Interview: 'People Are In For a Real Treat!': Actor Declan Bennett on NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812

Seven years after it closed on Broadway in 2017, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is finally arriving in London at The Donmar Warehouse in December. The show, written by Dave Malloy, takes a seventy-page segment of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (Part Eight, to be specific) and transforms it into a sung-through musical. The titular characters of Natasha Rostova and Pierre Bezukhov are respectively played by Chumisa Dornford-May and Declan Bennett.

Recently, we had the chance to speak with Bennett about taking on not only the role of Pierre, but the first version of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 in London. We discussed the snowball effect that led him into theatre, what it has been like seeing the fanbase for Great Comet grow since its run at the Ars Nova and some of his favourite moments from the show!

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How did you first get started in the world of theatre?

Oh, wow! I first got started in the world of theatre, probably like most people, in that it was just joining my local theatre groups at school. From the age of twelve or thirteen, I was attracted to theatre and to acting and music, specifically. I loved singing and I played the guitar and flute. I just couldn't get enough of music and singing - I absolutely loved anything to do with any of it! And then as I got older, those things started to combine and I discovered musical theatre and fell in love with that. Then I discovered songwriting, and I fell in love with that! One thing just fed into the other . . . 

Bit of a snowball effect there, right?

A complete snowball effect! Once you get the bug, you can't let it go. If you've still got that bug in your mid-twenties, you're like, “Okay, I think this is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life,” and here I am, twenty years later! [Laughs]

What made you want to be a part of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812? Had you been familiar with the show before joining?

I remember I was living in New York when it first happened at Ars Nova - the very first production of Great Comet. And I never got to see it, because it sold out! Everyone was raving about this beautiful new musical in this really intimate space. I had performed at Ars Nova before, so I knew the space really well and even I couldn’t get my head around that they were doing a musical. How do you do a musical in Ars Nova? It's such an intimate, cool little space. And then I ended up moving back to London for a bit and I heard that it was having another life. They were building the show and the show was going to be bigger than it was. And then just through the community, really! I had a really good friend of mine who was playing cello in it and I knew a few people who would pop in and out of different workshops and things like that. And it was just one of those shows where they just creep on you - they have this slow burn and it gains this audience beautifully and slowly. 

And then next thing, it's in some big tents in the middle of Midtown and then it's on Broadway and Josh Groban in it! It's like, “Wait, how did this happen?” To me, that was such an amazing trajectory for a show that began at Ars Nova. And so whilst I'd never seen this, I felt like a bystander, a voyeur on the outside, to watch this little show become this big success.

And when I first heard that it was coming to London, I immediately devoured as much of the story and songs that I could, but I hadn't absorbed myself in the musical previously and was kicking myself because I hadn't seen it. But I'm thankful for that now because having done shows before where I've seen them or seen versions of them, they could be hard sometimes to not bring something like that with you. And so I feel I've been able to approach Great Comet with a complete blank slate, which is really exciting!

So for those unfamiliar with the show, can you tell us a bit about it and the role you play as Pierre?

Sure! War and Peace, as many of you will know, is an incredibly long book. And Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is based on a small part of that enormous book. I play the character Pierre Bezukhov. Pierre is, for all intents and purposes, a bit of a lost soul, really. He has, fortunately or unfortunately, found himself the beneficiary of an extremely large amount of money when his father, who he didn't really know, passes away. Because of this huge amount of wealth that has been given to Pierre, he has become a specific person in society.

He is now married to an incredibly vivacious, exciting woman and is surrounded by lots of people who adore and love him, but they're essentially using him for his wealth and his riches. And actually, he's a bit older than all of the other people around him, and he's reached a point in his life where he has been taken over by alcohol, his only friend that he can rely on.

Throughout the part of the story that we're telling, he is very slowly coming to terms with the fact that he's reached a point in his life where he can't go on living in the way that he's living - something has to change. And so we see Pierre approach this new chapter in his life with a mixture of trepidation, of nervousness. He's scared to change. He's scared to be a different person. Ultimately, the role of Natasha, in a very beautiful, simple way, is a key part of Pierre managing to change who he is and become somebody new.

Did you read that part of War and Peace to help prepare you for the role?

I tried! [Laughs] I thought, “You know what? It's probably going to be easier if I just stick to the libretto.” What's cool about Great Comet is that Dave Malloy has literally taken text from the book and used that in the musical, which is a really clever, interesting device. And so there are some really cool moments in it where not only are we in a scene and we're singing, because it's an opera, and we are singing direct text from the book, but then we will directly address the audience and refer to ourselves in the third person, as it does so in the book as well. Dave's a very, very clever man.

