Friday, December 6, 2019

ANASTASIA – REVIEW OF MUSICAL AT THE ED MIRVISH THEATRE

By James Karas

Anastasia is the beautiful name of a beautiful Russian princess who was murdered in 1918. Some people would like to believe or pretend that she was not killed and that way we can get a good play, a movie or two and a musical about her. The story of the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra has been around for a while (historians be damned – see below) and playwright Terrence McNally, composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens have put together a musical that is now playing at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto.

The story goes that the Grand Duchess Anastasia survived the massacre of her family, suffered from amnesia and went missing somewhere in Soviet Russia. Her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, offered a large reward for anyone who could find her. Con artists entered the picture searching for a suitable candidate and two hucksters, Dmitry and Vlad found a suitable candidate, groomed her and presented her to the Dowager Empress who eventually accepted her as the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

It’s a good albeit familiar plot. Flaherty’s music ranges from the recitative to the melodic but it rarely hits any heights in the latter category. He prefers fast paced numbers that sometimes sound like toe-tapping march music that is easy on the ear. There are some soaring moments but here the problem was clearly with the singers, especially Taylor Quick who replaced Lila Coogan as Anya, the Anastasia of the title. She simply could not generate any vocal excitement.
 Lila Coogan (Anya) & Jake Levy (Dmitry) in National Tour of ANASTASIA - 
Photo by Evan Zimmerman, MurphyMade
The rest of the actors ranged from the adequate to the decent. Exceptional performances were given by Edward Staudebmayer as Vlad and Tari Kelly as Countess Lily. They sang well and did an entertaining comic duet.

Vlad’s cohort in grooming the street sweeper Anya into Anastasia is Dmitry played with enthusiasm and agility by Jake Levy. The heavy but humane Bolshevik Gleb is played by Jason Michael Evans.

With many of the other cast members, one did not care what they said because they looked so great. Check out Brad Greer as Tsar Nicholas II and Lucy Horton as Tsarina Alexandra and their family. It’s just amazing how well you can dress if you have an empire to supply your needs. 

The scenic design by Alexander Dodge was simply gorgeous. We have scenes in the palace in St. Petersburg, the Paris Opera, Leningrad and Paris that were a visual delight. The costumes by Linda Cho are stunningly elegant and Aaron Rhyne’s projections are striking and effective. They all add up to a theatrical feat.

Peggy Hickey’s choreography was fine especially the ballet sequence from Swan Lake which gave us a bit of Tchaikovsky’s music which simply pointed out the difference between the lush classical and Flaherty’s workmanlike composition.

Director Darko Tresnjak handles the large cast, numerous scenes and great deal of activity very well.        

For the factually obsessed and historically minded, take note. In July 1918, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children were executed in in the basement of Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It was the end of the Romanov dynasty’s 300-year rule over Russia and the beginning of Bolshevik totalitarianism.

That was the end of that chapter of Russian history for those who rely on facts. Soviet denial of the murders led to speculation which led to the belief that the family may have survived in whole or in part. Enter French playwright Marcelle Maurette who wrote the play Anastasia in 1952 imagining that the Romanov’s younger daughter survived (maybe) and was taken to her grandmother who accepted her as such (perhaps).

It was delicious story and the play was widely produced. In 1956 Twentieth Century Fox made a movie with Ingrid Bergman and Yul Brynner and in 1997 it morphed into an animated film and the myth has been kept alive.

In March 2017, Anastasia opened as a new musical on Broadway and it has now been bought to Toronto. If you want more, go see the musical.       
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Anastasia by Terrence McNally (book), Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics) continues until January 12, 2020 at The Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

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