking for it so they could read it and it wasn't there. Thought I was losing my mind actually...

I did find it to help - if you're like me and have never read W&P or anything related. That being said my friends loved it and seemed to have no problem following the story.

"

brian1973, see, thanks for contributing absolutely nothing to the discussion. If you think it's a mess, maybe you could say why and then have a debate about it. But otherwise you're just being a troll