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Cygnet Theatre’s long-delayed local premiere of ‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’ arrives

Leo Tolstoy’s 19th-century epic novel “War and Peace” is more than 1,400 pages long. Just 70 pages in the middle of the book became the inspiration for the electropop opera of a musical, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.”

Written by Dave Malloy, who once toiled as a piano player on cruise ship voyages, “Natasha, Pierre” spent two years in theaters off Broadway before opening on the Great White Way in 2016 with Josh Groban as Tolstoy’s emotional, searching protagonist Pierre Bezukhov and Denée Benton (later in “Hamilton”) as the beguiling Natasha Rostova. The show would be nominated for 12 Tonys, winning two.

After a two-year delay — a March 2022 production was postponed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — Cygnet Theatre is now presenting “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.”

In fact, the delay goes back even further.

“We had a COVID postponement,” recalled Cygnet Artistic Director Sean Murray. “Then we were going to do it and Russian invaded Ukraine. We would have been opening the show right in the middle of the invasion.”

But for Murray, who said he became obsessed with it when it was off Broadway “several lifetimes ago” and who has seen “Natasha, Pierre” three times: “I’ve had a long time to think about it. The show was written to be immersive. It really calls for the audience meeting us halfway.”

Murray is directing this production that stars Selena Ceja as Natasha and Kürt Norby as Pierre. They head a 10-member ensemble of actor/singers that includes Megan Carmitchel, Michael Louis Cusimano, Linda Libby and Luke H. Jacobs.

In one of its early productions, “Natasha, Pierre” was produced with a 10-person cast in a custom-built tent in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. By the time it appeared on Broadway, there were more than 80 people onstage.

“My inclination is that the 10-person version is the best version for me because it’s about the immediacy and intimacy of the storytelling,” said Murray, “and being able to connect with the characters.”

As part of this production’s goal of intimacy with the audience, Murray said the stage area has been redesigned to bring ticket-buyers closer to the performers. Two small secondary stages have been built near the side seating sections, and up to 16 audience members will be seated onstage for every performance. The orchestra will also sit onstage and will be joined periodically by roving actors playing their own instruments.

Ceja was approached by Murray to co-star in this show while she was playing the character of Wednesday in San Diego Musical Theatre’s production of “The Addams Family” last fall. She calls “Natasha, Pierre” “an amazing challenge. This show is one in which you have to be an excellent vocalist. You have to know your music because it’s so difficult and there’s a lot of Russian influence in it.”

Not just Russian.

“It’s a variety of styles,” Murray said. “There are some legitimate classical portions. There’s technopop music. There’s a rave scene. But there’s a cohesiveness to it, in that it’s all about how to tell the story.”

Most of the actors in the show play instruments as well, and except for one spoken line, “Natasha, Pierre” is a completely sung-through musical.

The story, an adaptation of that 70-page sliver from the voluminous 1869 novel “War and Peace,” focuses on the engaged countess Natasha and the love triangle she entangles herself in. Meanwhile, the despondent aristocrat Pierre is seeking the true meaning of his existence — a Russian literary trope if ever there was one.

And yes, there is the presence of the Great Comet of 1812. According to astronomical history, it was actually the Great Comet of 1811, which remained bright and visible in the sky into the following year.

Malloy’s musical “takes place right in the center of the novel,” explained Murray. “So this little chunk works almost like a pivot — the characters’ self-discovery reaches a turning point in this portion of the book.”

Ceja says she began reading Tolstoy’s novel after learning she was being sought for the part of Natasha.

“I had a copy I’d never touched,” she said. “I opened it and thought ‘This is crazy! There’s a thousand more pages!’ It took me months, but I got to the end of it.”

Ceja also boned up on creator Malloy’s interpretation of Natasha.

“He makes her someone you want to hug and root for in one scene and shake sense into the next,” she said. “It’s not like she’s confident in any way as to be snarky or full of herself, but she’s so full of life and so full of her own light.”

This musical take on “War and Peace” is “extremely faithful to the book,” Murray said. “You don’t have to have all the information about the story (that precedes this section of the novel) to know what is going on.”

As for the “Natasha, Pierre” score with its shifting musical idioms and expository lyrics, Murray said: “I’m really lucky that every single member of the cast is an actor and a singer. When you’re doing an opera with very challenging music, you need powerful singers who can act because they have to tell the story through the singing.”

For Ceja, who is making her Cygnet Theatre debut, being part of a cast of veteran actor-singers like those in this show was intimidating at first.

“But it’s a dream, honestly,” she said. “I love the challenge of having to consistently raise my bar. They are so astonishing — my eyes are glued on them.”

Murray believes the immersive quality of “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” makes this show a “very live” experience.

“It’s not your usual Broadway musical. At this point after COVID where people have been on their sofas streaming videos, when you go to the theater you’re going for an experience you can’t have on your streaming devices. There’s a craving for that live connection that you cannot get through any other medium.

“This show embraces this wholeheartedly,” he said.

“Natasha, Pierre” already has given Ceja a new appreciation for Tolstoy’s novel.

“’War and Peace’ is a testament to all the stuff that happens between war and peace. It’s the overarching tendency of human connection and how that’s always one way or another rooted in love,” she said.

Who knows? If “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812” is a hit this spring, maybe “War and Peace” will become this summer’s big beach read.

‘Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812’

When: 7 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through May 26

Where: Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town San Diego

Tickets: $44 and up

Phone: (619) 337-1525

Online: cygnettheatre.com

Coddon is a freelance writer.