Prologue…………Pierre, Natasha, Sonya, Marya, Anatole, Hélène, Dolokhov, Bolkonsky, Mary, Balaga, Ensemble

Pierre…………………………………………………………………….Pierre, Ensemble

Moscow……………………………………………………..Natasha, Marya, Sonya

The Private & Intimate Life of the House…………………Bolkonsky, Mary, Natasha

Natasha & Bolkonskys…………………………………………..Servant, Mary, Natasha, Bolkonsky

No One Else……………………………………………………………………….Natasha

The Opera (Part 1)………………………………….Marya, Servant, Sonya, Hélène, Pierre, Ensemble

The Opera (Part 2)………………………………………………..Opera Soloists, Natasha, Sonya, Ensemble

The Opera (Part 3)………………………………..Natasha, Sonya, Hélène, Opera Soloists, Ensemble

Natasha & Anatole…………………………………………….Natasha, Anatole

The Duel……………………………………………….Anatole, Pierre, Dolokhov, Hélène, Servant, Chorus

Dust and Ashes…………………………………………………..Pierre, Ensemble

Sunday Morning………………………………………Sonya, Natasha, Marya

Charming………………………………………………………………Hélène, Natasha

The Ball……………………………………………………………….Anatole, Natasha

Letters………………………………………………………Mary, Natasha, Anatole, Dolokhov, Pierre, Chorus

Sonya & Natasha………………………………………………….Natasha, Sonya

Sonya Alone………………………………………………………………………….Sonya

Preparations…………………………………………Pierre, Anatole, Dolokhov

Balaga……………………………….Balaga, Anatole, Dolokhov, Ensemble

The Abduction…………………………………….Anatole, Pierre, Dolokhov, Maidservant, Ensemble

In My House………………………………………………Marya, Sonya, Natasha

A Call to Pierre……………………….Marya, Pierre, Servant, Ensemble

Find Anatole……………………………Pierre, Anatole, Hélène, Natasha, Servant, Ensemble

Pierre & Anatole……………………………………………………..Pierre, Anatole

Natasha Very Ill…………………………………………………………………….Sonya

Pierre & Andrey…………………………………………..Sonya, Andrey, Pierre

Pierre & Natasha……………………………………………………Pierre, Natasha

The Great Comet of 1812…………………………………Pierre, Ensemble

Dave Malloy (composer/lyricist/book writer) is a composer, writer, performer, and orchestrator. He has written fourteen musicals, including Moby-Dick, a four-part musical reckoning with Melville’s classic novel; Octet, a chamber choir musical about internet addiction; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, an electropop opera based on a slice of Tolstoy’s War & Peace (12 Tony nominations, including Best Musical, Score, Book, and Orchestrations); Ghost Quartet, a song cycle about love, death, and whiskey; Preludes, a musical fantasia set in the hypnotized mind of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Little Bunny Foo Foo, a forest entertainment for small people; Three Pianos, a drunken romp through Schubert’s Winterreise; Black Wizard/Blue Wizard, an escapist RPG fantasy; Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage, an anti-academia rock opera; Beardo, a reinterpretation of the Rasputin myth; Sandwich, a musical about killing animals; and Clown Bible, Genesis to Revelation told through clowns.

He has won two Obie Awards, a Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, a Theater World Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, an ASCAP New Horizons Award, and a Jonathan Larson Grant, and he has been a MacDowell Fellow and composer-in-residence at Ars Nova and the Signature Theatre. He lives in Brooklyn. www.davemalloy.com

—Adapted from Concord Theatricals

Gabi Bradley (Ensemble) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, Carmel, IN

Zuri Clarno (Ensemble) Senior, BFA Musical Theatre, Columbus, OH

Jason Thomas Clyde (Ensemble) First-year, BFA Musical Theatre, Zeeland, MI

Isabella Denissen (Sonya Rostova) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, Dallas, TX

Faith Dolan (Ensemble) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, Arlington, MA

Aliyah Douglas (Natasha Rostova) Senior, BFA Musical Theatre, Tucson, AZ

Ezra Frazier (Ensemble, Balaga u/s) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, Minneapolis, MN

Riley Hahn (Hélène Bezukhova) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, West Orange, NJ

Quincy Hampton (Anatole Kuragin) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, Maplewood, NJ

Cade Jetté (Ensemble) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, West Palm Beach, FL

Ty Lam (Andrey, Anatole u/s) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, Plano, TX

Eric Liang (Ensemble) First-year, BFA Musical Theatre, Cedar Rapids, IA

Kevin Ludwig (Pierre Bezukhov) Senior, BFA Musical Theatre, PAME minor, Toledo, OH

