Ep. 34: "Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812," 2016 (Musicals We Love)

Broadway Babies: A Musical Theatre Podcast

Welcome back listeners, as we take a troika ride to the past to 19th century Russia, where everyone's got nine different names in Dave Malloy's take on the Russian literary paperweight "War & Peace." His electropop opera, "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812," follows the young Natasha fumbling her way into Moscow high society, while there's a war going on out there somewhere ... and what about Pierre? Join us as we try to unpack the story of this ambitious stage adaptation, its incredible diversity of music and casting, and its own meteoric rise to Broadway — and how it burned out so quickly. Raz, dva, tri!

Broadway cast recording: iTunes | Spotify | Amazon Prime

Original cast recording: iTunes | Spotify | Amazon

Music:

• "Prologue," performed by Josh Groban and cast
• "No One Else," by Denee Benton
• "Charming," by Amber Gray
• "Letters," by Lucas Steele and cast
• "Sonya Alone," by Brittain Ashford
• "Dust and Ashes," by Josh Groban and cast

Music, Lyrics, and Book by Dave Malloy

Distributed by Release Records.

Show Notes:

• Dave Malloy left super interesting verified notes on the Genius lyrics for both the original and Broadway cast recordings.
• Both Sonyas, Ingrid Michaelson and Brittain Ashford, harmonizing “Sonya Alone”
• Cabaret night at Green Room 42 of a bunch of the cast doing songs from different musicals that inspired Dave for the show — Lucas Steele even steals THIS SHOW with his Hedwig number
• Dave Malloy and “Great Comet” cast perform his song “Squeeze of the Hand” from his version of “Moby Dick”
• Dave’s website, which talks about his plans for “Moby Dick”

Podcast cover art: David Taylor

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