From Denee Benton’s first notes, singing “the moon,” to the crescendo of “You and I,” to the fading out of her voice, “No One Else” is a stunning Broadway aria, depicting a journey through a product of Leo Tolstoy and Dave Malloy’s art in “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812.” The song follows the woman, Natasha, as she dreams of her far-away lover, Andrey. Natasha describes their first encounter and reflects upon her loneliness under the moonlit sky. She wistfully sings “the world was inside of me,” as a young, passionate character who cannot wait for her life to begin, hoping that her fiancee returns soon. Her impatience for everything she wants in life, although she is younger than I, serves as a reminder that although my life has just started, I am in control of my own future and should begin to take risks.
Natasha’s kind and radiant tone shine through her voice to induce a calming mood; the light and airy feeling creates a sense of peace and excitement. The theatrical setting of Natasha’s charming song is a dark, blue-lit background, making the scene feel like a dream. The mixture of the lighting and lyrics of hope and longing, combined with the bright sound of F major, makes for a work unlike any other in this musical. The lyrics fill me with joy and melancholy all at the same time; the young woman’s love and longing resonate with me.
The musical from which the aria originates, “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812,” is revolutionary. I never expected my favorite musical to be an adaptation of a 1,225-page Russian novel; however, Malloy’s seamless connection between modern music and classic literature is brilliant. He blends typically clashing genres – Russian folk, classical Broadway, electronic, and indie – to tell the story of a world long-gone with music from the world we live in now. The connections he makes between these genres is something never done before, changing the game in Broadway. The wide range of musical styles combined with the story of 19th-century Russia ties together the idea that humans, over time and place, are all similar. A large part of Humanities (uppercase-H) is connecting different disciplines to find meaning, and Dave Malloy connects styles of art that do not seem to fit together for this purpose.
