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Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin to Receive 2017 American Ingenuity Award

The writer and director will be recognized for ‘Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.’

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.

Dave Malloy and director Rachel Chavkin during a rehearsal for “Preludes” at Lincoln Center Theater. (Photo by Jenny Anderson)

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.

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