Saturday Night Musical: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

December 9, 2023 3:00 PM

This is maybe the worst possible filmings of one of the best musicals of the past decade. Here is Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Original Broadway Cast), a YouTube playlist of each song in this sung-through musical assembled from various audience cameras from across its run. Here's also the entire musical assembled out of these individual clips [2h14m], with slight tweaks to improve the flow. Bonus: Original Cast Album [YT Playlist]

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 [Wikipedia] is a 2016 Broadway production featuring Josh Groban in his Broadway premiere, based on a short section of Tolstoy's War And Peace. It was famous for its very unconventional staging and orchestrations, with the audience immersed amongst the action and some cast members taking on instruments from orchestra members when the role calls for it. It's famous for having a zillion nominations and not winning very many, and then for flubbing its post-Groban casting of Pierre which resulted in a catastrophic end to the show.

This show and this production have been over for years, and it's really only through a document such as this that we have this show preserved in any form.

posted by hippybear (12 comments total)

Newly discovered bonus: ProShot of "Letters" from American Repertory Theater. [4m]
posted by hippybear at 3:33 PM on December 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

This show and this production have been over for years, and it's really only through a document such as this that we have this show preserved in any form.

There is probably a complete recorded copy of the show in the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive with the New York Public Library. Most every Broadway show winds up with at least one taping that’s entered into the archive anymore.
posted by jmauro at 5:08 PM on December 9, 2023 [3 favorites]

I saw it twice on Broadway, once with Josh Groban and once during Oak Onaodowan's brief run. If I'd lived closer to New York, I would have seen it every chance I could. It was magical. It was also too big (huge ensemble), too complicated (cafe tables, tiered audience seating on the stage, runways), and too talent-specific (Pierre plays the accordion, Anatole sings like an angel and performs a perfect violin solo?) to be sustainable. I'm glad we have the soundtrack and these terrible videos to remember it by.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 4:20 AM on December 10, 2023 [3 favorites]

What a great show. I saw it off-Broadway on a whim, and then made it back to see the Broadway. A big regional theater near me is putting it on in February. Like Sweetie Darling, I can think of numerous ways it might go wrong. It may be a trainwreck, but I'm absolutely going.
posted by mersen at 6:06 AM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

It actually came to San Jose last year and I saw it (I knew the guy playing Anatole). Loved it, actually. If you can see it, see it. It sounds like it's going to be depressing AF, but it's done in a fun, upbeat manner.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:26 AM on December 10, 2023

I'm just gonna echo what everyone is saying - we were in NYC and saw it on Broadway without really having any idea what it was about. And our minds were blown. Denée Benton as Natasha was absolutely transcendent. Groban was a revelation (to us, who didn't really know anything about him). The staging, the wildness, the tossed pierogies! I wish it was still playing so I could see it again.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:44 AM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

Upon watching this video, I had no idea everything was THAT spread out and interactive. No wonder it's hard to film. When I saw it it was a regular stage in a square theater, but they'd taken out seats to create walkways in the middle and in mid-audience, but nothing like THIS.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:31 AM on December 10, 2023

and too talent-specific

They brought in Mandy Patinkin as part of their post-Grobin casting difficulties, and I don't think he had "plays accordion" already in his c.v.

And it's been a trend for maybe 20 years now for a lot of shows to have "plays instruments" as part of the show for various reasons, usually to save money but obviously not for THIS show.

I don't know how complicated the accordion parts are for this show. I'd have to watch it again looking specifically at that. But I don't remember any "that guy from Lawrence Welk" style finger gymnastics from the part.

Also, I mean, seriously, in the city of New York, you could probably cast the show with exactly all the double or triple talents you're looking for with one week of cattle calls. The question is whether anyone would bother funding or attending the show because It's The Names That Sell.

As evidenced by how this show ended.
posted by hippybear at 7:01 PM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm reviewing its Toronto premiere this Wednesday...I'll let you know how it goes! I think our run might already be sold out.
posted by ilana at 8:51 PM on December 10, 2023 [2 favorites]

OMG please post here!!!
posted by hippybear at 9:00 PM on December 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

I do hope some review of the Toronto show will appear here.
posted by hippybear at 1:37 PM on December 17, 2023

Belated, but thanks for this! I'm a huge fan of the Broadway production of Hadestown, which was also directed by Rachel Chavkin and co-starred Amber Gray, but I only found it after completely missing the boat on Natasha, Pierre (etc). So a bad recording is better than nothing!
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:15 AM on December 19, 2023