D and I went to see Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 last night. This is a broadway play based on 10 pages in the middle of War and Peace. This is my experience of watching this musical:
This is interesting
OMG THIS IS AWESOME
THIS IS THE AWESOMEST THING
I am definitely buying the soundtrack if I can fight my way to the merch table
Still awesome
This has been going on for a long time
I wonder what time it is
I bet I'm not getting home til after midnight
I need to remember to pick up my computer from work, to finish reviewing that one thing
Is it still going on?
Oh. It's over.
Huh.
( More detail )
All that said, this is a fantastic musical and I had a great time. I'm very glad I got tickets (it was touch and go with TKTS—the app kept showing there were tickets available, then saying there weren't, then saying there were until I went to the booth to see), especially as this is the last weekend with Okieriete Onaodowan as Pierre.
It has some of the best stage craft I've ever seen, the lighting and sound are all perfect, the costumes are great (and costumes and sound won Tonys), the music is excellent (though not exactly catchy), and all the performances are top notch.
I have to call out my two favorite moments: "The Private and Intimate Life of the House," in which a crotchety senile old man rants and raves as his daughter scurries about trying to care for him—which doesn't sound funny from that description, but dear god it is. And "The Opera," in which the characters go to an opera which we are shown in flashes—the lights come up to a swell of avant garde music and incomprehensible gargling noises from the singers, then go to complete darkness to show another flash, now with acrobats doing something obscure, then another flash, until the lights come back up on the characters, their jaws dropped, with the perfect facial expressions of WTF WAS THAT. Yes, this is my impression of Russian opera. I was DYING.
I would rate Great Comet above most of the Broadway musicals I've seen in the last few years: better than traditional musicals like Kinky Boots and Something Rotten, way better than Waitress and Miss Saigon. And it's a total bummer that it's closing, especially as it is dying of self inflicted wounds.
If you have a chance to see it in the next few weeks, definitely try to do so, though since it's announced it's closing, tickets have been scarce. If not, well, at least there's a cast recording. This more than most things I've seen I really wish others of my friends saw (especially you,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jethrien), so it's especially a bummer that it's closing.
As an aside, I was really amused that the merch table did not sell War and Peace. They instead sold Give War and Peace a Chance, a 300-page book about War and Peace. And you know, if I'm not up for reading War and Peace, I'm definitely not up for reading 300 pages about why I should. The lady at the merch table said that it was really popular, though, so oh well.
This is interesting
OMG THIS IS AWESOME
THIS IS THE AWESOMEST THING
I am definitely buying the soundtrack if I can fight my way to the merch table
Still awesome
This has been going on for a long time
I wonder what time it is
I bet I'm not getting home til after midnight
I need to remember to pick up my computer from work, to finish reviewing that one thing
Is it still going on?
Oh. It's over.
Huh.
( More detail )
All that said, this is a fantastic musical and I had a great time. I'm very glad I got tickets (it was touch and go with TKTS—the app kept showing there were tickets available, then saying there weren't, then saying there were until I went to the booth to see), especially as this is the last weekend with Okieriete Onaodowan as Pierre.
It has some of the best stage craft I've ever seen, the lighting and sound are all perfect, the costumes are great (and costumes and sound won Tonys), the music is excellent (though not exactly catchy), and all the performances are top notch.
I have to call out my two favorite moments: "The Private and Intimate Life of the House," in which a crotchety senile old man rants and raves as his daughter scurries about trying to care for him—which doesn't sound funny from that description, but dear god it is. And "The Opera," in which the characters go to an opera which we are shown in flashes—the lights come up to a swell of avant garde music and incomprehensible gargling noises from the singers, then go to complete darkness to show another flash, now with acrobats doing something obscure, then another flash, until the lights come back up on the characters, their jaws dropped, with the perfect facial expressions of WTF WAS THAT. Yes, this is my impression of Russian opera. I was DYING.
I would rate Great Comet above most of the Broadway musicals I've seen in the last few years: better than traditional musicals like Kinky Boots and Something Rotten, way better than Waitress and Miss Saigon. And it's a total bummer that it's closing, especially as it is dying of self inflicted wounds.
If you have a chance to see it in the next few weeks, definitely try to do so, though since it's announced it's closing, tickets have been scarce. If not, well, at least there's a cast recording. This more than most things I've seen I really wish others of my friends saw (especially you,
jethrien), so it's especially a bummer that it's closing.As an aside, I was really amused that the merch table did not sell War and Peace. They instead sold Give War and Peace a Chance, a 300-page book about War and Peace. And you know, if I'm not up for reading War and Peace, I'm definitely not up for reading 300 pages about why I should. The lady at the merch table said that it was really popular, though, so oh well.