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Joy and Life: Rachel Chavkin Says Goodbye to GREAT COMET

By: Sep. 03, 2017
NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
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Comets move really fast (apparently 10 to 70km/second). So I can't believe I got so many pics! And still, I didn't get not enough. I could've filmed the past 6 years, from the first 29 hour reading at Ars Nova in Fall 2011 to tomorrow September 3rd, and still it wouldn't be enough for the amount of life contained within GREAT COMET. I'm on the train now, headed back to NYC for the final performances. It's inevitable, I guess. So it's staggering how much my chest hurts, with sorrow and missing this company already, but also with the amount that I have LAUGHED. This family makes me laugh. This improbable tumbleweed accumulating more and more people over the years...suckers and zealots and real motherfuckin artists, all of them (including our crew). This sprawling family, and this red curtained room, is the culture I want to live inside. Working on the Broadway design, Mimi Lien said, "it's gotta still feel like we're all in the same room." And she did a good job, to put it mildly. During a pre-show huddle, I once told the company that nothing about this show was built to be sustainable. Backstage and onstage, this show has always been too much. I think you only get this kind of saturation in a piece when it's grown slowly. It means you literally can't get everything on first viewing, but you can FEEL it from jump. COMET is a feeling in my chest. It's too big and it's quiet and it's making me cry. That's Dave Malloy, that's Tolstoy, and that's what our company, onstage and off, was WILLING to BRING. Awkward grace. Flaws and drama and abandon and solidarity. Thank you COMET company. Thank you to all the people who made it happen along the way. Thank you to everyone who ever saw the show in any incarnation.

A post shared by Rachel Chavkin (@rchavkin) on



NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812, one of the most unique pieces of theatre to soar over Broadway, closes today. Cast, creatives, and fans are all mourning the loss while also taking the chance to celebrate the immersive new work. Director Rachel Chavkin took to Instagram and bid the show a touching adieu. She says:

During a pre-show huddle, I once told the company that nothing about this show was built to be sustainable. Backstage and onstage, this show has always been too much. I think you only get this kind of saturation in a piece when it's grown slowly. It means you literally can't get everything on first viewing, but you can FEEL it from jump.
COMET is a feeling in my chest. It's too big and it's quiet and it's making me cry. That's Dave Malloy, that's Tolstoy, and that's what our company, onstage and off, was WILLING to BRING. Awkward grace. Flaws and drama and abandon and solidarity.

Read the full post, via Instagram, below:




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