What has it been like in the rehearsals so far?

Rehearsals have been really exciting! It's been one of the most challenging rehearsal processes I think I've ever been in because it's new to all of us. It's a very complex, intricate piece of writing, piece of singing. It's very demanding, hence why my voice is starting to go a little bit in week five! [Laughs] And Tim Sheader is an excellent director. I've worked with Tim a couple of times before, and Tim doesn't know how to do things in halves! So we're also creating this extremely exciting, bold new vision of Natasha, Pierre . . . Which requires us to show up every day and to bring our “A” game. And also to bring our own creativeness into the room and collaborate, which is really class.

Are you going to be accompanying yourself on instruments like previous versions of this show?

Those things are still ongoing! [Laughs]

Really?

Even this close! Again it is a real, true collaboration between us and the director and the music director. We morph one way and then we'll come in the next day and we'll try something new and we’ll prefer that! So I honestly can't say either way right now, but I can say we're not intentionally leaning into the original actor-muso version of the show, but we are trying to potentially include versions of that without it being an acto-music show. 

What is it like to be collaborating with the creative team and bringing together this new version of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 to London?

It's great! I'm a big fan of Tim. I think he's a visionary, a really excellent director. He's a really exciting person to have in the room. It's the first time I've worked with Ellen [Kane], our choreographer. She's another brilliant visionary - I'm really enjoying working with her! She's extremely talented and brings a lot to the room. Nick Skilbeck and Sam Young, music supervisor and musical director, complete legends as far as music is concerned. A piece like this really needs the input of all those different people because it is so complex and it is so intricate - there are multiple ways in which you can tell the story, multiple ways in which you can present this musical. But I think the creative team and the cast that we have couldn't be better.

And what is it like to be preparing to perform this at The Donmar Warehouse?

So class! I've never worked at The Donmar Warehouse before. This is a new stage for me to play on, which is really exciting. I've seen so many things at the Donmar - as have pretty much everyone in London! It's a real Londoner’s theatre, and people from outside as well. It's more the Donmar itself, whether you can actually get a ticket or not because it's so small and intimate. [Laughs] Things really sell out!

We sold out before they even announced the cast - that's how excited people were about it! When I said at the beginning about the musical first happening at Ars Nova, and I was shocked about how intimate that space was, I think that's exactly what's happening here at the Donmar - we're about to present something on that stage that has never been done before. People are in for a real treat!

Going a bit more to your career in general, what is it like to be performing on stage versus on screen?

Theatre and being on stage will always be my first love. I like telling stories from start to finish, and I like telling stories where I can invite an audience along with me to be a part of that story. I always feel like the audience are part of every single show or play. Everything that the actors do on stage wouldn't exist without the audience there. And I find that really thrilling every time I go on stage every night.

Screen is just a wildly different beast, and nothing's in chronological order. You're filming this way, that way or the other way. The thing about screen is how small and intimate you can be - you're telling much more internalised versions of stories, rather than these bigger, slightly elevated versions of life. I love them both, but stage will always be my first love.

Do you have any favourite scenes or songs from the show so far?

Loads! My favourite changes every couple of days, depending on how. My current favourite is “A Call to Pierre,” where the character of Maria, she's found out that Natasha and Anatole are planning on eloping and that they're going to ruin the family name, and she comes rushing to find Pierre. It's my current favourite song in the show for so many different reasons. Annette [McLaughlin], who's playing Maria, is absolutely fantastic, and she's quite terrifying in that scene, which I really enjoy! It's fun to play with that. But just the music, I love that particular song, with Dave's arrangements - really interesting and cool. From that moment for the rest of the show, the last 25 minutes, is just some of the most beautiful musical theatre writing ever.

What do you hope audiences take away from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812?

It's an interesting one because the story is obviously set in a very different time to where we are and where we live. But there's a real simplicity amidst the complexities. I think audiences will walk away feeling like they've just been swung around the room by the ends of their hair and went to the best party they've ever been to their entire life! And also that they've just witnessed the most beautiful, simple, delicate, touching, human emotion. I would love that.

And finally, how would you describe Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 in one word? 

Thrilling!

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 runs from 9 December 2024 to 8 February 2025 at The Donmar Warehouse.

Photo Credit: Johan Persson

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