Theater Review by Jeffrey Bruce . . . .
After a sold-out run, Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre has, wisely, returned the Dave Molloy musical for an extended run through March 3rd.
While the Broadway production was best known for its male lead, Josh Groban, the all-Atlanta cast does wonders with material that could easily have been problematic. Mr. Malloy has isolated a 70-page chunk of Tolstoy’s War and Peace and given us the most interesting part. The chapter covers the sexual discoveries of young people combined with the long-learned lessons of their elders. In Russia. Moscow, to be precise.
We leave the hubbub of downtown Atlanta as we enter a theater that has been transformed into a salon in Moscow, circa 1800. There is no stage. The theater is the stage and the audience members are the guests. Beautiful red plush fabric has been swagged on the walls; there are beds, a bar, an opera house, as well as multiple balconies—one quickly forgets that it is 2024 on the outside, and we have become Muscovites. This is total audience immersion. We are seated on bar stools, divans, loveseats, etc. The actors and musicians are everywhere, usually within arm’s reach, and their interplay emphasizes the director Heidi McKerley’s unique vision.
A simple explanation of the plot is that the younger generation is being taught by their elders how to become members of the Moscow elite. In the Prologue they sing:
“This is all in your program
Gonna have to study up a little bit
If you wanna keep with the plot
Cuz it’s a complicated Russian novel
Everyone’s got nine different names, so look it up in your program
We’d appreciate it, thanks a lot.”
They have also provided us with a helpful family tree in the program that keeps everything on track.
We have naive Natasha, arriving in Moscow with her cousin Sonya. Natasha is visiting her godmother Marya, the “grand dame” of Moscow. And while Marya is worldly-wise, she has all the best interests at heart for her young ward. While both Natasha and Sonya are involved with deployed soldiers, they are young and not immune to temptation. In short measure, Natasha is seduced and falls for the dashing Anatole. Pierre—a socially inept, wealthy man who is married to the town slut, Helene (their word, not mine)—loves Natasha from afar. There are multitudinous complications and rest assured that all that seems well does not always end well.
As in any production that centers around frenzied madness and constant motion, the performances are what anchor the evening. Alexandria Joy (Natasha) has a golden voice, and rather than keep Natasha as a quiet, naive young lady, she has a gleam in her eye and we realize she is not quite as unworldly as she first appears. Her cousin, Sonya (Anna Dvorak), has the evening’s most touching song,” Sonya Alone,” and slowly breaks your heart along with her own. Terry Burrell, of Broadway’s Dreamgirls original production, is the godmother to Sonya. A combination of Miss Jean Brodie and Auntie Mame, she commands the majority of comedy in the show. While Pierre, interestingly, seems the most underwritten of the roles, Daniel Burns makes up for it in that he has the bulk of the singing in Act Two. Anatole, played by Jordan Patrick, covers his true desires re: Sonya, with the right amounts of charm and elegance.
A special mention for Alyssa Easterly, the understudy for the role of Helene, a social climber who has married the sweet, yet very rich Pierre, to increase her social status. She is also the sister of the duplicitous Anatole. Ms. Easterly was masterful in her portrayal. She, of the clarion belt and excellent timing, was a winning standout. Throughout the sung-through piece, Musical Director Holt McCarley conducts the melange of Broadway classic and contemporary music, plays piano and is an on-stage performer, as well.
To mount a production that utilizes every inch of space is extremely difficult, yet Heidi McKerley has succeeded, directing the action and the performances to involve the audience at every opportunity. Her direction, especially of the opera scene where singers are choreographed to badly perform endless Martha Graham modern dance steps, is but one example of the humor she has built into what is, in essence, a tragedy.
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Through March 3 at the Horizon Theatre (1083 Austin Avenue, at the corner of Euclid Ave. & Austin Ave. in Little Five Points, Atlanta, GA). www.horizontheatre.com
Photos: Courtesy of Horizon Theatre
