'Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812' at Great Lakes Theater is Mandatory Viewing, Even if it Defies Easy Description

As a reader of this theater review, you have every right to expect it to provide you with a clear description of what the play Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, now at the Great Lakes Theater, is all about. Unfortunately, this electric, immersive, and constantly astounding theatrical experience frequently defies easy explanation.

Indeed, the usual and reliable tools such as simile and metaphor seem pathetic when describing a play based on a section of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” which then contorts itself into an in-your-face electro-pop, operatic, sung-through, gymnastic event that must be seen and heard to be believed.

And if you attend, you will see and hear it since the performers are often right beside you, wherever you’re sitting. No, this isn’t the usual sort of forced audience participation that a mediocre play will sometimes use to ingratiate itself with the audience. This play, created by Dave Malloy and directed with furious intelligence by Victoria Bussert, respects you too much to do that.

The infectiously upbeat “Prologue” tips you off to the style of the piece as it provides a warning about the show’s content: “Gonna have to study up a little bit/If you wanna keep with the plot/’Cause it’s a complicated Russian novel/Everyone’s got nine different names/So look it up in your program.” Then it goes on to give a capsule rundown of the characters, to wit: “Balaga is fun, Bolonsky is crazy, Mary is plain, Dolokhov is fierce, Helene is a slut, Anatole is hot, Marya is old-school, Sonya is good, Natasha is young, and Andrey isn’t here.”

That’s a splendid welcome to the show which, even with its constant flouting of the rules of proscenium staging, tells a fairly straightforward story. As Napoleon is about to invade Russia, countess Natasha (a brilliant Jessi Kirtley) and her bestie cousin Sonya (the equally gifted Alexa Lopez) have been sent to reside safely with Nat’s godmother Marya (a deliciously feisty Jodi Dominick). Nat’s fiancé Prince Andrey is away at the front, as the Prologue repeatedly told us, so he isn’t there to smooth the way with Natasha’s new in-laws, which include uptight Princess Mary (stern but sly Camille Brooks).

When Natasha, Sonya and Marya sing “Moscow,” you get a sense of how direct and unfussy the lyrics are as the characters often even trill the stage directions and reveal their own secret thoughts. As Marya sings, “Welcome to Moscow/Where faded and fading princesses live/I’ll take you where you must go/Pet you a bit/And I’ll scold you a bit…”

This makes it easier to follow the storyline as Natasha is introduced to Russian-style decadence at the Opera and then a costume ball where Muscovites cut loose like club kids pumped up on too much vodka and whatever the 19th century version of poppers was.

In the background of all this, but central to everything is Pierre (superbly sung by Alex Syiek), a lost soul married to the fortune-hunting Helene (snarky Jillian Kates). Pierre spends his time reading and drinking, awaiting an awakening of some sort. His life is complicated by the arrival of his not-to-trot brother Anatole (Chris McCarrell), an ambulatory orgasm of a man who, even though married, locks onto Natasha like a Doberman on a Quarter-Pounder.

Passion and untrammeled wit abound in every moment of this production. At the start of Act Two, the company sings “Letters,” which nods cleverly at the primary form of communication in those years. ” In nineteenth-century Russia, we write letters/We write letters/We put down in writing/What is happening in our minds/” Good, thing, too, since as they song through those letters it gives the audience a tidy recap fin preparation for what is to come.

But nothing will prepare you for the entrance of Balaga (an off-the-leash Boe Wank), the troika driver who absconds with the play for a few minutes as he bellows his presence, celebrating gypsies and orgies, boozing and fighting.

In short, Pierre, Natasha etc.is about as visceral as theater is likely to get while still paying close attention to Malloy’s glorious melodies (music director Mathew Webb), spectacular choreography by Jaclyn Miller, and Tesia Dugan Benson’s evocative costume designs.

And the smoothly-synchronized cast performs like the current outstanding Cleveland Browns’ defense, which I hereby rename “Hell’s Elves” They’re taking no prisoners, and neither is this GLT company.

This remarkable, resounding show runs through October 8 and if you think you’re too busy to see it, change your plans and get your pert little buns down to the Hanna Theatre.

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812
Through October 8, produced by the Great Lakes Theater at the Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square, 2067 E. 14th Street, 216-241-6000, greatlakestheater.org.

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