Pop Culturalist Chats with Gelsey Bell

Gelsey Bell appears in one of the year’s hottest Broadway tickets: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. This joyous and astonishing new musical tells a particularly scandalous slice of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace through eclectic music styles and offers audience members a unique, immersive theatrical experience. After having wildly successful runs off-Broadway and at Boston’s American Repertory Theater, the show arrived on Broadway this past fall, starring Josh Groban.

We got to chat with Bell about her road to Broadway, what makes this show so unique, and why Doctor Who should be your next binge.

PC: How would you describe your character Mary?
Gelsey: Princess Mary is the sister of Prince Andrey—the faraway love interest. She’s a girl in an uncomfortable situation taking care of her elderly father, who is quite a patriarch. He has gotten so old that he doesn’t have the handle on reality that he used to have, but he’s still the patriarch. She’s in that weird situation where she has to take care of her father, and is kind of emotionally abused by her father and is very isolated in that situation. She hides and finds solace in Christianity and spirituality. That might be the quickest way to sum it up.

PC: Was War and Peace required reading for the cast?
Gelsey: You know, it’s not! I’ve read the novel. When Dave [Malloy] and I first met each other, this was one of the things we bonded over was the fact that we both loved this novel, before the project even happened. I’ve read the novel twice at this point and I absolutely love it. I encourage everyone in the show to read it. In all honesty, I don’t think a huge majority have. Most people have read at least the 70 pages that the show is based on, or they’ve seen the latest BBC mini-series; and that feels like enough to get an idea.

PC: I’m interested in your journey with the show. I know it’s had a very long and interesting road to Broadway. What has that process been like for you?
Gelsey: I am old friends with Dave [Malloy], the composer. He brought me in for the first workshop, which was about 5 years ago. The only two of us that are still with the show from that first workshop are me and Brittain [Ashford, who plays Sonya]. We had two workshops before we had the Ars Nova Off-Broadway Production. Rachel [Chavkin, the director] was obviously with the show at that point, as well. First of all, it’s very intense because this project was very much written for me and also written with me. Dave and I have worked on a number of projects together and he knows my music very well. We have one of those relationships between performer and composer where we just know each other very well. The song that happens with my dad has been rewritten so many times. It would be interesting to look back at all the versions. I haven’t even listened to our recording from the Off-Broadway because it’s just so different. I don’t want to get it into my head. I’ve seen the show change and I’ve also seen how to handle that “beginning show change” as you kind of see how to focus things better in terms of the whole show and those kinds of issues.

PC: It sounds like it’s a bit of a collaborative process.
Gelsey: Yes. Definitely. Also, I’m a unique performer in this kind of situation because I never auditioned for the role. I’ve never auditioned for a show I’ve been in because I often work with composers who are my peers and we already know each other quite well. I’m very used to a process where there’s a large collaboration between the performer and composer; and kind of helping him discover what works well on my body and my voice; things like that; definitely, most of the stuff that I do is more in the experimental performance or chamber opera world. I’ve also done a lot of work doing collaborative composition. Paul [Pinto], the guy who plays Balaga, we have two bands together where we do that kind of stuff. The Broadway world is very different from what I’m used to because I’m used to very collaborative types of stuff. That’s just the way I work as a performer. You can kind of see that in “The Opera” within the opera because Dave worked with Paul and I on how to write that in terms of the extended techniques that we’re bringing in, like “Why don’t we try this? Let’s try this!”

PC: That’s so cool that so much of yourself gets put into the production.
Gelsey: Yeah. Totally. I think, inevitably, that happens if you stay with a show from its very beginning. “Dust and Ashes” was written for Josh [Groban]’s voice; “No One Else” was written for Pippa [Phillipa Soo] when she joined the show; and things like that. There’s definitely a way that good composers see what they have and they want to take best advantage of it. They write for specific people for those reasons.

PC: Speaking of your background, you are extremely unique in that you have a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU. How has that experience prepared you for this show?
Gelsey: I’m definitely a firm believer in performance research. One of the things I did with my dissertation is most of the pieces I wrote about, I performed either publicly or just in the studio. I got to understand the work better that way. I’m a believer in body knowledge, especially in performance studies, compared to, say, musicology. It’s definitely a field that believes in doing and also believes in less traditional methodology as for how one does research and what one writes about. The truth is I’m basically just a big nerd that likes to sing. Those things actually feed into each other, you know? It certainly helps to have a really good work ethic– getting through the Ph.D. process, you have to have a good work ethic. Some of the techniques that I learned while researching [my dissertation] are in the show now, like the history of avant-garde performance in forms. Also, the audience participation stuff [and] environmental theater that really got big in the seventies. I feel like this show embraces aspects of that, which is really exciting to see done on a Broadway level; both environmental staging and in studying other people’s work doing my Ph.D. and in my own work, I’ve focused on understanding the dynamics of how to handle audience participation in ways that are enjoyable and work dramatically. There’s a thin line between when things get real “performance art uncomfortable” and when they’re illustrating drama in a beautiful, joyful way. I feel like the work that I did researching what other people did in the past has been really helpful in performing in this piece; especially because I have these moments of really interacting with the audience.

