David and Hannah Mirvish, Crow’s Theatre & Musical Stage Company/Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, book, music, lyrics and orchestrations by Dave Malloy, (adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace), directed by Chris Abraham, Royal Alexandra Theatre, to Aug. 24, 2025. Tickets here.
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Redux In Glory.
That’s the headline for the remount of this hit musical from last season at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. In fact, NP&TGC is better the second time around and I would happily see it a third time if I could.
To just recap the basic plot of NP&TGC, polymath creator Malloy chose a 70-page tract from Part 8 of Book 2 of Tolstoy’s massive 1,200-page novel War and Peace that follows two separate arcs — Natasha Rostova’s infatuation with the scoundrel Anatole Kuragin and the melancholy Pierre Bezukhov and his search for direction in his meaningless life.
What follows are my second run impressions of the musical in no particular order.
The Set
The Royal Alex is one of the most beautiful theatres in the city, but it is rendered absolutely ravishing for this production.
The magnificent set that Julie Fox and Joshua Quinlan designed for Crow’s Theatre’s black box has been supersized to fill the Royal Alex’s larger stage area.
The entire front of the theatre has been festooned with the staircases and balconies from the original set and there is the addition of side boxes to match those of the Royal Alex itself. Audience members are even sitting in the boxes.
All the opulent red and gold of imperial Russia is on greater display, and if the set was breathtaking before, the stage picture is now almost overwhelming when you enter the theatre.
The rotating centre platform continues to be a most clever idea as it is pushed around by members of the cast, like the wheel of life ever turning.
There are a couple of rows of seats on either side of the stage to emulate the U shape of the audience at Crow’s but basically the bulk of the viewing is now from the front.
This means that all the amusing audience interactions can be seen by everyone whereas things were missed in the original production depending on where you were seated.
Thus, for example, the very funny ravishment of a female member of the audience by the lascivious old Prince Bolkonsky is on full display.
The New Cast Member
A significant cast change is Vanessa Sears picking up the role of Sonya, Natasha’s loyal cousin and dear friend.
In following Sears’ glittering career, I’ve learned that she can do anything. Whether it’s singing and dancing up a storm in a musical, taking on a serious Shakespearean role at Stratford, or playing a villain in a Ross Petty pantomime, she never disappoints.
While Sonya plays an important part in NP&TGC, it’s not as flashy a role as some of the others and could become faded into the background.
Sears, however, makes Sonya’s presence very much felt on stage and her big scene where she agonizes about betraying Natasha becomes the lynch pin of the plot line.
The Production Itself
Everything about the production seems to have heightened or sharpened or amplified or intensified. It’s hard to put into words but it’s almost as if the actors have grown more deeply into their characters in this remount.
Pierre (Evan Buliung) is more despairing about what he sees as a waste of a life. Natasha (Hailey Gillis) is more giddy and hysterical in her journey through the vicissitudes of young love. Mary (Heeyun Park) is more miserable and angry at what the fates have dealt her.
In the original run, when Marya (Louise Pitre) stopped the elopement, barking out the phrase, “Not in my house!”, it was fiercely done. This time it was the roar of a tigress. You could feel the theatre shake.
And then, alas, there is the case of overplaying the part and that is what George Krissa (Anatole) does. He gets his chance to show what a womanizer he is by toying with the female members of the audience but he milks it.
Diction is still a problem, but that seems to be my bugaboo when it comes to reviewing musicals, and I just have to live with it.
An Endurance Test
Director Chris Abraham had poor Natasha running hither and yon all over the theatre at Crow’s but here she is running literally miles in a bigger space.
In fact, the whole cast is in motion in one way or another. You still don’t know what entrance or exit an actor is going to come in or leave by so that mystery still remains intriguing.
In my original review, I said that the actors really needed stamina to perform in this production. In this remount, they are training for the Olympics.
The Exciting High
The scene depicting the farewell party for Anatole at the club made my heart pound and my pulse race.
I felt in my very being, that at this particular moment, the production of NP&TGC had reached the acme of the theatrical experience, more so than in the original run.
The wild abandon of the singing and the dancing and the playing of the instruments, the wanton carnality on display, the open unleashing of passions, the pervading sense of danger — it is the very riotous nature of it all that swept the audience up in a tidal wave of excitement and earned the thunderous applause that followed.
The Curse of Summer
Summers are notorious for generating poor audiences for so-called winter theatres, which is why the practice came about that seasons end as summer approaches.
I was therefore delighted to see a very crowded house at the Royal Alex for NP&TGC, and what’s more, an audience that tipped to the younger side, the demographic that every theatre company yearns to attract.
A Smug Theatre Critic
And finally, a second visitation confirmed that I was right in stating just how clever Malloy’s lyrics were in what is a virtual sung-through opera.
More to the point I take great satisfaction in initially declaring this production a triumph because it was, and it is.
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