Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 review

Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is an amazing show. To be completely honest I was on the fence about seeing the show after listening to the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong the soundtrack is good. You simply cannot listen to it alone because it is not meant to be listened to. Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is meant to be experienced. It is meant to be seen and interacted with.  Yes, all Broadway shows are designed to be more than listened to. A big part of the performance for me has always been experiencing the amazing sets and seeing the excellent choreography. The Great Comet is different.

The Great Comet is made to be a spectacle, there are even strobe lights in one scene. The performance takes place all around you with the actors running, singing, and dancing through the aisles and in specially made platforms in the seats. There are people throwing small boxes with dumplings inside into the audience and if you are very lucky you can sit on the stage and have the opportunity for the actors to interact with you as part of the show. Simply put the choreography on this show is amazing. For the actors to be able to go throughout the theater with fans all around them in the aisles and on these thin platforms in the audience and not hit anything and perform amazing dances is nothing short of genius for which the choreographer Sam Pinkleton deserves tremendous praise.

I am a pretty strong believer in the Tony Awards. Seeing the nominations and subsequent wins for Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 during the Tonys is something that pushed me over the edge to make me decide to see it this summer. I was so glad I did. The show is different from much of what I have seen on Broadway before in the sense that it took an old story, Tolstoy’s War and Peace and not only took a modern day approach to the music it used but the interaction the actors and the audience as well really made this avant-guard, new and exciting. So what you have is an amazing piece of the story of War and Peace, a classic for a reason, set in Russia in the 1800s but with modern music and dance and a one of a kind theatrical experience where the actors are all around you. It is something that simply must be seen to be appreciated and I highly suggest you go and see this show when it inevitably starts touring in the future.