Pierre, And The Great Comet Of 1812: Musical Analysis

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Recommended: Importance of technical theatre

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 is a beautiful, intimate, and striking production that was unfortunately overshadowed by other Broadway shows when it was nominated for several Tony awards, but only won a couple of them. With that, the show won the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a Musical thanks to the musical’s brilliant designer and his techniques. Bradley King is the fortunate winner of this award due to his integration of beautiful, bold choices in lighting effects along with his ability in keeping the space intimate and magical.
Bradley King started his career as a lighting designer when he graduated with an undergraduate degree from NYU in theater directing and then graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Department …show more content…

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, is a musical based on a small section of War and Peace that was put on Broadway in 2016. The story takes place in Moscow and circles around Natasha, who is betrothed to Andre who is off at war. It is described as a plot “The musical opened on Broadway in November 2016 and revolves around the character of Natasha, who is war. It is described as a plot “filled with love affairs, partying Russia style, and Pierre’s daily existential crisis” (cennarium_prod. “Reasons Why Great Comet”). For a story as grand and lavish as the one presented in War and Peace, it was difficult for King to establish a lighting plot that could fit the set design created by Mimi Liendraws, which was inspired by Russian vodka bars, supper clubs and gilded interiors, in a theater as small as the Ars Nova Theater when the show started Off-Broadway. In fact, the theater could hold fewer than 100 seats. His original design consisted of hundreds of individual light-bulbs, chandeliers, and table lamps, which reflected the intimate and soulful environment of a Russian pub (BWW News Desk. “Inside… Immersive Display”). He explains why he had to use small light bulbs instead of normal stage lights. King explains, “Our space was so small that we couldn’t fit stage lights... It was super inexpensive because we had a budget of like $25. But then …show more content…

"It's bright, fast and quiet… It also has beautiful color and exceptional color correction… Plus, it's not too big or heavy, which is critical because we push the limits of what we can hang from the ceiling. There are lights literally everywhere in the theater”. With that, King made sure that despite the bigger space, his design and “DNA of the show” still was heavily based around the light bulb. In the bigger space, King explains that he was able to match the incandescent feel of the lamps and chandeliers because the Vipers had excellent color correction. With that, he was also able to bring in dramatic pops of color (BWW News Desk. “Inside… Immersive

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