Camille Pfister
Editor in Chief
The voices quiet down as the lights dim. Fabric drapes over the ceiling and strings of broken mirrors hang down. The music begins, the cast comes out, the show begins. The Tennessee Williams Center (TWC) is in the midst of its latest production: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. A sung-through electro pop musical that hit Broadway in 2016, Natasha is a masterfully written show based on a 70 page splice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
Tolstoy himself described the 70 pages as the “crux” of the novel and Dave Malloy, the writer of Natasha expressed being enamored with the “humanity in these timeless stories.”
Malloy, while working as a piano player on a cruise ship, started to read War and Peace with his girlfriend who was back home, in order to stay connected while they were apart. Using contemporary elements, the show simultaneously feels like it is set in 1812 and in a club today. There are a few tables surrounding the set where audience members sit and enjoy the performance.
“In front of the risers are a group of tables and chairs and cast members will be mingling in and among those tables, which we haven’t been able to do yet because we haven’t had audience members, but it’ll be great fun to be able to see how audience members respond,” Jim Crawford, Chair of Theater and Dance Department, said.
The last musical the TWC put on was in 2023, and while it was a large undertaking, it was not a completely sung-through musical. According to Crawford, Natasha is “a more musically complex show than we’ve ever attempted” before, going from operatic to techno musical styles.
“It has been completely exhausting,” Crawford said. “This show has pushed us to the boundaries of what we’re capable of doing, especially musically. That has been such a challenge, but it’s also been incredibly satisfying seeing it come together.”
The actors have to be able to “devote time to study the music” they have and also do homework, and Harrison Best (C’ 25), one of the leads, describes “going to rehearsal as definitely an escape from the classroom.”
Crawford hired Stan Tucker, a guest artist, to teach the cast the music for the first half of rehearsals and then handed it off to the conductor and music director.
“The first 3 or 4 weeks were dominated by learning music,” Crawford said. “I was eager to start staging. We would have 4 music rehearsals a week, and then one night of staging. But it worked out.”
One of the best parts of doing a musical is bringing in new talent from across the campus. Set designers, costume designers, choreographers, tech crew, actors, musicians, and directors, all came together to put on this show.
“It is all way beyond what any of us could do individually,” Crawford said. “It has so many fantastic music and design elements.”
That is true for any show, but especially for musicals. For when the TWC does musicals they get music students who “don’t come over here except to do a musical” so it builds the cast with different strengths.
“That’s really a part of the fun,” Crawford said. “Creating a new community.”
There is one line of dialogue in the show, and it kind of flips the history of musical theater on its head. “Usually the way it works, people talk to each other, until they are feeling something so strongly, they have to sing it,” Crawford explained. In this show, there is a moment in the climatic scene where a character has to find words and speak without music.” It comes in a really emotional moment, see if you can spot it!
Natasha will be running for one more weekend before it’s gone from the TWC, so don’t miss it! If tickets are sold out, show up early. Ushers can usually squeeze 10-20 people in before showtime. If seats aren’t sold out, you can reserve seats at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/natasha-pierre-the-great-comet-of-1812-tickets-1012938214467?aff=oddtdtcreator
“Come see the show!” Best said. “It’s really, really neat. It’s considered an electro-pop opera, which is different from really anything that you will see on stage. [Natasha] was on Broadway a few years back, and people say the show is very much ahead of its time. I would agree with them when they say that. So, come see the show, come support the arts, and come hear beautiful music!”
After Natasha closes, the TWC isn’t done! On Nov 1, at 3:00 p.m. a panel conversation, “What Can You Do With A Degree In Theater?”, with Sewanee theater alums will kick off Theater & Dance alumni reunion Homecoming weekend. Right before students head home for Thanksgiving break, Nov. 21-24, 2024, DanceWise: Eye of the Beholder comes to the Proctor Hill Theater. Smaller shows will take place in the studio theater and students and staff will work hard preparing for everything this semester and next. Just you wait.
“When you take on a show this big,” Crawford said, “it takes a village.”