ANASTASIA Reviews- Page 6

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 8:43am

wonderfulwizard11 said: "The difference is that both War Paint ladies are basically the whole show. Audra was excellent in Shuffle Along, but her character wasn't the focus. Of course anything can happen, but Patti and Christine feel like absolute locks to me in a way that Audra never did last year. "

Thank you! Audra was in a show that couldn't really decide which one of it's five protagonists it wanted to follow. You could even argue the role could be considered featured. Comparing her role/situation to LuPone & Ebersole doesn't make much sense.  

[Lot666]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 8:59am

OMG, Ben Brantley is sooooo clever!

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 10:36am

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "I am surprise that no one mentioned how different Anya and Dimitri are from the movie. When I saw Christy last week, she wasn't tomboyish and energetic (in character) at all."

So many posters seem to be losing sight that for better or for worse (and Brantley calls it an identity crisis), this show is based on BOTH the Disney Anastasia AND the 1956 movie based on the earlier play.  In the famous 1956 movie Anastasia is not at all energetic or tomboyish.  She's an extremely vulnerable, suicidal young woman with amnesia longing for answers to her past.

Others have complained that Rasputin is no longer in the plot.  Clearly, unlike with the animated screenplay, McNally and team wanted this Anastasia to have at least a modicum of historic authenticity.  

Gone are the talking animals and the sorceror.  

While a great many people believed one or more of the Romanovs may have survived the 1918 shootings (some still do), and while there were many claimants (most famously Anna Anderson), making the Anastasia story dramatically compelling, no one has ever doubted that Rasputin was killed by Prince Yusupov, Grand Duke Pavlovich, and Vladimir Purishkevich in 1916.  

Many might say "So what?  We like the cartoon version."   Cool.

But that's not what the creative team intended for the Broadway musical.

 

Updated On: 4/25/17 at 10:36 AM

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 11:06am

This isn't Disney and great insight :)

[Daddy Warbucks]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 11:19am

Curious to see how the attendance numbers will be affected by the reviews which were, despite the Times review, a bit all over the map. Watching the early box office numbers from previews, I still think this one is review-proof and Tony-proof. I think a rave can give an unknown quantity a big boost (though not always), a show like Anastasia already has such a built in and fanatical fan base: 1) teenage girls, 2) their parents who knew the movie when it came out, 3) Ramin fans, 4) the people interested in history, and 5) the people who think this is Disney. 

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 11:45am

Phillipa and Eva will be shut out. Phillipa is in a dreadful show no one wants to see and she's mediocre. Eva is an after thought. She's wonderful, but in a dated overproduced piece that people have very mixed feelings about. Plus she only reminds people of the zeitgeist moment when Lea erupted.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 4:10pm

Also, Annaleigh is not illegible for nomination, Butter. 

Um...I guess that's true?  I mean, I don't think she's like, BLURRY or anything.

As a millennial who saw the show, I'm mad at how many corners the cut because they knew this would be a cash cow. Fans of the movie deserve better.  

No, they don't "deserve" anything, actually, unless they want to pop in the DVD.  I wonder why Millennials often get stereotyped as feeling entitled?

[clb10162]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 4:13pm

Daddy Warbucks said: "Curious to see how the attendance numbers will be affected by the reviews which were, despite the Times review, a bit all over the map. Watching the early box office numbers from previews, I still think this one is review-proof and Tony-proof. I think a rave can give an unknown quantity a big boost (though not always), a show like Anastasia already has such a built in and fanatical fan base: 1) teenage girls, 2) their parents who knew the movie when it came out, 3) Ramin fans, 4) the people interested in history, and 5) the people who think this is Disney.

"

Any Ramin fans who go to see this will be bitterly disappointed.  He's almost an afterthought.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 4:26pm

TheSassySam said: "As a millennial who saw the show, I'm mad at how many corners the cut because they knew this would be a cash cow. Fans of the movie deserve better. 

 

"

As a millennial who saw the show, no, we don't deserve better. What we got was something more respectful to history than the movie while keeping the basic plot line. 

[Pan_Am_L-1011]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 10:02pm

BroadwayConcierge said: "New York Times is in, by Brantley. Pretty negative.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/theater/anastasia-review-broadway.html?_r=0

 

"

He's such a pretenious dick. 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 10:06pm

Pan_Am_L-1011 said: "He's such a pretenious dick."

