In Broadway’s electrifying and immersive new hit “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” ensemble member Billy Joe Kiessling portrays everything from a lavish opera attendee to a bear to a “Russian rave party monster.” Kiessling sums up the multifaceted track in a single word: “Broadway!”
Since booking the gig through Backstage, Kiessling has relished every drop of the experience. “Performing ‘Comet’ is my favorite part of the day,” he says. “I look forward to doing every single moment of the show.”
The audition process began small; Kiessling was asked to perform for the casting associate and associate music director. It ended up, however, feeling as grandiose as the musical itself. “The last round…felt sort of like I was doing a concert for a small audience,” he recalls.
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Kiessling began using Backstage while still in school (“I’m pretty sure I joined after my freshman year of college at NYU to start looking for summer stock gigs”), and still uses it “constantly” in search of a wide range of projects. He says he prefers new works. There is one tried and true composer, though, whom Kiessling would tackle under any circumstance. “Anything [Stephen] Sondheim,” he fawns. “I would do a production of ‘Sweeney Todd’ in a regional Taco Bell.”
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