The Tony Awards were announced a couple weeks ago and as I was perusing the nominees, I was taken aback.

I had heard some buzz about a new show called The Great Comet, but what I didn't know until the Tony nominations was that the full title of the show is Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812. 

MY NAME IS IN THE TITLE!

Some people see their names everywhere like John or Mary, but with a name like Natasha, you don't hear or see that everywhere growing up in the Midwest. I just recently have seen my name on souvenirs at gift shops.

So, now that I knew I was connected in a weird way to this show I had to know more about it.

It is basically this year's Hamilton.

The show is the most Tony nominated this year. It is Josh Groban's Broadway debut (he is nominated). It is set in Moscow and is based on Volume 2, Part 5 of War and Peace, focusing on Natasha's affair with Anatole, and Pierre's search for meaning in his life.

Besides Groban's nomination for Best Actor in a Musical, it is nominated for 11 other awards including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book of a Musical, Best Actress in a Musical for Denee Benton (she plays Natasha).

From the snippets on YouTube that I've seen, the staging is different from other shows. The stage wraps around into the crowd so the action is everywhere and dancers and musicians come out into the crowd.

Plus, the music is pretty funny. Especially the first couples songs because they have to try to catch you up on all of War and Peace. 

For example, the Prologue is sung:

There’s a war going on out there somewhere and Andrey isn’t here
And this is all in your program you are at the opera
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 da da da da da da da da da

And then they go on to quickly describe each character and so on and so forth. And that is just the prologue.

Tune in to see if my namesake, Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 takes home the gold at the 71st Tony Awards on June 11 at 7:00 PM on CBS.

Great Comet BWay via YouTube
Great Comet BWay via YouTube
loading...

Look! It's Natasha! I'd say we share a striking resemblance. Ok, not so much.


See Also:

More From Hot 104.7 - KKLS-FM