Theatre Arts Mashes Tolstoi and Electro-Pop with The Great Comet
The University Hall Theatre will once again be filled with music, with an electro-pop operatic romp ripped from a scandalous slice of Tolstoi’s War and Peace. Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 will launch on November 13, with auditions – open to students of all majors – on September 9 and 10. The theatre space will once again transform with an immersive seating plan, putting the audience in the middle of the action of a Russian socialite ball.
Guest director A. Nora Long has been enamored with The Great Comet for years and is looking forward to auditions, especially those giving it a try for the first time.
“The music in this play is amazing, beautiful and fun,” Long says. “But it’s the theme I find resonant. It’s about offering kindness, forgiveness, how one finds purpose and connection to others and – most importantly – how do you move on after you’ve made a grave mistake?”
The Great Comet draws from just a 70-page segment of War and Peace, a famously long novel by Leo Tolstoi. Written by Dave Malloy, it focuses on a young and impulsive Natasha who arrives in Moscow to await her fiancé’s return from the war front. She falls under the spell of a rogue, shattering her reputation. Pierre, a family friend, finds purpose in helping her pick up the pieces.
The play premiered off-Broadway in 2012, followed by a 2015 run at The American Repertory in Cambridge and a Broadway run in 2016 where it was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, winning two.
The UMass Boston Production will run for eight performances beginning on November 13, including three weekend matinees.
Singers Wanted
Auditions for The Great Comet will be September 9 and 10, 6-9 p.m., and roles are open to students from all majors. Newbies to theater are especially encouraged. Auditioners should prepare 16 bars of a song of their choosing. Sign up for an audition time slot. All are invited to a special Audition Song Workshop with Long and Music Director J. Kathleen Castellanos on September 3, 6:30 p.m., in the University Hall Theatre. A Theatre Arts Town Hall, the same day and location at 4:30 p.m., is an opportunity to meet Long and Theatre Arts faculty and students and bring questions about auditions and the program.
Long has directed for numerous Boston-area theater companies, including the Greater Boston Stage Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, The Lyric Stage, and others. But, she says, she gets a particular joy from working with college students and people new to the theater.
“It’s a tremendous act of courage to try something new and, honestly, anyone thinking about it should give it a try,” Long says. “If you’re not super confident about singing, we will also be looking for members of an ensemble, where you’d sing as part of a group. There are a few roles that can be sort of speak-singing.”
“What I’m mostly looking for is good collaborators,” she says. “Theater requires multiple brains, and I’m looking forward to digging into the material with an engaged cast, people who ask good questions, and work together.”
Tickets for Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 go on sale September 10 at umb.universitytickets.com.
Latest University News
- At the Boston Globe Summit, UMass Boston Faculty, Staff and Students Tell Stories of Making an ImpactLuminaries from art, science, business and politics gathered to give lectures and discussions on this year’s most important issues. UMass Boston was a proud sponsor of this year’s Boston Globe Summit.
- UMass Boston’s College of Management Celebrates 50 YearsThe UMass Boston College of Management marked a defining milestone as faculty, staff, students, alumni, and university leaders gathered to celebrate the college’s 50th anniversary - five decades of expanding access to high-quality business education.
- UMass Boston’s Sixth Annual Black Lives Matter Day Honors Black Cultural Resilience in Challenging TimesAt a moment when Black culture is being legislated against, sanitized, and distorted in public memory, UMass Boston gathered on November 3 for something far more potent than a university event. The sixth annual Black Lives Matter Day was a reminder that Black culture is not a side note in American life, but a backbone and creative engine that has carried generations through both devastation and possibility.
- UMass Boston Marketing Professor Named One of the World’s Most Influential ResearchersProfessor Werner Kunz of the College of Management has been named a Highly Cited Researcher 2025 by Clarivate, recognizing him as one of the world’s most influential researchers.
- Student-Athlete Nathan Rubin Debuts Children’s Book "Chasing a Dream"UMass Boston basketball player and economics major Nathan Rubin has published a children’s book to inspire kids to dream big and work toward achieving their goals.
- UMass Boston Researcher Receives Grant to Study Cyberattacks on Power GridsIoannis Zografopoulos, an assistant professor in the Engineering Department of the College of Science and Mathematics at UMass Boston, has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the cybersecurity of power grids targeted by communications-based cyberattacks.
