Last Thursday night Stuart and I went to see the UK premiere of pop opera Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 @ Donmar Warehouse in London's glitzy West End.
The show is a sung-through musical adaptation of a 70-page segment from Leo Tolstoy's 1869 novel War and Peace. But don't let that put you off. It was fab.
The first song "Prologue" sets the tone. It is a rip-roaring repetitious ditty explaining the dozen or so characters and gives them all quick sound-bite names...
Balaga is fun
Bolkonsky is crazy
Mary is plain
Dolokhov is fierce
Hélène is a slut
Anatole is hot
Marya is old-school
Sonya is good
Natasha is young
And Andrey isn’t here
(And what about Pierre? Rich, unhappily married Pierre)
Which really sums of the production really. It's funny, the songs are great, and there is (melo)drama aplenty.
Written by Dave Malloy, the musical score is quite eclectic — wistful ballads, stomping pop, a smattering of EDM — but threaded through with enough strains of Russian folk to suggest a sense of place.
Directed by Artistic Directo Tim Sheader; Natasha (Chumisa Dornford-May), Anatole (Jamie Muscato), and Pierre (Declan Bennett) are all excellent.
Definitely worth seeing (if you can geta ticket!)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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