NEW YORK CITY: Smithsonian magazine has named Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin the winners of the 2017 American Ingenuity Award for Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. Malloy wrote the musical and Chavkin has directed the show from its early stagings to its current Broadway production. Malloy and Chavkin will be honored at the National Portrait Gallery on November 29.
“Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is an explosion of relentless creativity,” said Smithsonian‘s editor in chief, Michael Caruso, in a statement. “The show is time travel at its most enchanting. It is so convincing that audiences walk out blinking, astonished to find themselves back in the present.”
The awards, established in 2012, recognize groundbreaking individuals and works in the fields of technology, performing arts, visual arts, life and physical sciences, education, history, social progress, and youth achievement.
