Cast recording of Comet cc @joshgroban

I got the cast recording of "Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812" ("Comet")  I saw this show twice already, and blogged about it

April 2017 viewing
October 2016 viewing

This is the very first time I have ever seen a Broadway show twice.  When I was there, one Grobanite told me she had seen it 12 times -- or maybe it was more.

It's really an amazing show and Josh is amazing in it.  I was thinking of going again on July 2 -- his last day, but I see that there are only premium seats available that day.  I guess I'll pass.

But listening to the cast album allows me to re-experience it.  Listening has also clarified the show a great deal for me.  I notice a lot of new details: subtleties of plot, exactly how each performer is using his or her voice to achieve mood, how the complex instrumental arrangements supports the plot.

I read the wikipedia excerpt of War and Peace and was surprised to see that Natasha and Pierre eventually end up together, which I didn't expect.  I've been fantasizing that maybe after the book she outlives Pierre and ends up going to look up Anatole, who I think is younger.  I want to believe that eventually he is reformed, regrets his mistakes, and really loves her.  But that's, I think, a reflection of the power of the performances, that they capture my imagination like that.

I feel Josh has learned to bring more acting into his singing, over time, with this performance. Another Grobie remarked to me that she thought he had really grown in this role.  Listening to his voice, I feel that I hear the Josh who I think I know, or at least the Josh that I hope he really is.  Pierre has become a much more lovable character than I felt he was during the previews.

There are some exceptions to the similarities of the real Josh to Pierre; Josh is thin; Josh doesn't have big hands; I don't think Josh would duel -- and, especially, I don't think the real Josh is so free at giving away his money, except to kids who need musical instruments.

Maybe people don't understand Grobanites. I believe we are people who like musical innovation and complexity, but not of the loud rock variety, more of the modern classical variety.  I just adore the way discord is used to create conflict and suspense in this musical == and also how really strange sounds are used to create mood.  I feel this is done masterfully.

I was thinking I really should go see the "Dear Evan Hanson" thing, because it won so many Tonys.  On the other hand, I looked at the Tonys performance.  Yeah, this guy act and sings well.  On the other hand, musically, this work seems pedestrian compared with "Comet." It's more like business as usual for Broadway.  I saw another song from the show, and it was of the same ilk.  The Tonys went with the more formulaic, traditional show. Bah humbug.

Do non-Grobanites understand that Josh has always been musically innovative? There is this stereotype of these goofy older fans who have crushes on him, but, IMHO, these fans are actually looking for something musically new more than younger fans are.  We've heard a lot of music in our lives.  We want intellectual stimulation.

Personally, I have never really liked most of the music that I've heard in my life.  I'm really grateful to Josh that he has led me to so much music that I do like.

The remarkable thing here is that there are so many fans who want to hear this complicated, exotic music.

Another thing I'm noticing is the rich female characters in this play.  I have had a concern about discrimination in the context of Josh's music: blog about discrimination When Josh performed in "Coffeetown," I was very critical (blog about this movie) of the character breakdown there.  The female was a love interest.  Most of the action was about the interactions between the guys. When he was in "The Hollars," (blog about this movie) there were still more male characters than female, though at least there were two female characters including one who was -- miracle of miracles -- older, though, predictably, dying.  It was nevertheless a step up from Coffee Town in that respect.  Here in "Comet," the female characters seem equal. There are lots of them.  They interact with each other in interesting ways.  I don't know if Tolstoy was really feminist, but there is much to celebrate here in the context of feminism.  There is even an older female character (Marya) who is even not dying; tho, rather predictably, she is played by a woman who seems a lot younger than the character.

Josh said he waited a long time to find the right show for him.  I was wondering, while listening to the album, whether perhaps the rich female characters had any influence on his choice -- and whether, perhaps, my blog might have influenced his thinking. Meh. Probably not. Probably just the amazing music -- and the fact that the Pierre character is well suited to his type.




Spoiler alert: Don'r read the following if you haven't seen the show

I'm also intrigued how there are plot twists that keep looking as there will be tragedy. Someone might die in a duel.  An innocent virgin might be destroyed by a cynical cad.  A heartbroken young girl might succeed in committing suicide. Yet, ultimately, they all seem to be tempests in a teapot.  I like that.

