As much as any show currently playing in New York, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 takes place in a separate universe.

That’s partly because writer-composer Dave Malloy has turned a section of Tolstoy’s War and Peace into an electro-pop opera, inventively blending 19th century Russia with sounds of the modern world. And as she weaves performers through the audience, which is seated at tables and banquettes around the room, Rachel Chavkin’s direction also creates the sense of being “somewhere else.” When a 19th century aristocrat sits right at your table to sing about her unhappiness, there’s not much difference between “the show” and “reality.” Instead, there’s something in between the two that only exists right here, in this moment.

Blurring the lines even more, the show begins with a full Russian dinner that’s included in the ticket price. You essentially become part of this unusual world before the characters do.
None of these elements would be nearly as successful, however, if the design team didn’t create a distinct environment for them. Though it started last year at Ars Nova, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 has now moved to a massive tent in the meatpacking district called Kazino. It’s a space built specifically for this show, and every feature has been chosen to pull us deeper into the musical’s orbit.

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From time to time, TDF Stages will highlight exciting Off and Off-Off Broadway theatre companies with exclusive “getting to know you” videos. Today, we’re featuring the York Theatre Company, which specializes in musicals new and old. (Along with York staff, the film features Stephen Temperley, whose play Souvenir premiered at the York before moving to Broadway.)

Currently, the York Theatre company is presenting Mark Nadler’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself

Watch the rest of our Meet the Theatre Videos right here!

This video was directed by Mark Blankenship, TDF’s online content editor, and shot and edited by Nicholas Guldner.

Caissie Levy hurtles into the revival of Murder Ballad

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Welcome to Building Character, TDF’s ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles

It’s almost necessary to describe Murder Ballad with urgent words.

A rock opera about a love triangle that ends in blood, it hurtles forward like a bullet. With book and lyrics by Julia Jordan and music and lyrics by Juliana Nash, the show, now at Union Square Theatre, evokes not only the passion that makes us kill for love, but also the thrill of watching a violent love story. It wants us to get heated up and then wonder what our enthusiasm means.

That’s partly why director Trip Cullman puts the audience in the midst of the action, placing patrons at tables throughout the stage. Patrons are often just inches from the actors as they fight, seethe, and kiss, which makes it easier to feel the story’s energy.

For Caissie Levy, there’s been a similar wildness behind the scenes. She plays Sara, a woman torn between the stable man she married and the dangerous rebel she loves, but unlike everyone else in the cast, she’s new to the production. Murder Ballad had a successful run at Manhattan Theatre Club last fall, and when it was time for the Union Square remount, all the actors returned except the original Sara, Karen Olivo. Once Levy got the part, she had to catch up at warp speed.

“The whole thing has been so fast,” she says. “I had one week of rehearsal alone in a room with the director and the writers and the music team. Then I had a week with the cast members, then we went into tech. That’s the fastest I’ve ever put anything up that wasn’t a reading.”

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Lucas Hnath’s experimental new drama explores chaos and control via the Magic Kingdom

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It seems so easy to get a handle on A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, the new play by Lucas Hnath that’s now at Soho Rep.

After all, the story is right there in the title: A group of actors gather to read a screenplay that Walt Disney supposedly wrote about his life. When we enter the theatre, we see an anonymous lecture hall/rehearsal space, with cast members sitting behind tables while they drink their water and graze on bowls of snacks. Eventually, Walt (Larry Pine) enters, and he sits down to play himself—the star of his own movie. As he reads through scenes about Disneyworld and nature documentaries, it seems like we’re getting a clever little comedy about an irascible Hollywood legend.

Then everything breaks apart. Walt keeps cutting scenes that make him angry, for instance, but why is he upset about a movie he wrote himself? And why is the actress playing his daughter sulking away to a corner? Isn’t she just playing a character? Or is she somehow turning into Walt’s child?

And what about the handkerchiefs? Walt has several coughing fits that interrupt the story, and almost every time he pulls a handkerchief away from his mouth, it’s covered with blood. Things were supposed to be light and fun, but now, they’re stained bright red.

For Hnath, this intrusion is vital to the show. “There’s the visible world and the invisible world in this play, and then there are moments when there’s a crossover,” he says. “When there’s that crossover, there’s a feeling of a séance. The spirit is summoned very briefly. You get a glimpse of something, and it goes away. I find those moments very uncanny and engaging.”

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From time to time, TDF Stages will highlight exciting Off and Off-Off Broadway theatre companies with exclusive “getting to know you” videos. Today, we’re featuring Transport Group, which tells rich American stories with striking visual panache.

Watch the rest of our Meet the Theatre Videos right here!

This video was directed by Mark Blankenship, TDF’s online content editor, and shot and edited by Nicholas Guldner.