Anastasia- Page 3

[toanythingtaboo 2]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 4:45am

It doesn't need to be historically correct, Jesus Christ Superstar is successful...and pretty much everyone knows that story.

Not everyone knows about Anastasia and the Romonov's story. Infact, quite a lot of people have no clue.

All it would need to do is have a disclaimer in the program or something, if they feel that people will seriously protest to the lack of accuracy.

The main aspects of the story are based on truth, well at least what a lot of people believe to be.

[Eponine3]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 9:19am

I love Anastasia and feel that it would adapt really well into a Broadway Musical. However, I heard from someone years ago that the reason this has not happened and likely will not happen is because to many people were involved in writing the story and there are too many people to get permission from to use it on stage.

If they can somehow move beyond that ... I would love to see it. I completely agree with Sutton Foster for Anya.. She would be wonderful. I also think that Matthew Morrison would make a great Dimetri. Since he has done Broadway before maybe they can woo Kelsey Grammar back for Vlad.

[SteamHeat2]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 10:18am

Eponine3-I love your casting
I think this has great potential but Im not sure I see it happening unfortunately

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 1:06pm

I don't really like the idea of Matthew Morrison as Dimitri. I think that you need someone who's really a fast talker like John Cusack.

Edit: The extra comma screwed up what I was trying to say, so I removed it

Updated On: 8/5/08 at 01:06 PM

[winston89]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 1:12pm

Everyone knows that Anastaisa is not at all accurite in terms of the story lines. But, that doesn't mean that it isn't a good movie or a good story.

John Cusack did the speaking voice of Dimitri in the movie. Can he sing? I don't think he could because if any of the actors that did the speaking voice for any of the charcacters in the film could sing. Then they most likely wouldn't have had one actor do the speaking part and one actor do the singing for the same role.

[shh282]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 1:23pm

I thought Anastasia wasn't even done by Disney?

[B3TA07]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 1:31pm

"No, please¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡
Most Disney copies NO¡¡¡

I like Disney broadway version but I don't like anothers studios like Dreamworks or Fox, copy Disney "


...the ****? You speak worse english than the polish girls I go to school with.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 1:33pm

Don Bluth did Anastasia. This isn't your average Dreamworks knockoff, here.

And yes, Winston, I know that John Cusack can't sing. He's also too old at this point. What I mean is that you need an actor who is a fast talker like he is.

[musicalmack]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 3:03pm

I totally agree with Sutton Foster as Anya and Kelsey Grammer as Vlad. I've always thought that this show would do excellently on Broadway!

and as for the "not as well-known as disney movies" aspect:
I know that people are more likely to have heard of, say, "Sleeping Beauty" than "Anastasia", but a surprising amount of people I know have seen it and loved it. I don't think it's even remotely obscure, so I think it'll work.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 3:07pm

There was already a musical version of this story called ANYA which closed out of town.

[winston89]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 3:45pm

Borstalboy,

I am sure that the movie Anastaisa is not the first version of this story on either the stage or screen.

I was watching the movie on TV last night. During the "In The Dark Of The Night" number I was thinking of who I would cast as Rasputian. And, for some reason the person who popped into my head was Patrick Paige.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 8/5/08 at 7:41pm

Idea. Details at 11. Can't say more.

[NobodyNeedsToKnow2]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 2:12pm

"But what is this about the legend having recently been PROVEN false? I know the whole story was a long shot, but I've done a fair bit of research on the topic and don't remember seeing/ hearing anything that actually PROVED Anya didn't get away when the family was ambushed... I'm not saying that whoever posted that earlier is wrong, I'm just a little obsessed with this subject and would like to see for myself... any links to news articles, websites, etc?"

If there is one thing I know, it is my Russian history, so I will answer your question Junior.
First of all, there was no possible way for Anastasia to have escaped from capture as the movie portrays. When they were taken from the palace during the Revolution, they all willingly left, thinking they would be kept safe away from the crowds who had begun attacking the palace.
She did get on that train with her family and went to the seclucion house in Ekaterinburg(excuse me if the spelling of that is slightly off), there are pictures proving it. The question of her still being alive came from first hand expirences of the guards who were ordered to shoot the ex-tsar and his family in the basement that tragic night. The tsarina and her daughters had tried to hide their jewels from the crude guards by sewing them inside the bodice of their dresses. So when the shooting began, the bullets were bouncing off of the jewels and the guards didn't understand why. Eventually, when it seemed everyone was dead, they loaded all the bodies into a truck, and one of the girls was moaning. A guard reported that she had still been alive, but also continued to say that he smashed her over the head with the butt of his rifle and she fell back down.

