Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812

THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR(S)’S RIGHTS AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: https://concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists

Broadway premiere presented by Howard & Janet Kagen, Paula Marie Black, Carole Shorenstein Hays, Jenny Steingart and Jason Eagan, Mary Lu Roffe and Susan Gallin, Diana DiMenna, Mary Maggio/Sharon Azrieli/Robin Gorman, Darren Sussman/Roman Gambourg/Lev Gelfer, Tom Smedes, John Logan, Lisa Matlin, Margie and Bryan Weingarten, Daveed Frazier, Argyle Productions/Jim Kierstead, In Fine Company/Hipzee, Gutterman & Caiola/Backdrop Partners, Siderow Kirchman Productions/Sunnyspot Productions, Gordon/Meli Theatricals, Rodger Hess/Larry Toppall, Daniel Rakowski/Matt Ross/Ben Feldman, Mike Karns, The American Repertory Theatre (Diane Paulus, Artistic Director; Diane Quinn, Executive Producer; Diane Borger, Producer), and Ars Nova.

Originally commissioned, developed, and world premiere produced by Ars Nova; Jason Eagan, Founding Artistic Director; Renee Blinkwolt, Managing Director.

Further developed and produced by the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University; Diane Paulus, Artistic Director; Diane Quinn, Executive Producer; Diane Borger, Producer.

Director Notes

Dave Malloy’s electropop opera Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is a Tony award-winning musical that debuted on Broadway in 2016. Based on a 70-page slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Malloy infuses this eclectic score with humor and delight.

“Chandeliers and Caviar, the war can’t touch us here!” is one of my favorite lines that shaped my directorial vision of this production. While the characters are referring to the impending invasion of Napoleon, leading French troops to take Moscow, it is easy to connect to the feeling of uncertainty and the upending of all we know in present times.

When the world around us is uncertain we often attempt to escape our troubles to cope.

We see ourselves in Tolstoy’s early 19^th-century Russian characters.  We recognize ourselves in them, we feel their fears, we are hurt by their carelessness, and we are anxious about their choices.

We see commonality across race, class, and gender, across cultures and centuries. We see our humanity. And after we’ve exhausted all attempts to escape our present reality, we are then left with confronting the complexity within ourselves. 

 In an interview for the New York Times, Dr. Anna Lembke discussed our current state of coping in 2025. She brings awareness to how digital addiction may be changing us-

“We’ve crossed over some kind of abundance set point where we went beyond meeting our basic survival needs and now have so much access to so many pleasure-inducing substances and behaviors that we may actually be changing our brain chemistry such that we’re in a dopamine-deficit state.”

This statement also seems apropos of Tolstoy’s early 19^th-century characters. Malloy reaches back to 1812 but also connects us to today in Pierre:

“And I sit at home and read/hours at a time/ hours at my screen/anything, anything/ abandoned to distraction in order to forget.”

In further thinking about the context of words and periods, I want to bring attention to Malloy’s use of the word  “Gypsy”. Malloy writes in the liner notes of the album- 

“Tolstoy uses the word цыган (Tsygan), which is translated in all texts I have seen as ‘Gypsy,’ and it is certainly the word these 19th century aristocratic Russian characters would have used.

And it is clear that Tolstoy absolutely reveres [sic] the characters he calls цыган, and uses the word without malevolence or racist connotations… when Anatole sings his ‘Goodbye my Gypsy lovers’ toast, he is saying goodbye to a lifestyle of freedom and sensuality, to living in the present moment, to singing and dancing and smashing glasses on the floor, to all the things marrying Natasha will take him away from. To my ears, he is using the word in a purely positive way.

The word, however is considered a slur by some today and is only used in two instances. Here and by Maria D. when she is in a flight of anger and using a fair number of words to degrade Natasha. She means it to hurt, even if Anatole’s terms are from ignorance of the day.”

Following in Tolstoy’s and Malloy’s footsteps I intend to include you as the audience along with our revered characters, as they sing and toast their attempts to find joy in their struggle through humanity.

As the cast prepared for the rehearsal process, we all read War & Peace over the holidays (some of our cast even made it through the entire 1,400+ pages!) and began our early rehearsals by sharing how we connected with these characters and what resonates with us the most.

The most powerful theme that resonates with me, of the many themes in Tolstoy’s work, echoed by Malloy, is hope.

Hope reveals itself to the characters, although at first it is shrouded in darkness, then glitters across the sky, reminding us that the stars have been at our fingertips the whole time. 

And perhaps, just as the stars shine every night in the sky, we can remind ourselves that hope is waiting there for us, in the shape of sparkling light, even in our darkest hours. Perhaps if we just reach out for it, it will reach back to us and it will be our guiding light. 

Here’s to living in the present moment, to singing and dancing and smashing glasses on the floor.

We are so thrilled to share this meaningful experience with you.

Cheers,

Alexandra Joye Warren

Works Cited

“Digital Drugs Have Us Hooked. Dr. Anna Lembke Sees a Way Out.” New York Times, 1 Feb. 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/magazine/anna-lembke-interview.html

“The Abduction.” Genius.Com, 17 May 2017, https://genius.com/10095929 . Accessed 1 Feb. 2025.

Special Thanks

President Connie Book, Provost Rebecca Kohn, Dean Hilton Kelly, Angela Llewellyn, Fred Rubeck, Kimberly Rippy, Brian Kremer, Eric Pettit, Hashim, Madison and Moses Warren.