By Brooklynn Wong
An exact mirroring of the beloved film it is not, but the national tour of “Anastasia,” playing now at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, is its own tale, in parts adding extra layers and substance not found in the movie, and lacking some of the familiar characters and scenes.
It is a fairly light and fun musical, definitely geared towards a younger audience, but with enough sophisticated scenery, costuming, history and innuendo to make it a grand spectacle that most anyone could enjoy.
From the show’s first blush—“The Last Dance of the Romanovs”—it draws the audience into the grand spectacle of 19th-century Imperial Russia with a wintry ball, and Anastasia’s grandmother giving her a music box before she departs for Paris.
Visual effects are used all throughout, with some structural sets used, but the most impressive scene-setting coming from moving images flashed across a screen.
This is artfully used to illustrate the fateful night on which the Romanovs were killed in their palace.
Then comes “A Rumor in St. Petersburg,” and we meet young adult Anya, the street sweeper who just may turn out to be the lone surviving member of the Romanov family.
She is played by Lila Coogan, who plays the role beautifully and with a beautiful singing voice, just with a bit of a shrill and simplistic Disney princess quality, but it works for the younger audience.
The two well-meaning con men Vlad (Edward Staudenmayer) and Dmitry (Jake Levy) are lovable fellows who initially want to find any old Anya they can and make a quick buck by teaching her all the Romanov family history and Anastasia characteristics, then taking her to Paris to present her to the Dowager Empress, grandmother to Anastasia and her siblings, convince her that the girl they have is Anastasia in the flesh, and collect the reward the old woman is offering. But they come around and learn to love Anya when they find out that she is in fact the princess herself.
Act I ends with Vlad, Dmitry and Anya arriving via train to cherry-blossom-covered Paris and Anya belting out the beautiful “Journey to the Past.”
Act II opens in 1927 Paris, where some new characters make their presence felt. We are brought up to speed with the Dowager Empress, who is a bitter and aging woman who receives letters everyday from imposters claiming to be her surviving granddaughter.
Her lady-in-waiting is a fiery and comedic Countess Lily. We learn that one of the reasons—or perhaps the main reason—why Vlad wanted to come to Paris was to reacquaint himself with her, as they have a history.
There’s also a “Gleb,” a comrade sent by the new Russian government to kill Anastasia. He however takes compassion on her and after one tense scene where he has the opportunity to kill her, lets her go.
There’s a mini ballet-within-the-musical, as Anastasia and the Dowager’s meeting is to come at the theatre. This gives the audience the opportunity to see some brief, beautiful “Swan Lake.”
The two dresses that Anastasia wears at the ballet, and then in the finale, are some of the highlights of the show, and are just like ones she wears in the movie.
Anastasia and her grandmother eventually have a joyous reunion, and the show ends poetically with Anastasia and Dmitry falling in love and slipping away. Her grandmother has the joy and closure of knowing that her granddaughter is alive, Vlad is in Paris with his beloved Lily, and Anastasia and Dmitry escape the public eye and can carry on their lives in private.
Don’t go in with the expectation that it’s going to be just like the 1997 film. There’s no Rasputin, no “In the Dark of the Night,” no talking animals. But we do get more of the history and politics behind the story. We see Saint Petersburg become Leningrad, and the abrupt transition from monarchy to provisional government and the poverty in the city.
Anastasia is not a naive little orphan, but a tough young woman who has amnesia and has no memory of her childhood. She was cared for in a hospital for a time, but then went out into the world and traversed much of the country by foot, looking for work and warding off threats.
There’s a surprisingly reflective and heartfelt scene at the train station as Anastasia, Dmitry and Vlad are about to leave Russia, in which Russians say farewell to their homeland with mixed feelings. The country has become dangerous and unwelcoming, with few opportunities for prosperity, so they must flee abroad, but they still have affinity for their country.
We also see just how big of a deal the mystique was around whether there was still one surviving Romanov. Yearning for notoriety and/or money, countless young women came forth claiming they were the Princess Anastasia, and the press and governments in both Russia and France followed developments closely with all kinds of ulterior motives.
In real life, there were questions about these rumors for decades, but they were finally put to rest in 2009 when conclusive DNA tests were conducted on bone fragments from an unmarked grave, finding that some of them belonged to Anastasia, and they had been buried with the others at the time of the murders.
The story has been great fodder for entertainment, and this production is no exception. The musical debuted on Broadway last year, and has been touring the country in 2019. Go in with an open mind; if you can get past it not feeling just like the movie version, you will find a historic, entertaining, grand, sweeping production that makes for a very enjoyable night at the theatre.
“Anastasia” plays at the Segerstrom Center now through November 17. See scfta.org for more information.
