THE INTERVAL: The Great Comet of 1812 by Dave Malloy and directed by Rachel Chavkin features an immersive set with audience members on stage and actors running through the audience; an eclectic score; a story loosely based on an excerpt from War and Peace; and the majority of actors in the cast making their Broadway debuts. Among those actors making their Broadway debuts are Brittain Ashford, Gelsey Bell, Amber Gray, and Grace McLean. The four of them come from performance backgrounds as diverse as the characters they’re playing. We recently sat down with them to discuss archetypes, the physicality of the show, balancing doing eight shows a week, and more.
6 comments:
During Spring Break I got to see Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. My friend and I got rush tickets and sat closet to the wall middle of Mezzanine. They were not bad seats but I defiantly felt like I was missing out on something. During intermission a super nice usher let my friend and I move to 4th row on the aisle seats. During act 2 was a completely different experience. I have never had such a fun time at a Broadway show. They mentioned that there are 29 tracks in the show. I could easily go back 29 times and follow the journey of just one cast member and the show will be different every time. Every single person is doing something different and it was such an amazing experience. I saw Dick Block and Jason Cohen there and we talked about it they toured the show it would change the entire feel of it since they made the space feel so intimate. Hopefully it will tour and come to Pittsburgh so I can see how they changed it!
This show was so much. There really was so much going on and so much to watch that it could almost overwhelm you, but it didn't. It really did make you feel a part of it, the most immersive theater experience I've had besides Here Lies Love where the audience literally stood in the middle of it all. It's really interesting reading what people actually in it have to say and hearing how it grew and changed. One thing from what they said that I hadn't entirely thought about was the music. There really are so many different styles and different feels that just listening to the cast recording can make it feel a bit disjointed, but it really does all come together and flow and work. I could tell the music was tied to the story but it seemed more in the emotion and the character. Gelsey said it was tied to the dramaturgy to help tell the story better. Now that I've seen the show I want to go back to the recording and see if the style goes beyond the emotion and how it affects and tells the story.
I was fortunate enough to see Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 during spring break twice. Each show, a completely new experience. I have to agree that the direction is super specialized and really hones in on the audience/performer integration. Though this unconventional style of theatre is really interesting, for me, I felt like the show was only captivating to the people with the best seats. I think sitting in the mezzanine or balcony would really have changed my experience because I wouldn't have felt like I was a part of the story telling- which is the whole point of the show. I think CMU Alum Denee Benton and Josh Groan were great. I also saw another CMU alum at that performance-- Josh Gad. It was so cool running into about 10 of my classmates at the show and then seeing all the different alumni there as well. CMU IS OUT HERE REPPING!
I didn't love this show. I liked it but it was definitely not the best thing I have ever seen musically. Scenically it was gorgeous, I don't think I have ever walked into a theater and been so interested in what was going on as I was when I walked into great comet. The space was very overwhelming. It was huge and red and confusing and I was never 100 percent sure if I was looking in the right spot but I think I got the story so who cares. The show was a lot like that too. I was never 100 perfect sure If I was feeling the right things or thinking the right things, it was so much I just sort of sucked it up and tried to play along. I thought the cast of this show was interesting, they tried really hard to cast unconventional looking people and I do appreciate that a lot because many of the cast members people would not have been put in your average musical. I think the show will do well, it is interesting, and it will tour fine, but its hardly the best piece of the year, it'll come in second to Evan Hansen in probably ever category except for scenic design.
It's really interesting to hear these women's perspective on their experiences the The Great Comet. This a very unique show to make your Broadway debut in, as it is so physically demanding of all of the cast members. The fact that the space that the show takes place in has increased in size with every new mounting of the show must be very challenging to keep up with, especially because of all the stairs that they have to climb every night. Like Evan was saying, every cast member moves independently and has their own story to tell as the show progresses. It seems like it can be hard at times for them to get a good picture of the show as a whole. Personally I would have also had liked to also have heard Denée Benton's answers to these questions as well. Great Comet is definitely a show that I would like to see some day, and hopefully from a seat that would allow me to be as engrossed in the performance as possible.
I was lucky enough to see Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 over winter break. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I loved almost everything about the show, but what really struck me about it, was how unusual it all seemed to be. There are certain conventions that one expects when going to see a Broadway musical. This show defied most of them. And one of the ways it did that was through its casting choices. Not only was I pleasantly surprised by the diversity in the casting and the strong female presence, but the actors themselves all seemed to have very unique qualities and voices. I knew that for many leads in the show, this was their Broadway debut, but after reading this article I’m realizing a lot of the uniqueness in the acting was due to wide variety of backgrounds of the actors. It’s really refreshing to see new and unconventional casting choices, and I hope we see more of this in the future.
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