Addendum:

The wikipedia article also had some interesting points about Pierre that aren't clear from the play

First, Pierre was allegedly really dying because of a series of strokes. This brings some clarity to the song "Dust & Ashes," but the play doesn't really tell us about the string of strokes.


Second, Pierre was the bastard son of a nobleman, yet he was able to recover some inheritance from his father's estate, prior to our segment -- which is why he has so much money.  This is a difference with the law of England, which I'm more useful to reading/hearing about. In English law, the bastard son of a nobleman would not necessarily get anything in inheritance.

I'm used to the topic of bastard sons coming up in Shakespeare, where they are mostly depicted as Biller and jealous because their 1/2 sibs have so much more money, power and status.  Here Pierre is depicted as the nice guy, which is not the trope I'm usually expecting to see.

Wonder Woman and the Quixotic Quest

Spoiler alert: probably not such a great idea to read this if you haven’t seen the movie yet

The concept of a childlike faith: in this case the belief that war was a god called Ares and that if Ares could be killed war would end.

This brings up so much stuff for me.

First, the Quixotic Quest for the World Anthem, that I’ve been pushing on this blog for several years.  

Michael Jackson had a childlike faith that getting the whole world to sing together would bring us closer to peace — that people could be transformed by singing and dancing together.  He had this faith, because of what he had seen in his audience during his performances.  And, in fact, many people who were in those audiences did feel that something transformative had happened to them.  

I think he was right. I don’t know that the event that he proposed, an event where the whole world would sing and cry together, would permanently end war, but it would certainly start changing how we see each other — bringing us closer to a world where it isn’t us versus them, but only us.  As I’ve said, I feel there’s a more general action item here: creating international holidays or cultural events that we could all share, so that we could feel like one people, rather than multiple peoples.

Second, pagan gods.

I grew up in a Protestant environment.  In this environment, the idea of pagan gods was threatening.  They were violative of the first commandment.  We would be punished if we believed in them.

In the fictional world of comic books and comic book movies, Gods become superheroes or supervillains.  They have great powers but they are no different from The Hulk or Superman, at some level -- fiction.

Personally, as an eclectic universalist, I have a dislike of the mentality that people will be punished for their honest attempts to worship the divine in the best way that they knew how.  I am attracted to the Baha’i’ belief that all religions worship the same God — that any apparent differences are due to a universal human failure to understand God, not due to failings of selected groups of people to worship the correct God.  The Baha’i’s teach a God centered approach to religion that looks at the individual worshipper’s personal relationship with God.  Many religions adopt a more coercive approach, where the worshipper tries to pressure others to have the same beliefs or worship the same way -- and, moreover, believers tell those with different beliefs that God will punish them.

As I mentioned in a recent blog, I never actually became a Baha’i’, but I’m still attracted to this concept.

I was intrigued with an Internet meme that attributed the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the intervention of the Norse God, Loki, a sewer of chaos, associated with the color red.  The red of Loki was likened to the strawberry blond color of Trump’s hair.

The Nordic peoples are predominantly Protestant now.  But someone in Norse history recorded the Norse legends for posterity, so they can be remembered — unlike, for instance, the Druidic tradition, which is obscure and poorly understood, because details were kept secret.

And, because someone took the trouble to write down Norse legends, they persist.  Thor and Loki appear in movies.  Similarly Greek Gods are constantly featured in drama.  Witches, vampires, werewolves, and other monsters are also featured. 

Fundamentalists are often disturbed by such drama.  

Wonderwoman posits that Gods might die. Can Gods die? Can the memory of them be suppressed? If they are remembered can they not always be used as the metaphor for reality that they always were? What, in fact, is wrong with the concept of such metaphors?

Fundamentalists condemn Hindus, for instance, for worshipping more than one God.  Some Hindus counter that they believe in only one God, but they use these other personae to focus their minds during worship on the needs they are trying to address at the time -- as a sort of metaphor.  

So, similarly, the idea of Donald Trump as a manifestation of Loki, has the threatening implication that such metaphors could be acceptable — that coercive monotheism is wrong.

So, ultimately, Wonder Woman’s actions and her childlike faith are moving, yet we suspect they are futile. Still, we like the metaphor.  Still, we want her to keep fighting, trying to kill Ares, all the while suspecting that he’s likely to return in another movie, even if apparently dead.

And I suspect that even if my proposed event were to occur — the annual event where the whole world cries and sings together — war will not really be gone.  Still, I think it will make war harder.