Review:
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
Out of the Box Theatre Company delights in its 15th Season.
WORDS Ninette Paloma
photo: Carly Otness
Moscow, 1812. Napolean’s army may be pressing into the city with plans for a decisive takeover, but the Russian aristocracy has bigger pirozhki to fry. There are operas to attend and fiancées to steal and mid-life crises to be had in the well-heeled Arbat district. For the characters of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, war is just a faint call in the distance, muffled by the tapestried walls of the nobility.
When composer Dave Malloy began writing his Russian electropop opera in the summer of 2011, he scoured the pages of War and Peace to land on the story of Natasha and Pierre, protagonists of privilege who navigate a sheltered existence just as French military boots begin marching across Prechistensky Boulevard. In The Great Comet, Natasha is a young herring among a sea of predatory flounders, wading into the arms of one charming and rakish Anatole while her fiancée Andrey is away at battle. When Anatole’s dishonorable intentions are revealed, her gilded world is tarnished beyond imaginable remedy. Enter: poison. By contrast, Pierre has been self-medicating for years, a recluse with a partiality for obscure books and cold vodka and ruing the day he married his philandering wife. When their lives intersect beneath the shimmering passage of a historic comet, the world feels hopeful again.
Out of the Box Theatre’s decision to close its season with this musical gem is a testament to director Samantha Eve’s mastery of the long game, waiting over a decade for licensing rights to unpack a tale of socio-geo upheaval that feels at once fantastical and timely. In Eve’s hands, The Great Comet throws back to its raucous Hell's Kitchen roots, when it debuted, cabaret style, to a crowd of 80 before heading to Broadway and snagging two Tony Awards in the process. For her part, Eve transformed a slice of Center Stage Theatre into a Russian supper club, serving up pelmeni and vodka to the audience members seated on stage while the actors wove expertly around their tables – sometimes serenading them, other times pulling them into playful dance numbers.
Dressed in velvet and leather and fur, the cast of ten injects modern swagger into 19th century circumstance with charming ease. I hiss at Anatole (Micheal Lao) and his sister Helene (Marisol Miller-Wave) and fret over Natasha (Maile Kai Merrick) and her brooding cousin Sonya (Samantha Eve). And just as I find myself swept up in delightful camp, the mystical comet makes its wondrous appearance, illuminating the stage as Pierre (Brian Hoyson) sings softly into the night sky. It is a quiet and tender ending, punctuated by each character's voice as they surrender to a changing Russia.
Now in its 15th season, Out of the Box Theatre Company continues to produce evocative musicals that feel ripe for our times - fueled by passionate artists and the ancient tradition of community theatre. Cue the poignant words of 19th century poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox: Sing and the hills will answer; sigh, it is lost on the air. In Santa Barbara, the power of song endures.
When composer Dave Malloy began writing his Russian electropop opera in the summer of 2011, he scoured the pages of War and Peace to land on the story of Natasha and Pierre, protagonists of privilege who navigate a sheltered existence just as French military boots begin marching across Prechistensky Boulevard. In The Great Comet, Natasha is a young herring among a sea of predatory flounders, wading into the arms of one charming and rakish Anatole while her fiancée Andrey is away at battle. When Anatole’s dishonorable intentions are revealed, her gilded world is tarnished beyond imaginable remedy. Enter: poison. By contrast, Pierre has been self-medicating for years, a recluse with a partiality for obscure books and cold vodka and ruing the day he married his philandering wife. When their lives intersect beneath the shimmering passage of a historic comet, the world feels hopeful again.
Out of the Box Theatre’s decision to close its season with this musical gem is a testament to director Samantha Eve’s mastery of the long game, waiting over a decade for licensing rights to unpack a tale of socio-geo upheaval that feels at once fantastical and timely. In Eve’s hands, The Great Comet throws back to its raucous Hell's Kitchen roots, when it debuted, cabaret style, to a crowd of 80 before heading to Broadway and snagging two Tony Awards in the process. For her part, Eve transformed a slice of Center Stage Theatre into a Russian supper club, serving up pelmeni and vodka to the audience members seated on stage while the actors wove expertly around their tables – sometimes serenading them, other times pulling them into playful dance numbers.
Dressed in velvet and leather and fur, the cast of ten injects modern swagger into 19th century circumstance with charming ease. I hiss at Anatole (Micheal Lao) and his sister Helene (Marisol Miller-Wave) and fret over Natasha (Maile Kai Merrick) and her brooding cousin Sonya (Samantha Eve). And just as I find myself swept up in delightful camp, the mystical comet makes its wondrous appearance, illuminating the stage as Pierre (Brian Hoyson) sings softly into the night sky. It is a quiet and tender ending, punctuated by each character's voice as they surrender to a changing Russia.
Now in its 15th season, Out of the Box Theatre Company continues to produce evocative musicals that feel ripe for our times - fueled by passionate artists and the ancient tradition of community theatre. Cue the poignant words of 19th century poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox: Sing and the hills will answer; sigh, it is lost on the air. In Santa Barbara, the power of song endures.
photo: Carly Otness