There’s a war going on out there somewhere, and Andrey isn’t here. Hélène is a slut. Anatole is hot. Marya is old-school. Sonya is good, Natasha is young and Andrey isn’t here.
If following the plot of a musical adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” sounds daunting, have no fear: the “Prologue” of “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” will spell it all out for you. This article’s first paragraph is directly stolen from the song’s lyrics.
Written by composer, lyricist, playwright and orchestrator Dave Malloy, the musical is set during the Napoleonic Wars ahead of Napoleon’s invasion of Moscow. “Great Comet” first found success off-Broadway in 2012 before eventually making its way to Broadway in 2016. The latter production featured singer-songwriter Josh Groban as Pierre and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, winning two.
This week, the Firehouse Theatre’s production of “Great Comet” takes the stage for a three-week run.
“The show is an electro-pop opera with elements of classical opera that covers about 70 pages of ‘War and Peace,’” explains Chelsea Burke, director of the local production. “This show is really unique in its style. It’s completely sung through.”
The musical concerns Natasha, a beautiful young woman whose fiancé Andrey is off fighting Napoleon. Natasha falls for the dashing libertine Anatole, unaware that he’s already married. Meanwhile, Pierre, a depressed and unhappily married man contemplates his existence. Through duels, opera and plenty of vodka, these characters bounce around Moscow in search of the meaning of life and love.
Adapting the Broadway show to fit the stage at the Firehouse has been no small feat.
“The original Broadway show was immersive,” Burke explains. “Fitting that into a more intimate space like Firehouse has been a really interesting challenge. But ultimately this is a story about a bunch of people that are kind of out at sea and how they navigate the world and impending doom and hold on to what they can.”
Firehouse fans may be familiar with Malloy’s handiwork from the theater’s stagings of his Rachmaninoff-focused musical “Preludes” in 2018 and his “love, death and whiskey” song cycle “Ghost Quartet” in 2023. Burke likens the diversity of Malloy’s “Great Comet” score to attending a night at the Richmond Symphony, a rock show at The National and an EDM rave at The Canal Club all in one sitting.
“This music spans all genres,” she says. “You’re even going to hear some Russian folk.”
Ally Dods, who plays Natasha, says she’s been interested in playing the role for a long time.
“I’ve loved the show since I saw it on Broadway. Her solo song ‘No One Else’ I worked on in college,” Dods says. “Natasha follows her journey to discover her idea of love and what her idea of a partner is. She has a fiancé, but at the end of the show gets sucked up in the social scene of Moscow.”
Though she loves the sung-through musical, Dods acknowledges its demands on the performers. “Once the show starts it’s kind of a marathon to the end,” Dods says. “It’s exhausting in the best way and we’re having a really, really great time. We like to say at rehearsals it’s a beast of a show.”
Local actor Durron Marquis Tyre relishes portraying the playboy Anatole.
“Anatole is hot,” Tyre says. “He spends his money on women and wine. He’s a womanizer. He is pretty immature. He is all about himself and the things he wants to indulge in. He falls in love with Natasha, who is lovely and pure and naïve, and has this kind of naiveté that is enticing to him.”
A veteran of many of musicals, Tyre says the score is a workout.
“It’s a very, very vocally demanding role, but I’m enjoying navigating that,” Tyre says. “It’s been a learning experience for me to fine tune my vocal craft.”
Dods says the show is unlike anything the Richmond theater scene has previously staged.
“If you want to laugh, cry, experience joy, feel every emotion possible while also hearing some of the best voices in Richmond, see some of the best dancing in Richmond, the Firehouse is really the place to be,” she says. “It’s really a once in a lifetime experience to see it on the Firehouse stage. It’s something that Richmond has never seen before and you only have three weeks to see it.”
“Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” plays through Sept. 7 at the Firehouse Theatre, 1609 W. Broad St. For more information visit firehousetheatre.org.
