Growing up, I was a huge fan of the 1997 animated movie Anastasia. She was my favorite princess, much more so than anyone else from Disney. I had the soundtrack, the dolls, and the dress-up clothes. I made my mom act out the entire movie with me; me playing Anastasia and her playing every other character. We rented the VHS tape from the library probably 50 times. To say it was a huge part of my childhood is an understatement, so when I found out PhilaU was selling tickets to the new Broadway play, I cancelled my plans for the day and bought the extremely reasonable $25 tickets.
When we first got there and took our seats, I looked at my playbill and noticed the one huge change they had made; they completely got rid of the villain from the cartoon, Rasputin. I was expecting changes because they would have to add some details to the story, and definitely more songs, but I wasn’t expecting them to take out such a huge character. At first, I was disappointed, but once the show started I really liked what they did with it. They opted to make it a lot more historically accurate than the cartoon, which explains the death of the Romanov family as the result of forces from the underworld controlled by a begrudged Rasputin. If you don’t know, the real Anastasia and the rest of her family were killed during the Russian revolution in 1918. Grigori Rasputin was a real person, a “holy man” and advisor to Anastasia’s mother, but definitely not magical. They did away with the fantasy elements and made the story much more realistic, showing what Russia and France were really like in the 1920s after the Bolshevik revolution.
The costumes and staging were absolutely gorgeous. The royal family wore beautiful glittering gowns and the Parisians were dressed in classic 1920s fashion. The sets were very ornate with three rotating pieces making up the stage, backed up by screens showing the backdrops. All of the original songs were included (except for Rasputin’s for obvious reasons) and most were embellished with more lyrics and more dancing. My favorite new song was “Land of Yesterday” sung by Lily, the dowager empress’s lady in waiting, the equivalent of Sophie from the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed the adaptation of the Broadway show. I think they made all the right changes, including great casting (except that Anastasia is supposed to be a redhead, not a blonde!) The voices of all of the performers were astounding, especially Christy Altomare, who held the title role. I couldn’t help but tear up at the end, because I definitely checked an item off my bucket list. My 5-year old self couldn’t have been happier!