Alejandro Medina (Ensemble) First-year, BFA Musical Theatre, Chicago, IL

Emmanuel Morgan (Swing) First-year, BFA Musical Theatre, Ann Arbor, MI

Emily Murakami (Ensemble, Natasha u/s) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre/BS Movement Science, Toronto, Ontario

Tiffany Nagano (Swing, Mary u/s) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, Honolulu, HI

Avery Ramsey (Ensemble) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, Hoboken, NJ

Charlie Reyes (Prince Bolkonsky) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, Dublin, CA

Fabi Rihl (Ensemble, Dolokhov u/s) Senior, BFA Musical Theatre/MT Composition minor, Vienna, Austria

Natasha Rodriguez (Mary Bolkonsky) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre/MT Composition and PAME minors, Miami, FL

Drey’von Simmons (Ensemble, Bolkonsky u/s) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre, Interlochen, MI

Kiran Szymkowiak (Fedya Dolokhov) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre/Business minor, Pittsburgh, PA

Sage Taylor (Marya Dmitriyevna) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre/Popular Music Studies minor, San Diego, CA

Madeline Vale (Swing, Marya u/s, Sonya u/s, Hélène u/s) Senior, BFA Musical Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA

Emmett Victorson (Balaga) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, Evanston, IL

Liana Wise (Ensemble, Dance Captain, Associate Choreographer) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, East Greenwich, RI

Landon Wouters (Pierre u/s, Andrey u/s) Senior, BFA Musical Theatre, Fullerton, CA

Sarah Zampella (Ensemble) Sophomore, BFA Musical Theatre, Little Falls, NJ

Anderson Zoll (Ensemble, Dance Captain, Associate Choreographer) Junior, BFA Musical Theatre/MT Composition minor, Austin, TX

Matt Berman (Sound Designer) travels as the sound designer for Kristin Chenoweth. His most recent Broadway sound design was for Chenoweth’s For the Girls at the Nederlander Theater. His international touring with stars such as Chenoweth, Liza Minnelli, Alan Cumming, and Elaine Paige has allowed him to design for such iconic venues as Royal Albert Hall; the Paris Opera; Royal Theater Carré in Amsterdam; the Sporting Club in Monte Carlo; the Acropolis; the Amphitheater in Taormina, Sicily; the Sydney Opera House; and, closer to home, the Hollywood Bowl, Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and Carnegie Hall. Other Broadway credits include Kristin Chenoweth’s My Love Letter to Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne, the Tony Award-winning Liza’s at the Palace, Bea Arthur on Broadway at the Booth Theater, Nancy LaMott’s Just in Time for Christmas, and Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony at the Belasco Theater.

Andy Blatt (Production Stage Manager) is a senior pursuing a degree in theatre design and production. Select U-M credits include Julius Caesar (PSM), Miss America (SM), Of Thee I Sing (SM), Elizabeth Cree (ASM), and Guys & Dolls (ASM). He is so thankful to end his senior year with this wonderful company! Shout-out to his incredible stage management team: Chloe D, Chloe Y, Julia, Lindsay, Patricio, and Patrick! And a huge thank you to his friends that have supported him throughout the way!

Jessica Boevers Bogart (Director) is a professional director, teacher, actress, and assistant professor of music here at the University of Michigan. Bogart has played leading roles on Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen, Les Miserables, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Rent, Oklahoma, Beauty & the Beast, Boeing Boeing, Brief Encounter, In My Life, and A Little Night Music at Lincoln Center as well as Medea at Carnegie Hall. She has directed award-winning regional theatre productions in Chicago, Raleigh, and New York. Bogart also proudly served as an associate artistic director at Chicago’s Apple Tree Theatre. She resides in Dexter, Michigan, with her husband Matt and their two sons.

Brittany Crinson (Hair & Makeup Designer) Brittany Crinson is the Wigs, Hair, and Makeup Studio manager for all of UProd. She takes on the role of designing for each production. Crinson spent several years in Chicago building her portfolio and skill set as a wig, hair, and makeup designer. She is thrilled to be back for her 2nd full year at UMICH. Break legs cast and crew of The Great Comet!

Jason DeBord (Music Director) was appointed to the Department of Musical Theatre faculty in September 2014 and promoted to associate professor in 2020. DeBord most recently served as music supervisor for the 2025 Seoul production of Once—The Musical, having previously served as resident music supervisor for its Broadway and world tour productions. Additional Broadway credits include Shrek, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Rock of Ages, Legally Blonde, All Shook Up, and Rent, among others. As a conductor and pianist, he has played national tours of A Chorus Line, Rent, and Urinetown, and his playing is featured in the 2009 Sony Pictures Classics documentary Every Little Step. Regional credits include the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, A.C.T., the Alliance Theatre, the St. Louis Muny, and the 5th Avenue Theatre. DeBord recently completed arrangements for composer Nick Spear’s theatrical cantata Extraction to Extinction, with orchestration by Olivier Award-winner August Eriksmoen. The work explores the impact of natural resource extraction on rural communities and its impact on society at large.

