Background

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is a musical theatre work by Dave Malloy. It premiered in 2012 at the Ars Nova Theatre, a non-profit, experimental, 99-seat off-Broadway venue, and became an overnight sensation. This led to a commercial off-Broadway run in 2013 in the custom-built Kazino venue. It had its Broadway premiere in 2018. Since then, The Great Comet has been produced around the world, including here in Toronto. Crow’s Theatre and The Musical Stage Company premiered their Canadian production in December 2023, receiving critical acclaim and playing to sold-out houses. What was originally a five-week run was extended several times and eventually played 16 weeks.

Malloy, a composer, lyricist, writer and actor, described his creation as an electro-pop opera. It’s a fairly faithful adaptation of a 70-page passage from one of the most famous books ever written — Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which is over 1,000 pages in length and was published in 1865. It is considered not only a seminal work in the development of the novel but also one of the greatest novels in world literature.

What was Malloy's inspiration for this work?

Malloy told Time Out in 2013, "About six or seven years ago [circa 2006/2007] I was playing piano on a cruise ship. And I had a girlfriend on land, and the way we stayed together was we read War and Peace together. You know, there’d be an e-mail subject line, 'Page 372,' so there’d be no spoilers. And when both of us got to this section of the novel, we were swept away by it. It’s this tight, compact, 70-page melodrama at the center of the book. This is before I wrote any musicals, but when I read it, I was like, Wow, this is a perfect musical. The structure of it is peculiarly traditional, almost in a Rodgers-and-Hammerstein way. There’s an A story, a B story; at the end of Act I, everyone’s in jeopardy."

The Great Comet was groundbreaking. It was among the first musical theatre works to combine disparate and anachronistic musical genres — classical music, Russian folk songs, indie rock and, especially, electronic dance music.

Explains Malloy: "Russian music was a huge influence. I listened to a lot of Tchaikovsky and Borodin when I was living in the world of the show. But I’ve also been experimenting with electronic music. That sound is really ubiquitous in modern pop, but you don’t hear it in the theater too often. So with Natasha, Pierre, when our young rogue, Anatole, comes in and sexualizes Natasha, it seemed like a dramaturgical justification for having both things. So we have this traditional Russian sound with accordion, cello and guitar, and also this modern electronica whenever Anatole enters the room.”

What is the story of War and Peace?

First, a little background on War and Peace. Tolstoy’s novel examines Russian society during Napoleon’s attempted invasion of the country through the stories of five aristocratic families —the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins and the Drubetskoys. The lives and fortunes of these families were drastically changed, as was the entire fabric of Russian society.

Who are the main characters of The Great Comet?

Pierre is Count Pyotr Kirillovich Bezukhov (as one of the lyrics in the prologue of The Great Comet puts it, “It’s complicated because in Russia everyone's got nine different names”). Pierre has felt socially awkward and a misfit all his life. But when he inherits his father's large fortune he finds himself socially desirable. His new status results in his marriage to Princess Elena Vasilyevna Hélène Kuragina, a beauty who exudes sexuality. But the marriage has soured and now Pierre spends most of his time in his study reading philosophy, drinking and attempting to come to terms with his feelings of inadequacy. (Pierre is also considered the character who most closely adheres to Tolstoy's own beliefs and struggles.)

Natasha is Countess Natalya Ilyinichna Rostova (Natasha is a more familiar form of Natalya). She comes from a family that isn’t as wealthy as the Bezukhovs, but she is young, full of life, impulsive, highly strung and, most of all, romantic. Recently, Natasha has become engaged to Prince "Andrey" Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, whose family is considerably wealthier than Natasha’s. It’s considered a good match that will benefit both families. But Andrey has gone off to fight Napoleon’s invasion, so Natasha’s parents send her from Saint Petersburg to Moscow so that she can meet her future in-laws. She’s goes with her cousin Sonya, with whom she is very close, and they stay with Natasha’s godmother, Marya Dmitriyevna Akhrosimova, a respected, well-connected and formidable member of Moscow aristocracy who acts as a guide and protector while Natasha is in Moscow.

Anatole is Prince Anatole Vasilyevich Kuragin. He comes from a noble family that has fallen on hard times. But Anatole is incredibly handsome and that opens many doors for him (especially those to women’s bedrooms). Gregarious and popular, Anatole is always the life of the party, a pleasure seeker who is not concerned with morality, especially if it gets in the way of his fun. Hélène is his sister, and thus Pierre, who is Anatole’s opposite in both character and temperament, is his brother-in-law. Anatole is always mooching money from Pierre to pay for his extravagant lifestyle.

Fedor Ivanovich Dolokhov is one of Anatole’s closest confidants and part of his hard-living set. He is a military officer who drinks and gambles recklessly and lives only for today. It is rumoured that Fedya is having an affair with Hélène. When Pierre catches them together at a party, he challenges Dolokhov to a duel, which he happily accepts.