Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 to Have UK Premiere This Winter

The UK premiere of Dave Malloy’s Tony-nominated musical Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 has been announced.

Inspired by a section of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Malloy’s acclaimed electropop opera follows Natasha Rostova, who falls for a charismatic aristocrat while awaiting her fiancé’s return from the front lines. Pierre, an unlikely hero, steps in to restore her reputation.

This new production will be presented December 7-February 8 at the Donmar Warehouse. A completely new staging, it is directed by Tim Sheader and choreographed by Ellen Kane, with musical supervision by Nicholas Skilbeck and musical direction by Sam Young. It will have set design by Leslie Travers, costume design by Evie Gurney, sound design by Nick Lidster and Gareth Tucker for Autograph. Fiona Dunn is associate director.

The UK premiere will take place at the Donmar Warehouse from 7 December 2024 to 8 February 2025.

Directed by Tim Sheader as part of his brand new season at the venue, with choreography by Ellen Kane and musical supervision by Nicholas, this production features and musical direction by Sam Young. The casting is directed by Pippa Ailion for Pippa Ailion and Natalie Gallacher Casting, with Fiona Dunn as associate director.

This production will return The Great Comet to its off-off-Broadway roots, with a cast of 12 and band of 10 (as opposed to the Broadway edition, which had a cast of 33).

The Great Comet was originally commissioned and developed at Ars Nova in New York City where it had its world premiere in fall 2012, and was transferred to a custom-built venue in the Meatpacking District in summer 2013. The show and the entire venue was transferred to the Theater District where it continued its run into spring 2014. It played a pre-Broadway engagement in 2015 at American Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts, and ran on Broadway from 2016-17.