Staging a modern take on a truly timeless story

The new musical, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, will premiere on Jan 13 and run until March 2 at the Bocom New Bund 31 Performing Arts Center in Shanghai, after three successful trial performances at the Nine Trees Future Arts Center between Dec 29 and Monday.

This is the latest rendition of Dave Malloy's multiple award-winning musical based on 70 pages of the classical Russian novel, War and Peace.

Jointly produced by Shanghai Grand Theatre, Changyang Culture Company and West Bund Theatre, the show features high-tech design, including the stage, lighting, acoustics and costumes.

Both the previous off-Broadway and Broadway productions featured a stage setting reminiscent of a Russian restaurant, where Malloy took his initial inspirations while visiting Russia and began to compose the musical. The Shanghai production, however, introduces a new setting featuring giant red rings, inspired by the comet's orbit.

South Korean stage designer Pilyoung Oh commissioned construction of a new frame to support the settings, props and equipment that weigh a total of 15 metric tons, with the chandeliers alone weighing 1 ton.

To correspond with the lyrics "there is a war going on somewhere outside", Oh designed an outer world with tall birch trees rising from a snow-covered landscape. The cold, bleak background contrasts sharply with the warm and opulent indoor setting, conveying the feel of the novel, War and Peace.

Seven rows of auditorium seats were removed so that some of the audience members can sit onstage in four rings surrounding the two central circles that serve as the main performance areas.

A butler is positioned in each of the four rings to lead audience members to their seats, hand them a mask and serve them rose wine, as if they were guests to the ball.

"Sitting here, you might not see some of the performances from the best point of view, but the actors are so close and are running all over the place around you," said Jin Wen, an audience member who had an onstage seat at the trial show on Dec 29.