Ron De Jesús (Choreographer) is an assistant professor in the Department of Musical Theatre. He is the artistic director of Ron De Jesús Dance and was the leading male dancer with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (17 seasons). Broadway/New York: Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel Movin’ Out, Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away – creative team; artistic associate for StagePlays Theater Company. U-M: American Idiot, Cabaret, Crazy for You, Full Monty, Ybor City, Ariadne auf Naxos, Dance with Me, Sweeney Todd, Sense and Sensibility. Drury Lane Theatre: Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Film credits: Road to Perdition, Stay, Across the Universe, asst. choreographer – A League of Their Own. Awards: Best Choreographer, Chicago Music & Dance Alliance Award; New York Musical Theater Festival Award (twice); National Choreographers’ Initiative, Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Male Dancer; Carbonell Award for Best Choreography. Répétiteur for Twyla Tharp Productions, Washington Ballet, Aspen Ballet, NBA Japan.

Jess Fialko (Lighting Designer) is a lighting, costume, and scenic designer. They are a clinical assistant professor of design in the Department of Theatre & Drama. They recently designed lighting for Fawn, a new dance/theater work by Charli Brissey, performed at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse. Fialko is also the lighting designer/production manager for Vim Vigor Dance Company (Punchline, Dracula, The Long Fall). U-M: lighting designer: Men On Boats, Antigone, Prometheus: Beginnings, Imogen Says Nothing, No Other (choreographer Fangfei Miao, toured to Lyon, France), 7 Hours Difference Part II: Present Simple Tense (also performed at Sibiu International Theatre Festival). Scenic designer: Moscow Moscow Moscow… Costume designer: The Cherry Orchard. Regional Credits: Theatreworks Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs Conservatory, Gibney Center, Riverside Theatre, Iowa Summer Repertory, Penobscot Theatre Company, Maples Repertory Theatre, Hollins University, University of Northern Iowa, Birmingham Children’s Theatre.

Kevin Judge (Scenic Designer) is a freelance scenic designer whose credits include scenery for the Broadway production of Irena’s Vow (Walter Kerr Theatre) as well as many other shows in New York City. Among these are Laugh It Up, Stare It Down (The Cherry Lane Theatre), Anthem (Baryshnikov Arts Center), Lovesick, The Revival, and FUBAR with Project Y, and Frankenstein (37 ARTS). Regionally he has worked at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, La Jolla Playhouse, DelawareTheater Company, Dorset Theatre Festival, and Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. He designed the scenery for Grammy Award-winner Esperanza Spalding’s 2016 international tour. In addition to his theatre designs, Judge has also been a set designer on over 100 episodes of television, working on many shows including The Chosen (Lionsgate), The White House Plumbers (HBO), For Life (ABC), Manifest (NBC), Jessica Jones (Netflix), Blindspot (NBC), The Americans (FX), and Master of None (Netflix). He was also the associate designer on over 40 theatre productions with Alexander Dodge, including the Tony Award-nominated designs for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Present Laughter. He received his MFA from the University of California, San Diego.

Ellie Van Engen (Costume Designer) is a senior in the BFA design and production program with a costume design concentration and a minor in gender & health. She would like to thank her family and best friends for their support in both this show and her time at Michigan. She has had the most wonderful experience creating costumes in her time at Michigan and can’t wait for you to see what is next! Costume design credits: The Marriage of Figaro (UProd), Julius Caesar (UProd), The Government Inspector (MT Studio); assistant CD: Pericles (Santa Cruz Shakespeare), Attempts on Her Life (Rude Mechanicals), The Cherry Orchard (UProd), People Are Things (Directing Thesis), and Horse Girls (Basement Arts). | instagram: @ellievecostume | website: ellievanengen.com

“In Nineteenth-Century Russia, we write letters…”

Cher Public (Dear Audience),

Dissecting Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a monumental task. A sung-through show, a significant undertaking. Creator Dave Malloy said, “Let’s put those together.” What you get is an electro-pop, rock, R&B-infused opera based in early 19th-century Russia. And not. Makes little sense, like trying to understand what is merely a sliver of an epic; one that deals with skirmishes, global conflicts, and maybe a troika ride or two, all set against Napoleon’s years-long waging of destruction across Europe, as grand as the operas Russia’s nobility attended.

So, to piece together the narrative, the dramaturgy team spoke with actors, to have conversations like what we are having with you, the audience, in the Prologue: “Gonna have to study up a little bit, if you wanna keep with the plot.” Every song, character, and choreography sequence tells its own tale. “Simple” questions such as “What does this word mean?” sparked answers anywhere from unfamiliar cultural traditions to the deepest conversational depths about how one’s pride relates to the humility of aging or the meaning of life.

