Anastasia at the Broadhurst | Review
Maybe this season’s most overlooked show. Which is odd because it’s been two decades in the making.
Anastasia is not a perfect show. It’s not political enough (especially for this particular historical moment) and the stakes are a bit low and the direction is just serviceable but I’ll be damned if it isn’t one of my favourite new scores of the season with five fabulous performances at its centre.
I am an Ahrens and Flaherty fangirl, but I think it’s fair to say their mostly new score keeps pace with the classic ‘Journey to the Past’ and ‘Once Upon A December’ and they have chosen exactly the right moments to musicalise. 'Journey to the Past’ becomes the Act One closer which is the right place for it to not overshadow the rest of the show, and Christy Altomare nails it to the back wall of the intimate Broadhurst. Every solo she gets is a revelation; she plays an Anya who may be suffering from PTSD, quick to lash out, quick to panic, but always tender, always headstrong, a princess before even she realises it. The show wisely ages Anya up to a more sensible, world-weary, mid-twenties and the show benefits from a less naive Anya than the film.
Derek Klena is perfect prince material as Dmitry, his 'My Petersburg’ is driving and 'Everything to Win’ is such a wonderful choice, to focus on Dmitry’s mental state as the scene that the whole plot hinges on occurs offstage. John Bolton and Caroline O'Connor sparkle as the secondary couple and they wring every ounce of available comedy out of their fairly standard numbers. Bolton is especially tender is his relationship with Altomare’s Anya. The trio numbers, 'Learn to Do It’ and 'We’ll Go From There’ are some of the show’s most intoxicating moments. Mary Beth Peil is a beautifully dignified Dowager Empress until she isn’t, and the transformation is heartbreaking.
Now the missing link. The show’s new villain (mercifully replacing the film’s out of left field Rasputin) Gleb, played by a tortured Ramon Karimloo, has improved slightly since the Hartford run but not enough to bring up the overall quality of the show. Throughout, the stakes are too low, does anyone really ever think he’s going to kill Anya? The show suffers mightily from its unwillingness to confront Gleb’s politics in juxtaposition to that of the Dowager Empress’; a street urchin like Anya would almost certainly be slightly better off under a socialist system than the old imperial system and yet she never questions why someone like the Dowager should have so much while she has so little. The communists in the play are McCarthy-era cartoons, not fleshed out people who think their system is flawed but better. If we saw a Gleb who tried to win over Anya on that account and perhaps their having a more fleshed out flirtation, I think that could fix the show’s central problems.
The other main issue is the only serviceable direction and the sometimes ugly sets. There’s nothing innovative here, and with the Russian Great Comet dominating this season, it’s easy to see how lush without being naturalistic works wonderfully but this just ends up looking cheap. Maybe there is a classy way to do projections, I just don’t really think this is it. The staging does suffer from the static set. On the other hand, the costumes are worth the price of admission.
It must be noted that I’m always happy to see female-led musicals but the casting of this could have used some more diversity. It’s not as white as Bandstand, but that’s a very low bar. All in all, it’s worth seeing for a killer new Broadway score and some killer, unrewarded performances. I’m sure it’ll have a long life on Broadway, touring, and eventually in communities that I feel will be able to innovate on this almost-gem of a show.
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