Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

This musical, created by Dave Malloy and put on in 2012, is based on a 70-page slice of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace I found out about this musical after seeing one of Dave Malloy's latest works (a musical called Octet) and then exploring what other things he had created.

After watching a recording of the show and listening through the soundtrack, I decided I was invested in the content enough to read War and Peace. Prior to this, War and Peace had the connotation of super long boring book and I didn't know much else about it. Perhaps watching the musical showed me that it could be interesting. Plus, In Search of Lost Time had shown me that I have the ability to read a long and supposedly-boring book (even though it took me a stupidly long time...) so I decided to jump into it.

At the time of writing this (January 2026), I am midway through the book, and have just barely started reading the section of War and Peace that Great Comet is based on. Already, however, I have felt the satisfaction that I hoped reading the book would give. It's adding context to the characters of the show, explaining deeper who they are, and what their habits and motivations are, and showing events that lead up to some of the pivotal moments of the musical.

Also, though Great Comet mostly wraps up the arc of the portion of the story that it tells, there is clearly much more to be said about the characters and what happens in their lives. At the end of Great Comet, I was definitely thinking, huh? that's how we end this? what happens with them next?, so I'm excited to actually see the proper resolutions of the full story arcs in the book.