These conversations made translating War and Peace into the 21st century much easier. In a world also riddled with conflict, generational division, simultaneous shattering and formation of new trends at a breakneck pace, amid ever-shifting power dynamics and innovation, this 19th-century novel feels eerily relatable. Soaring vocals and striking instrumentation paint a vibrant picture of 19th-century Russia. At the center lie Natasha and Pierre; within their respective orbits lie a multitude of family members, friends, and rivals in Russia’s high society. The course charted for these stories comes together and bears witness to a celestial phenomenon: the Great Comet of 1812, which actually began its 260-day journey in 1811.

A search for life’s meaning manifests in many ways: new love, attempts on others’ lives, burying oneself in philosophy and politics to find meaning. Each character has their methods, just like performers and the creative team alike have their own avenues into finding their way into such a dense story.

Cordialment, Joe Guzon, Dramaturg

“There’s a war going on out there somewhere,And Andrey isn’t here…”

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 artfully adapts only about 67 pages of Tolstoy’s 1,200-page classic, yet it somehow manages to cut to the heart of the themes—a story about personal and political unrest and how humans manage to live through the darkest periods of time. In these pages, many characters face the worst moments of turmoil in their personal lives that endure for the rest of the book: Pierre is in a profound spiritual crisis with which he cannot seem to cope; Natasha, separated from her fiance, grows restless and almost destroys her reputation; and, ever-present in his absence, Andrey—Pierre’s closest friend and Natasha’s lover—isn’t here. He is off fighting in the Napoleonic wars, a distant and determining backdrop of the story. Without his absence, the events of this show would not have occurred. Despite the relative comfort in which these characters live, they cannot escape the larger ramifications and political context in which they exist.

No one is unscathed by war. Not then, not now.

Yet, Great Comet is not a tragedy. It is a story about how we connect to our humanity and that of others to find meaning within moments. This passage from War and Peace beautifully sums up some of the central themes despite it not being in the musical: “…And, loving people without reason, [Pierre]

Thoughts From the Dramaturgy Team…

discovered the unquestionable reasons for which it was worth loving them” (1124).

Though Pierre spends the entire show in a philosophical and spiritual maelstrom, he does not find the meaning he so desperately searches for until he stops isolating himself from the world around him; he finds it when he connects with other people.

Tolstoy published his novel in 1869. He originally intended it to be about the Decembrist revolt, but, as the story goes, he realized two things: first, that Pierre (who is in many ways a reflection of Tolstoy himself) could not exist without a history; second, that the peasant boys he was teaching at his estate, Yasnaya Polyana, seemed particularly taken by his descriptions of the Napoleonic Wars.

Such is the world in which Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 takes place: a world of anachronism, where characters can move fluidly from a club to a duel to a costume ball. This type of anachronism is not unusual in the works of Dave Malloy, whose shows routinely warp time in order to express most accurately those things that transcend it.

As we, like the characters of Great Comet, find ourselves faced with constant reminders that “none of us are great men—we’re caught in the wave of history,” it is worthwhile to remember that, “besides sorrow, there [are] also joys” (1115). All is not over. We have communities to care for, art to create, and people to love in the meantime, not “without reason,” as Tolstoy suggested, but because that is how we make it through. I hope this show exemplifies all this and more for you, as it does for me.

—Kate Baldry, Dramaturg

Anishinaabeg gaa bi dinokiiwaad temigad manda Michigan Kichi Kinoomaagegamig. Mdaaswi nshwaaswaak shi mdaaswi shi niizhawaaswi gii-sababoonagak, Ojibweg, Odawaag, minwaa Bodwe’aadamiig wiiba gii-miigwenaa’aa maamoonjiniibina Kichi Kinoomaagegamigoong wi pii-gaa aanjibiigaadeg Kichi-Naakonigewinning, debendang manda aki, mampii Niisaajiwan, gewiinwaa niijaansiwaan ji kinoomaagaazinid. Daapanaming ninda kidwinan, megwaa minwaa gaa bi aankoosejig zhinda akiing minwaa gii-miigwewaad Kichi-Kinoomaagegamigoong aanji-daapinanigaade minwaa mshkowenjigaade.

The University of Michigan is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe people. In 1817, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadami Nations made the largest single land transfer to the University of Michigan. This was offered ceremonially as a gift through the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids so that their children could be educated. Through these words of acknowledgment, their contemporary and ancestral ties to the land and their contributions to the University are renewed and reaffirmed.

Thank you for attending this program. The University of Michigan strives to create a truly open forum, one in which diverse opinions can be expressed and heard. You can see our full Freedom of Expression policy at smtd.umich.edu/FOE

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