Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 | Short Review

Dave Malloy’s one-time Broadway smash – 12 Tony nominations in 2017 though, alas, only two wins – takes off like a, well, comet in Timothy Sheader’s debut production at the Donmar, his first since taking charge of the Covent Garden venue earlier this year. Declan Bennett and a sumptuous-sounding Maimuna Memon head a tireless, largely tremendous cast. 

A mixture of grunge and gorgeousness, the emotionally raw and the musically robust, the show shifts the material somewhat from its more overtly sumptuous New York airing. There are those who will wish for greater visual luxuriance, but I suspect most will thrill to a Tolstoy adaptation as it might look performed by those vaunted Russian punk rockers, Pussy Riot. The reinvention on view is riotously entertaining, however rough-and-tumble the plotting of this sliver of War and Peace may be: this intimate iteration is unlikely to be the production’s last. 

Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is playing at the Donmar until 8 February 2025; tickets are sold out, but an allocation is released every morning, Monday to Saturday, at 10am for performances seven days later – visit donmarwarehouse.com

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy

Donmar Warehouse, 16 December 2024

Cast Declan Bennett, Chumisa Dornford-May, Jamie Muscato, Maimuna Memon, Cedric Neal, Daniel Krikler et al

Directed by Timothy Sheader

You can read our full review in the February issue of Musicals magazine out 31 January – subscribe today!