Theatre review:Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

The year's theatre starts for me, as it often seems to, at the Donald and Margot Warehouse, where Tim Sheader's first production as Artistic Director follows on from the tradition of big musicals he established in his time at the Open Air Theatre. I approached this one with a certain amount of trepidation as I've only intermittently got on with the work of off-Broadway royalty Dave Malloy's jarring musical style in the past, but Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 has been the composer's big breakout hit, and it receives its UK premiere here with an impressive cast. Based on a subplot from War and Peace, it sees wide-eyed young aristocrat Natasha (Chumisa Dornford-May) arrive in Moscow (or MscoW, as Leslie Travers' industrial set styles it,) where the family of her fiancé Andrey lives.

But to her shock her prospective father- and sister-in-law take against the girl who's used to being liked by all, while Andrey himself has been off at war and/or peace for over a year.

Tentatively joining MscoW society, Natasha's feelings for her fiancé are tested when she meets obvious fuckboi Anatole (Jamie Muscato,) and convinces herself that she's in love, when what's actually happened is she's met Jamie Muscato in guyliner with his shirt unbuttoned, and reacted accordingly. Unaware that he's already married, she agrees to elope with him, and when the plan is foiled Anatole's brother-in-law Pierre (Declan Bennett) is brought in to smooth things over.

Described as an electropop opera, as with previous Malloy shows I've seen there were parts of this that clicked with me, but I still found much of it hard work. I've mentioned before that I don't have a very strong musical ear so if the main draw of a composition is its complexity it's unlikely to do much for me - it's probably the same reason more traditional opera is also largely lost on me. And certainly however well-performed, the songs never grabbed me. They're pretty much entirely functional, and while some melodies got my feet tapping, the unpredictable, discordant style that rarely resolves itself into a tune with a beginning, middle and end meant it wasn't the draw into the story that it's presumably intended to be.

It also felt clumsy when used in the scenes of polite, restrained MscoW society - I found the music much better fit the action when we got into the more chaotic, hedonistic world that Pierre's wife Hélène (Cat Simmons) draws Natasha into (the show holds a bit of a question mark over whether it's Anatole or his sister that the young woman is really most fascinated by.) These are also the scenes where the production's visuals really come to the fore, including Howard Hudson's psychedelic lighting, and Evie Gurney's wild clash of costume styles (much of which blurs the line between evening wear and leather gear, but Muscato and Daniel Krikler as his sidekick Dolokhov are very much rocking the New Romantic look.)

Sheader has certainly stacked the production with big voices, and Simmons, Maimuna Memon and Cedric Neal all get their big moments despite their characters never being that central to the story. But between the musical style, the sometimes bland lyrics (late on the show suddenly leans heavily into the conceit of having the actors just describe their characters' feelings and actions) and a couple of offputting characters (Eugene McCoy's Prince Bolkonsky is nonspecifically and irritatingly eccentric, while Annette McLaughlin draws a very short straw in the relentlessly shrill Marya Dimitriyevna,) this only very intermittently got my pulse racing.

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy, based on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, is booking until the 8th of February at the Donmar Warehouse (returns only.)

Running time: 2 hours 25 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Johan Persson.