It's rare that I dislike or disagree with a Brantley review, but "pretentious dick" sums up his Anastasia review pretty well.

[carnzee]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 10:12pm

I feel like Brantley's review of Anastasia is what people expected his review for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be. It is wickedly bitchy. 

[Tiann Nerng Chong]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 10:16pm

one of the comments on the Brentley review:

"Please do not trust this review. I was sitting next to a young woman, who clearly was a great fan of the film, and she was thrilled with the show. She was smiling with delight throughout even though she admitted she had doubts going in. People keep talking about the length and the time flew. If you want to talk about a show that is a chore to sit through head over to the Lunt-Fontaine and you will find a great example.

Updated On: 4/25/17 at 10:16 PM

[curel1]

Posted: 4/25/17 at 10:21pm

Seems like most comments on the Brantley review disagree with him

[Lot666]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 9:03am

BroadwayConcierge said: "Pan_Am_L-1011 said: "He's such a pretenious dick."

It's rare that I dislike or disagree with a Brantley review, but "pretentious dick" sums up his Anastasia review pretty well."

Sometimes I just want to b!tch-slap that queen.

[Lot666]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 9:09am

Bettyboy72 said: "Phillipa is in a dreadful show no one wants to see"

How can people make such absurd statements? While this show doesn't appeal to me personally, people have obviously been purchasing tickets and seeing it since previews began. Clearly, more than one "someone" out there "wants to see" it.

[Ado Annie D'Ysquith]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 9:40am

That Stanley Tucci GIF though...

[CT2NYC]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 11:21am

Clearly, negative reviews are not affecting Christy Altomare's enthusiasm for ANASTASIA. She seems like a real sweetheart, and I believe audiences, on the whole, will continue to respond positively to the show. If so, who cares what Ben Brantley thinks?

Here's Christy's appearance on the TODAY show:

https://youtu.be/n4htofsf_Bo

Updated On: 4/26/17 at 11:21 AM

[BwayDreamer00]

Posted: 4/26/17 at 6:59pm

Even though I really like this show I kind of knew that it wasn't gonna get the best musical Tony nom...especially now with these very mixed reviews....I mean THERES STILL HOPE but at this point it's pretty doubtful. Glad it got a handful of Dram Legue and Critic Circle noms though!! For Anastasias Tony nominations I thin it will get probably costumes and lighting maybeeee set but this season has had so many shows with such voluminous set designs (Great Coemt, DEH, Hello Dolly...) but maybe orchestrations? That's a tough nomination to get though....with only BANDSTAND left to open I think we now know our four shows for best musical 

Dear Evan Hansen

Great Comet 

Come From Away 

and fourth slot goes to Groundhog Day I mean either that or I guess War Paint? 

[chanel]

Posted: 5/1/17 at 11:45am

"A theme park musical" in Act One, gets better in Act Two. Scroll down to "Anya Marx".

http://www.out.com/michael-musto/2017/5/01/barbara-streisand-dishes-way-we-were-star-born

[bwayrose7]

Posted: 5/1/17 at 3:57pm

Sorry to take this thread away from reviews, but didn't want to start a whole new thread for one question. Any thoughts on the likelihood of understudies at a Wednesday matinee in mid/late May? I know this isn't an excessively demanding show, and it is during awards season, but does anyone have any info or educated guesses?

[bwayrose7]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 10:14pm

Not quite a "review" but this came across my social media today and I thought I'd post it here if anyone is interested. It's from a more academically-oriented site, not an entertainment one, but still:

http://howlround.com/revising-and-feminizing-the-fairy-tale-in-anastasia

Updated On: 6/30/17 at 10:14 PM

[Fan123]

Posted: 6/30/17 at 11:28pm

Interesting read. From what I've read/seen online, the show seems to embrace the fairy tale connection in some ways and reject it in others. I do find it interesting that multiple versions of this story have included a scene where characters go to see a fairy tale ballet, which makes some implicit comment on the Anastasia myth. The 1956 film had Sleeping Beauty (unconscious princess), the 1997 film had Cinderella (rags-to-riches princess), and the Broadway show chose perhaps the most cynical variant in context, Swan Lake (cursed princess, but also impostor princess).