#1
Posted: 5/2/13 at 1:02am
I checked out Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 in the new space tonight, and rarely has something so lived up to the hype. The piece is remarkably special- from the scarily talented cast, to the wildly orchestrated score and inventive direction Derek Wills only dreams about, this is 100% must-see theater this summer.
Let me talk about the show before mentioning the dinner service. A tent has been built to specifically house this musical, and the set-up is somewhat like Birdland decorated by the Bloody, Bloody set design team. Chandlers reminiscent of the ones in The Met hang from the ceiling, mirrors and pictures cover the walls and the orchestra is divided into the four corners and center wall of the tent. The stage winds around the perimeter of the tent, and much of the action winds through the tables too.
The direction and choreography is WILD! I felt like I was in a live action version of the latest Anna Karenina. I was so immersed into the world I accidentally started to sing along with the ensemble during one of the numbers!! I was so wrapped up in the song and felt like I was part of their community that the words just came tumbling out of my mouth.
I know brilliant is the most overused word on this board, and I'm just as guilty of that as anyone here, but what word am I supposed to use when something is truly brilliant? Well, the score and performances are brilliant.
The opening number finds all the actors spread throughout the audience. They begin to sing about how they're going to be telling a long Russian story. It gets confusing and everyone has nine names, but don't worry, all that stuff is in your program! Then, in the spirit of the Ragtime opening mashed with the 12 Days of Christmas, they proceed to introduce themselves. It was such a great way to start off the night.
Then we get to meet Natasha, played by Phillipa Soo. It's wonderful to fall in love with a rising starlet, and I'm so smitten with Phillipa. How often do we see a show where all the men are fighting over a women (or women fighting over a man) and the actor doesn't have the charisma to make us believe he or she would cause such an uproar? Well Soo is causing a commotion and then some.
She's engaged to Andrei, who we learned from the first number isn't there. She goes to the opera where she meets Anatole and the sparks fly.
I could go on and on about each performance, but Grace McLean as Natasha's strict Godmother, Brittain Ashford as Natasha's Cousin and Amber Gray as Anatole's sister Helene were standouts. (Yes, this show sent me into a tizzy of diva worship!)
The orchestrations are of a genre I don't even know how to describe. It's not a rock score like Bloody, Bloody, but there are elements of rock in the score. Also unlike the aforementioned show, this isn't a satire of War and Peace/Russian culture. This is a fairly straightforward telling of the story with a modern sensibility. Some of it reminded me of February House, but mostly it was its own special creation. I want a recording ASAP. A real deluxe double CD treatment is the only way to go, especially since it is sung through.
Ok, so as much as I loved the show the dinner service left a lot to be desired. I realize this was the first preview, but the wait staff was all over the place. I was in a group of three and we were place with another three guys (all very cute btw). You get one drink and dinner with the ticket, and the waitress' main concern was trying to get us to buy as many drinks as possible.
The food came out in awkwardly paced courses, and it sadly wasn't very good or filling. Instead of trying to give every guest a tiny portion of everything on the menu I wish they let us fill a plate with three different choices, or even just offer 3 or 4 different plates we could choose from.
Despite the dinner service being rough the show was so terrific that it didn't put a damper on the evening.
I can't urge anyone thinking about seeing this enough to go. Sometimes it's easy to say creativity is dead, theater is dead, it's all movies and jukebox musicals and blah, blah, blah. But then something miraculous, much like the title comet, flickers across the New York theater scene and all that complaining disappears.
Let me talk about the show before mentioning the dinner service. A tent has been built to specifically house this musical, and the set-up is somewhat like Birdland decorated by the Bloody, Bloody set design team. Chandlers reminiscent of the ones in The Met hang from the ceiling, mirrors and pictures cover the walls and the orchestra is divided into the four corners and center wall of the tent. The stage winds around the perimeter of the tent, and much of the action winds through the tables too.
The direction and choreography is WILD! I felt like I was in a live action version of the latest Anna Karenina. I was so immersed into the world I accidentally started to sing along with the ensemble during one of the numbers!! I was so wrapped up in the song and felt like I was part of their community that the words just came tumbling out of my mouth.
I know brilliant is the most overused word on this board, and I'm just as guilty of that as anyone here, but what word am I supposed to use when something is truly brilliant? Well, the score and performances are brilliant.
The opening number finds all the actors spread throughout the audience. They begin to sing about how they're going to be telling a long Russian story. It gets confusing and everyone has nine names, but don't worry, all that stuff is in your program! Then, in the spirit of the Ragtime opening mashed with the 12 Days of Christmas, they proceed to introduce themselves. It was such a great way to start off the night.
Then we get to meet Natasha, played by Phillipa Soo. It's wonderful to fall in love with a rising starlet, and I'm so smitten with Phillipa. How often do we see a show where all the men are fighting over a women (or women fighting over a man) and the actor doesn't have the charisma to make us believe he or she would cause such an uproar? Well Soo is causing a commotion and then some.
She's engaged to Andrei, who we learned from the first number isn't there. She goes to the opera where she meets Anatole and the sparks fly.
I could go on and on about each performance, but Grace McLean as Natasha's strict Godmother, Brittain Ashford as Natasha's Cousin and Amber Gray as Anatole's sister Helene were standouts. (Yes, this show sent me into a tizzy of diva worship!)
The orchestrations are of a genre I don't even know how to describe. It's not a rock score like Bloody, Bloody, but there are elements of rock in the score. Also unlike the aforementioned show, this isn't a satire of War and Peace/Russian culture. This is a fairly straightforward telling of the story with a modern sensibility. Some of it reminded me of February House, but mostly it was its own special creation. I want a recording ASAP. A real deluxe double CD treatment is the only way to go, especially since it is sung through.
Ok, so as much as I loved the show the dinner service left a lot to be desired. I realize this was the first preview, but the wait staff was all over the place. I was in a group of three and we were place with another three guys (all very cute btw). You get one drink and dinner with the ticket, and the waitress' main concern was trying to get us to buy as many drinks as possible.
The food came out in awkwardly paced courses, and it sadly wasn't very good or filling. Instead of trying to give every guest a tiny portion of everything on the menu I wish they let us fill a plate with three different choices, or even just offer 3 or 4 different plates we could choose from.
Despite the dinner service being rough the show was so terrific that it didn't put a damper on the evening.
I can't urge anyone thinking about seeing this enough to go. Sometimes it's easy to say creativity is dead, theater is dead, it's all movies and jukebox musicals and blah, blah, blah. But then something miraculous, much like the title comet, flickers across the New York theater scene and all that complaining disappears.
Marie: Don't be in such a hurry about that pretty little chippy in Frisco.
Tony: Eh, she's a no chip!
Updated On: 5/2/13 at 01:02 AM
