![]() The band is distributed throughout the theater and the chorus, accordions and guitars strapped to their costumes, think nothing of sprinting to the back of the balcony while delivering a song. Some recent pieces have attempted to make use of the whole of the auditorium, like the fight scene in Rocky or the actors who ran up and down the aisles, in the revival of Hair, and plenty of shows have seated audience members onstage, but none have gone as far as Great Comet in terms of uniting the playing space and the seats, both cheap and expensive. The combinatory musical style is perhaps too eclectic, yet also undeniably invigorating – like a shot of horseradish vodka.īesides, these are rather minor quibbles when compared with the beauty of many of the songs (Sonya Alone, Pierre and Andrey) and the excitement of the immersive staging. There’s an archness to the writing that’s not in keeping with Tolstoy and that sometimes thwarts emotional engagement. However, they will not be disappointed by his voice, which is full and rich and wonderfully emotive. Fans of Groban may find themselves somewhat disappointed to discover that Pierre’s character is less significant than that of Natasha and that he spends much of the show slumping in the orchestra pit. ![]() Patronymics aside, the plot is actually fairly simple and the first act sometimes spins its troika wheels while it gets going. It’s acknowledged knowingly when the actors sing in the opening prologue: “It’s a complicated Russian novel / Everyone’s got nine different names / So look it up in your program / We’d appreciate it, thanks a lot.” None have gone as far as Great Comet in terms of uniting the playing space and the seats, both cheap and expensive There are a half-dozen other major characters – and to keep them all straight, the playbill includes both a family tree and a detailed synopsis. ![]() Josh Groban as Pierre and Denée Benton as Natasha. Natasha (a sweet Denée Benton), the innocent daughter of a count, nearly throws herself away on Anatole (a roguish Lucas Steele), a hedonist and the brother of Pierre’s slatternly wife Hélène (a deliciously predatory Amber Gray). Pierre (Josh Groban, in a collaborative and assured Broadway debut), the dissolute son of a nobleman, searches for meaning in the bottom of a bottle. This piece, which began far off Broadway in 2012 and moved to a tent nearby in 2013, takes its plot from the second volume of War and Peace. A chunk of War and Peace, adapted to a sung-through indie-folk-electro score by composer Dave Malloy and directed with breathless, breathtaking verve by Rachel Chavkin, this musical is a cannonball aimed at any show that has accepted proscenium staging as an unyielding norm rather than a conscious choice. W hen the dancers are leaping, the accordions wheezing, the lights flashing, the skirts swirling, and the vodka flowing, then Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 feels thrillingly unlike anything else on Broadway.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |