Totally get where you're coming from Armie and you as well, Glinda, but there's some nuances that I think need to be made. I actually pointed them out in another thread as well. The differences in comparing the Romanovs and Anne lie in their history and how well the general populace knows said history. Yes I know it's the age of information and people should know these things, but bear with me for a second...
The assassination of the Romanovs came 3 decades before WWII but yet it wasn't known or proven that yes they all died that day a century ago, until almost a century later. That history has been shrouded in so much, and I apologize for this..."rumor, legend, and mystery" for close to a century that it's possibly easier to take in as a piece of musical theatre, or any historically inaccurate piece based on non fiction. When the film was released, it STILL wasn't discovered for certainty whether she died with her family or not, so the film stand son it's own as a Disney-esque piece, but it also wasn't pretending to be anything else anyway. It knew it was Disney-esue, it was never trying to claim to be historical. Since then, yes, we know for sure she died with her family. And as I said in the other thread, this is what makes the musical to be in a rock and hard place. I feel it was timing that is part of the issue, not that one can control timing much however...They finally got it to the 20 years later, after the mystery of it was finally gone. It honestly would have been easier to have brought this musical to the stage sooner after the film's release, because at the least the mystery would still have been there, and easier to take in as an audience member. But by the time it came to the stage, the mystery was already gone, her death was proven, and yet heres the stage musical where she "survived". I do think it was odd to take the musical in a more "historical" direction when it's no longer a secret she died, (again, rock and a hard place considering the discovery) but I also had to constantly remind myself, that it's also based on the film. So I've come to the idea that I'll just take the stage musical as a non-magical fairy tale that happens to take place in Russia, while I continue to learn what really happened.
Anne on the other hand...again it was 30 or so years later, but yet, that has NEVER been shrouded in any mystery. At all. Ever. So to pretend any thing else would indeed be ridiculous. Everyone on the planet knows what happened to Anne and the rest of the 8 in the Auchterhuis, unless you live under a rock...good heavens I hope not. But...also WWII is taught way more in schools than Russian history. There's a few theories I have as to why that may be, but that's for another day, but even in 2018, no not everyone knows the whole of Russian history or the Romanov dynasty. It's not taught the world over the way WWII is, I don't remember ever learning ANYTHING about Russia at all during my schools days, even in world history class, because world history is so gargantuan (like, duh), that those classes tend to be a very broad overview rather than anything in depth. But now that we're in 2018, I will wholly admit, there's no reason to not be aware of what really happened, we have google. But again, considering how history in is taught in schools and the rest of the above, it stands to reason why one piece is more mentally acceptable as a "piece of fluff musical" than other is. Hell, I love Pocahontas as a film, but I'm not an idiot. I take it as the Disney film it is, because like Anastasia, screen and stage, it's not trying to be historical.
This turned out longer than I planned, and don't get me wrong, I'm by no means trying to argue your point, just adding more info. Like Glinda said, a good way to deal with these kinds of thing is to compartmentalize. I also do hope the show will do/say something at their show tonight. I think it would be great, but also make it an acknowledgment of "Yes, we know what really happened".