NOW the legend itself comes from there never being a report of the death of the last royal family of Russia. The people speculated, but it wasn't until years later it was confirmed. When the grave was finally found, 2 bodies were missing. They were missing because the bodies of the youngest two were burned. The guards tried to burn the bodies and when they found it would take much too long, they threw the rest into a mine shaft and buried the bodies they had attempted to burn in a seperate grave.

Finally, when they found the final two remains, it was confirmed it was Alexei's body, but they still cannot confirm which of the younger girls were found. I assume it was Marie because Marie had actually been older, BUT smaller than Anastasia. So Anastasia's body may have been found years and years ago!

As for the legend; Anna Anderson whom Anya is pressumably based on was the woman who lived under the identity of the Grand Duchess Anastasia. She was in and out of asylums her entire life, and looked enough like Anastasia that even the royal family swore it was her. People believed her story to the point that her gravestone has the name Anastasia Federnova Alexandrovich Romanov- Grand Duchess. It wasn't until years AFTER her death that they found the actual remains of the family and could give a proper DNA test. Anna Anderson had been cremated convienantly enough, so the test was put off for another couple years. Finally, someone came forth with a piece saved from an operation that was Anna's intestine. They used that with the DNA of the Romanov's, and found Anna Anderson was not even from Russia. Her family could be traced back to a small family of factory workers from Poland. She was not the Grand Duchess.
And as I explained above, the Grand Duchess had never truely been missing!

I do not have links, I just suggest you read any book on the topic and they will all tell you what I have just told you.
Updated On: 8/6/08 at 02:12 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 2:14pm

...I think all arguments about whether or not historical accuracy should play a part need to be thrown out the window when the movie in question has a talking bat.

[NobodyNeedsToKnow2]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 2:22pm

I agree, I was just answering the question. Knowing the whole truth behind the movie as I do( even that Dmitri was actually one of Anastasia's cousins who killed Rasputin, and Vlad was an executioner), I still love the movie and I am very much for a stage version!

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 4:53pm

There's also the issue that St. Petersburg would have been Leningrad by that point. And the Catherine Palace was actually still open; tours were given there so people could see how outrageously the nobility had lived before the revolution.

Anastasia's my favorite movie, but I'm a nitpicker.

[NobodyNeedsToKnow2]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 5:08pm

Me too. It was the Winter Palace, not the Catherine Palace and the Winter Palace was not open to the public because it became a Bolshevik headquarters. And St. Petersburg remained St. Peterburg until 1914 when it became Petrograd. It became Leningrad in 1924.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 5:12pm

I defer to you on the Winter Palace's name. Though the main character in We The Living worked as a tourguide there, so that's why I had that thought.

"A Rumor in St. Petersburg" takes place in 1926, so it would have been Leningrad by then.

[NobodyNeedsToKnow2]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 5:20pm

Okay, I understand what you meant about St. Petersburg, and you are right, it would have been Leningrad. Please know, I am not trying to fight you on historical mistakes that may have been made in the movie because I agree they were simple and slight, but if my city's name was changed three times over my lifetime, I would still call it what I orginally learned its name to be.

This has been fun. I needed a good spar on Russian History!

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 5:25pm

Haha, no problem. I can see your point about St. Petersburg as well!

Anastasia's errors aren't enough to bother me. Now, Hercules, that one drives me crazy. Which is funny, because Anastasia actually happened and Hercules is jus mythology.

[toanythingtaboo 2]

Posted: 8/6/08 at 7:40pm

I think its one of those stories that you don't really mind that its not accurate.

I re-watched it today, thinking of how it all could be done on stage. The sets for it would be amazing. They would probably have to slide in and out smoothly, similar to Legally Blonde, because quite a lot of the film is traveling through different scenes.

I was thinking for the Palace escape...Dimitri could guide them through a trap door, (they'd need to be doubles) and come out at the back...running through the audience onto the stage. Then Anastasia could fall and hit her head, while Marie gets caught up in a crowd of people running away.

It would be a nice way of counting out the train sequence. I guess the problem would be how Rasputin fits in...because doesn't he have to die at that point...so its clear he needs to be reborn later on when he realizes Anastasia is still alive? Hmm..

Oh, and that bridge sequence would be awesome. they could have an actual bridge and tilt it. That would definitely be an intense sequence!
Updated On: 8/6/08 at 07:40 PM