The Russians have invaded the North Shore. Their first front opened at Northlight Thursday with the hauntingly beautiful The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, which follows Marc and Bella Chagall as they navigate the Russian Revolution. Friday night, the Russian forces advanced to the north and 100 years farther into the past as Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 opened with a joyous bang at Writers Theatre.
Nominated for 12 Tonys in 2017 (and winning two), Dave Malloy’s electro-pop musical, a sung-through adaptation of a meaty hunk of Tolstoy’s War & Peace, is directed and choreographed at Writers in its Chicago premiere with verve, wit and panache by Katie Spelman (who also nailed The Music Man at Marriott Theatre recently), with stellar musical direction by Matt Deitchman. Reuniting the creative team behind the acclaimed Writers production of Once proves to be a savvy move here.
They produce this big ensemble show in the friendly confines of Writers in a way that never feels overstuffed or shoehorned in, and Spelman does a marvelous job of making sure the audience seated left, right and center gets in on plenty of the action, which flies by in two hours and 15 minutes like the runaway troika driven by the maniacal Balaga (Jonah D. Winston, centerpiece of one of the show’s most amusing sequences).
It’s no accident that I mention one of the minor characters first. This is a show that truly gives the entire ensemble opportunities to shine, and these actors take full advantage, whether it’s Rob Lindley killing in his audaciously funny performance as the fearsome, demented Prince Bolkonsky (if he were a modern character, he would no doubt have a popular account on Truth Social), Andrew Mueller crafting a surprisingly nuanced portrayal of friendship as the sidekick Dolokhov, or Bethany Thomas zestfully chewing scenery as Natasha’s protective godmother, Marya.
All of these supporting performances (and more) are skillfully interwoven with the tremendous leads who carry the bulk of this story about the dissipations and machinations of Russian aristocracy while far offstage the troops are fighting off Napoleon’s invasion. “Prologue,” the opening number, makes a droll joke of what many people say after they abandon War & Peace a few chapters in: too hard to follow, too many characters to keep track of. Breaking the fourth wall with gusto, the characters exhort the audience to consult their programs closely even as they repeatedly introduce themselves in a song structured like “The 12 Days of Christmas.” In fact, the plot and characters here are not difficult to follow in the least:
Elegant young Natasha Rostova (Aurora Penepacker, who displays a powerful, angelic voice to go with her poignant portrayal) seeks to win the blessing of Prince Bolkonsky for her marriage to his son, Andrey (Matthew C. Yee, in a chilling cameo), expected home from the war soon. Natasha is advised by godmother Marya and Pierre Bezukhov (Evan Tyrone Martin, the raw emotional heart of the show), the good friend of Andrey who’s cuckolded by his crass wife, Hélène (Bri Sudia, deliciously nasty). Unfortunately, Hélène’s rake of a brother, Anatole (Joseph Anthony Byrd, who delivers a powerful peacocking performance), spots Natasha at the opera and decides to make her his latest conquest and steal her from Marya’s house for a late-night elopement to Poland.
(In this attempt to spirit Natasha away, the show echoes the kidnapping and degradation of Gilda central to the action of Rigoletto, which opened Saturday at the Lyric in a powerfully sung production that doesn’t quite live up to its promise of being updated to suit modern sensibilities. I don’t see how that would even be possible.)
As the plot of Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 unfolds via one stellar song after another (even as the libretto nods to the source material by employing direct quotes from the novel and having the characters regularly narrate their actions in the third person), we come to realize that it’s all in the service of contemplating, primarily through the eyes of Pierre and Natasha, how we can become so wrapped up in our situational conflicts and desires that we lose the plot when it comes to the deeper meaning of life. Ultimately, Pierre and Natasha get it. Maybe we do, too.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 runs through November 3 at Writers Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Liz Lauren
