Can a musical be a sexy beast? Especially if it’s infused with the yearning and even melancholy of the pre-revolutionary Russian sort?
If the goings on at the Arvada Center are any measure, the answer is “yes, yes, a thousand times yes.” For in that arts complex’s black box theater, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” blazes like the celestial visitor of its title.
Dave Malloy’s sung-through musical is hardly a stroll through the park. Yet under the stewardship of Arvada Center’s artistic director Lynne Collins and the show’s musical director, David Nehls, its challenges earn their keep.
Striving siblings Hélène (Nicole deBree) and Anatole (Jack Wardell) in “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” at the Arvada Center. (Amanda Tipton, provided by the Arvada Center)
Malloy has referred to “Natasha” as “an electropop opera.” Nominated for 12 Tonys in 2017 (it won two, for scenic and lighting design), “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” premiered as an immersive production off Broadway in 2012 and retained that intimacy even as the show made its way to Broadway in 2016.
With “Natasha’s” brooding and dissatisfied husband Pierre (Brett Ambler) and Natasha (Bella Hathorne), its young heroine betrothed to a prince, the vibe might be that of Anton Chekov or Leo Tolstoy, although those literary lions would make their marks more than a century after the era of the play. In fact, this Natasha arose from a slim portion of “War and Peace,” Tolstoy’s tome of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars.
As the musical opens, Andrey — Natasha’s fiancé and Pierre’s good friend — is on the front fighting (or “somewhere,” as the “Prologue” states, accordion keeping the song upbeat): “There’s a war going on somewhere out there … and Andrey isn’t here.” That opening number, a cumulative song not unlike “The 12 Days of Christmas,” introduces the characters with hopes of hardwiring them into our noggins. The number’s caveat comes in its winking chorus: “You are at the opera/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 … .”
Who are those characters? There’s Natasha’s cousin and dear friend Sonya (Aynsley Upton); Natasha’s godmother Marya (Anna Maria High), whom the young women visit in Moscow; the “hot” Anatole (Wardell); his sister and Pierre’s striving wife, Hélène (Nicole deBree); Anatole’s ne’er-do-well friend, Dolokhov (Bryce Baxter); Andrey (David Otto) and his father, Prince Bolkonsky (Brian Watson), and sister Mary (Neyla Pekarek). For comic relief, Watson also appears as Balaga, an extremely enthusiastic troika driver.
Phew. Having introduced everyone, the song finally asks, “What about Pierre?” The ensemble sings of him with affection and at the same time as “just one of a hundred sad old men living out their final years in Moscow.”
Hot trouble, thy name is Anatole: Anatole (Jack Wardell, right) flirts with the betrothed Natasha (Bella Hathorne) in “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.” (Amanda Tipton, provided by the Arvada Center)
Although the Arvada production is rife with attuned performances, its leads carry the burdens of age and wisdom, youth and naivete. Ambler’s Pierre is indeed sympathetic and sullen. Sitting in his parlor, he’s sensitive to the sweep of the world, even as he avoids courageously engaging it. As Natasha, Hathorne captures the romantic optimism, yearning and hurt of her young character. Malloy keeps the titular two apart until very near the musical’s end.
Natasha pines for Andrey but falls under the spell of Anatole, the brother of Pierre’s wife. The bad boy of the musical, he’s played with zest by the ridiculously charismatic Jack Wardell, who worked the audience prior to the show.
And so, there will be seductions and heartbreak, self-recriminations and aristocratic machinations, desirous embraces and foxy dancing. (Grady Soapes’ choreography, like Sarah Stark’s sumptuous costumes, honor the era but also tweak it with sly, contemporary gestures). And there will be a duel.
All of this unfolds in a black box space transformed by scenic designer Brian Mallgrave into a warm cavern of a club of reds and golds, chandeliers and lamps atop tables casting an amber glow (lighting design by Jon Dunkle), chaise lounges and musical instruments glinting in the light.
The Arvada production works to maintain the show’s original immersive coziness. The audience, some seated at café tables, rings the floor. In addition to musicians and performers wandering around, Nehls sits at the keyboards and his tight orchestra of guitar (David DeMichelis), bass (Lynn Keller), drums (Stephen Wright) and percussion (Keith Ewer) play amid the action.
It’s all rather glorious — and perhaps a tad confounding for theatergoers drawn to jukebox musicals or fond of the more familiar productions that Arvada produces so expertly. If, amid the production’s moody, sonic-shifting arias, you ache for a song that sounds less complicated, there is one. Act II’s “Sonya Alone” provides a standout that captures the simple and rich depths of friendship.
Note: In what feels like an ingenious switcheroo on Collins’ and the Arvada Center’s part, the comic play “Noises Off” is about to take the arts complex’s main stage (opening March 22) as “Natasha” continues its run through March 31. Catch it before it disappears into the firmament of shows you wish you’d seen.
IF YOU GO
“Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812”: Written and composed by Dave Malloy. Directed by Lynne Collins. Musical direction by David Nehls. Featuring Bella Hathorne, Brett Ambler, Jack Wardell, Aynsley Upton, Anna Maria High, Nicole deBree, Bryce Baxter, Neyla Pekarek, David Otto, Brian Watson and Elleon Dobias, Penina Eisenberg, Drew Horwitz and Ronald McQueen. At the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada. Through March 31. For tickets and info: arvadacenter.org or 720-898-7200.