PC: What is the most challenging aspect of performing this show?
Gelsey: I think it depends on the person in the show. I think that the tracks are very different. What Natasha’s doing in the show is very vocally heavy. She’s got to pay a lot of attention to keeping her voice in the best possible state she can. For me, actually compared to other shows I’ve done, keeping my high register on point has been something I’ve focused on, but it hasn’t actually been that hard. I would say the hardest thing is dealing with going up and down so many stairs. I went into it thinking I’m going to have to be really careful about my voice, singing multiple high C’s eight times a week—I don’t know how much of a problem that’s going to be because I’ve never had to do that for more than 2 months. At this point, it’s actually just getting my body up to the athletic level of being able to run around the set so much. I have a lot of training in music and in voice, but I don’t actually have that much training in dance; it’s not even dance; it’s literally going up and down stairs. Because I’ve never done the Broadway thing before and I’ve never had to do eight shows a week, week after week, I was really nervous about keeping things fresh in the show. So far, that hasn’t really been a problem. Now, one of the ways I talk about this to my friends that are performance artists and are really confused that I’m doing one show for a year of my life is that I’m kind of thinking of it as a one-year durational performance. That actually makes it easier somehow. There are a lot of moments where it’s really fun and the audience is different every night. There’s new things you’re getting. You get a lot of energy from them and things like that.

PC: What kind of legacy do you hope this show leaves on Broadway?
Gelsey: I feel like the biggest thing is the legacy of more non-white people in a performance. That has been really important and inspiring for everyone in the cast and design team and everything; in particularly with what has happened politically since we opened the show. It feels really good. As hard as things feel in terms of where the country is heading in certain ways politically, it feels really good to come into a space that is not just a basement in Brooklyn, but is an established Broadway house where we have an audience of maybe 1,200 people every show. We’re telling a story for all genders, for all races, for all ethnicities, for all sexualities. I feel this shows up subtly in the ball where there are many people dancing together—I dance with a woman—creating a world where that can be present. I don’t know. It feels like a good world to live in. I’m really proud of this show. Maybe [we are] not making that as huge of a thing as Hamilton does, but that is very present for all of us in how we think about this show functioning politically and the way our own politics are spoken through the show. Also, I hope that it’s a legacy of taking a risk with new work. The producers have talked a lot about how hard it was to get to a Broadway theater. I know that our producers tried for many years before we got here. I just hope people will really believe in new work that’s being made and take more risks with it, and take more risks with how music is written and what kinds of voices are on Broadway. It feels really nice to feel like I don’t have that standard Broadway vocal sound and yet, I still belong on the stage. I think there’s plenty of other people in the show—like Brittain [Ashford] who plays Sonya—that feel the same way. It feels really great to have a real diversity of kinds of singing and kinds of music, just in terms of the way the set and the staging have been celebrated. It deserves to be celebrated. It is unusual right now, but with the current trends in theater, [like] Sleep No More. I wouldn’t say this show is immersive like Sleep No More, but I would say it is a sign that our society [has changed] in terms of how one experiences a theatrical experience. It’s nice to have performance happening all around and having these moments where you can tell you are sharing space and time with other people in the flesh, just looking right into their eyes. Part of what we can do with this big ensemble is have these really intimate, personal moments with individual audience members in a way that it’s hard to do when you just are behind a wall.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: What is your guilty pleasure TV show?
Gelsey: What is it right now? It changes. I have many. It’s a pretty nerdy one right now: I’d say the fourth Doctor Who. It’s the old 1970s Tom Baker one. I’ve seen all of the latest Doctor Who’s, so I’ve gone back to the old ones. The fourth doctor is the classic doctor.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Gelsey: What would be something I’d be really guilty about? I’m trying to think of some of the movies I want to watch over and over again. I’m thinking they are not things I need to be that guilty about. I love John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes. It’s not actually a super well-known movie. I adore it. I’ve seen it so many times. It’s the kind of movie that anyone who likes musicals should probably check out, but it’s pretty underground. It doesn’t seem that guilty. I don’t really feel embarrassed about liking it. Maybe the first Pitch Perfect? I don’t know.

PC: Favorite play or musical?
Gelsey: I’d say my favorite musical is probably still My Fair Lady. I’m not sure about favorite play, but one that’s come up in my brain and is definitely one of my favorites is Sleuth.

PC: Favorite book?
Gelsey: I could say War and Peace. That wouldn’t be far off. It’s definitely one of my favorite novels of all time. I like epics. I like the Harry Potters. I’m that kind of person. I love epic universes. I love Sandman—great epic novel universe.

PC: Music people would be surprised to find in your collection?
Gelsey: The first thing that comes to mind is Justin Timberlake. That would only be surprising because most of what I listen to and what people expect me to listen to is non-mainstream—experimental music, weird opera, folk music, classic 70s—I’ve got some Justin Timberlake. That would surprise people.

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