#The great comet of 1812 series

'The Great Comet' may have closed later that year, but its impact continued to uplift and inspire me. The sight inspires Pierre, prompting him to forget his fear for a moment and allow himself to feel uplifted, for the first time in a while.Īnd for me, I found myself feeling the same way.

#The great comet of 1812 series

As troubling as it may sound, I saw myself in Pierre and his desire to escape his spiral of fear and self-loathing.Īt the end of the show, Pierre, still lost and afraid, wanders the streets of Moscow.Īs he begins to cry, he suddenly looks up and sees the Great Comet of 1812 lighting up the sky, visually represented by a series of specialized chandeliers lowering above the audience, glowing brighter until the light is nearly blinding. Yet, in every dark moment, I found comfort in this story of eccentric Russians whose lives were even more chaotic than my own. I spent every moment terrified, depressed and angry at who I had become and where I was. Going into extremely difficult IB exams, I found myself stress-eating, crying almost every day and pulling all-nighters. I was in the rigorous International Baccalaureate program at a school that very much didn't understand my needs as a student with disability accommodations for severe OCD and anxiety. Senior year of high school wasn't good for my mental health. 'And I'm so ready to wake up now.'Īnd just like that, teenage me was in tears. 'They say we are asleep, until we fall in love,' he sings. But he suddenly wonders why he still cares about what happens to him, culminating in one of the most resonant lyrics of the entire performance.

So how did I connect to this character so much?Īt the end of act one, Pierre - having just drunkenly won a duel - sits down at a piano and begins to sing the song 'Dust and Ashes,' an emotional aria where he questions what is left for him.Īt first, it seems Pierre is about to give up on life. Let me be clear, I wasn’t a middle-aged aristocrat with alcoholism, trapped in a loveless marriage. Needless to say, teenage me felt an immediate connection. In a separate song, we learn he is depressed, has alcoholism and is undergoing an existential crisis during which he consumes philosophy and poetry. 'Dear, bewildered and awkward Pierre? Rich, unhappily married Pierre?'

Pierre is introduced during the opening number, where each character is established with a single word to describe their personality. However, the most captivating aspect of the plot isn’t the affair, nor does it have to do with Natasha.Įnter my favorite character, the sad nobleman, Pierre Bezukhov, played at the time, by Josh Groban.

This alone would be enough to make a captivating musical. Adapted from a 70-page section of the novel, the musical follows the life of Natasha Rostova, a beautiful young ingenue who, while struggling with the absence of her fiancé, begins an affair with the charismatic and hedonistic Prince Anatole Kuragin.