![]() ![]() The song is, by all appearances, a turning point for Pierre. In the Off-Broadway productions, this was his final appearance of the act now, the sequence concludes with the song “Dust and Ashes.” Pierre’s next major appearance comes near the middle of the act, during which he gets drunk with his brother-in-law, then challenges his wife’s lover to a duel. Pierre begins the play lamenting that “for no obvious reason…I can’t go on/Living as I am.” Already such aimless despair is treading on unsteady ground for Aristotelian drama: One expects the “real” reason to be revealed over the course of the show, some hidden sadness to be unburied. But with his revised Pierre, Malloy has filled in a more complex narrative surrounding Pierre’s depression, one with room not only for despair but for optimism as well. That’s probably why dramatic depictions of mental illness often end either in catastrophic tragedy (think A Long Day’s Journey Into Night or ‘ night, Mother), or with a faintly artificial sense that everything has somehow been fixed over the course of the story (to a certain extent Proof, or the recent Oregon Trail). “Because he’s sad” is not generally considered a very compelling motivation, nor is it one that tends to come to a satisfactory denouement. But while we all acknowledge Hamlet’s sadness, it’s rare to see his much-derided indecision and oft-recited suicidal impulses discussed as originating in his melancholy. A particularly prominent example would be Shakespeare’s famously melancholic Prince of Denmark. While “Dust and Ashes” was written for Groban in the sense that its range and style were tailored to suit him, the song itself plays a key role in changing Pierre’s arc in the show-and in doing so, creating a character that offers an unusually realistic dramatization of depression.ĭramatists through history have been fascinated with depicting the thing we now would call depression onstage. It turns out, however, that the alterations composer/lyricist/librettist Dave Malloy made to the role of Pierre, which he originated at Ars Nova (and which he’ll reenter for some Broadway dates in May and June), are much more substantial than simply dropping in an aria to placate a celebrity. Groban … and that a new song, ‘Dust and Ashes,’ has been written for his character.” There were strong implications that the changes were being made to accommodate Groban and his star power. Early press announced that “sections of the score will be expanded for Mr. ![]() It was an unexpected artistic marriage: Recording artists looking to make Broadway their debuts don’t generally turn to bizarre new electropop operas that began life in tiny but formidable new work venues like Ars Nova. Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 opened on Broadway last November with singer Josh Groban in one of the title roles.
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