Anastasia coming to Broadway — Page 2

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "Am I the only one who finds it super distracting that they used a TOY as a music box instead of creating their own prop? I mean I think it's great that the box is exactly from the movie, but something's lazy about the usage of the toy. Also surprised that Anastasia is blonde and not brunette like the movies.

To be fair, it's not the toy music box, it's the collectible music box from the San Francisco Music Box company. The toy version looks like this: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/58/fb/32/58fb32f92bd9699a7a5a24484dc550dc.jpg

I do wish they had created a prop a bit closer to the film version, but it's not like the details will be super visible from the audience anyway.

From the article Lizzie linked above:

"The physical production," Ahrens gushes, "is going to be spectacular. There are 136 costumes. Magnificent sets. It's bigger than a normal out-of-town try-out."

She pluralizes sets! Who knows though.

The movie was originally developed by Sullivan Bluth studios, which was formed by a whole bunch of animators who left Disney. They also did movies like Thumbelina and The Land Before Time

The full program is available on the Hartford site, including the Song list:



Prologue: Once Upon a December - Dowager Empress and Anastasia, Age 6
Dance of the Romanovs - Company
A Rumor in St. Petersburg - Dmitry, Vlad and Company
In My Dreams - Anya
The Rumors Never End - Ensemble
A Simple Thing - Gleb and Ensemble
Learn to Do It - Vlad, Anya and Dmitry
Anya - Gleb
The Neva Flows - Male Ensemble
My Petersburg - Dmitry and Anya
Once Upon a December - Anya and Ensemble
In My Dreams (reprise) - Anya
Stay, I Pray You - Count Ipolitov, Anya, Dmitry, Vlad, and Ensemble
We’ll Go From There - Vlad, Anya, Dmitry and Ensemble
Traveling Sequence. - Gleb, Gorlinsky, Anya, Dmitry and Vlad
Journey to the Past - Anya


THERE WILL BE ONE INTERMISSION
ACT II
Setting: Paris, 1927
Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart) - Vlad, Dmitry, Anya and Ensemble
Crossing a Bridge - Anya
Close the Door - Dowager Empress
Land of Yesterday - Lily, Gleb and Ensemble
The Countess and the Common Man - Vlad and Lily
A Nightmare - Romanov Children, Tsar and Tsarina
In a Crowd of Thousands - Dmitry and Anya
I Never Should Have Let Them Dance - Vlad
Quartet at the Ballet - Anya, Dmitry, Dowager Empress and Gleb
Everything to Win - Dmitry
Once Upon a December (reprise) - Anya and Dowager Empress
The Press Conference - Lily, Vlad and Male Ensemble
Everything to Win (reprise) - Anya
A Simple Thing (reprise) - Gleb and Ensemble
In A Crowd of Thousands (reprise) - Anya and Dmitry
Finale - Anya, Dmitry and Company

Updated On: 5/10/16 at 07:28 PM

In hindsight, I agree. Just edited for formatting to make it easier to read. Still not the best. Anyway the link is here under "Background Info"

https://www.hartfordstage.org/anastasia



First thing I noticed is that they moved "Journey To the Past" to the end of act 1, and apparently written a new "I want" song for her in its place.

Updated On: 5/10/16 at 07:32 PM

Interesting that they've moved Journey to the Past to the end of Act 1 considering it's a I want song so I assume it's been altered slightly.

I'm curious about "A Nightmare". I was hoping, not very hopefully, that they would try including some adaptation of the nightmare sequence from the film; although without Rasputin it would need some changes. The instrumental score in the film scene was composed by David Newman, not Stephen Flaherty, without using themes from Flaherty's songs (or not that I noticed). I don't see a credit for Newman in that program, so I suppose Flaherty has written new music for it, whatever it now is.

I'm also starting to wonder how they're going to make Dimitri sufficiently likable by the end of the stage version. Rasputin was ridiculous in the movie, but at least that final confrontation gave Dimitri a chance to risk his own safety to try to help Anya at the end, however comically/ineffectually. I don't know if the audience would buy into the story's ending if Dimitri's 'redemption' just consists of his deciding not to fleece a lonely old lady and young woman for his own gain after all. Anyway, I imagine the creatives have thought of that. Looking forward to hearing more about this production!

Oh god, the songs sounds amazing! What a great thing to wake up to!

1927 is going to be when most of the narrative takes place. 1917 is the year of the attack when she goes missing, and it seems they also have a scene in the beginning that takes place in 1907, when Anya is 6.

disneybroadwayfan22 said: "Oh god, the songs sounds amazing! What a great thing to wake up to!"



I may be misreading this post, but does this mean there is somewhere we can hear samples of the new/revamped songs?

A few thoughts on the song list...

First, the movement of "Journey to the Past" to the Act 1 closer and the use of "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart" as the Act 2 opening suggests a couple of things to me about the plot structure; namely, that one of the "cliffhangers" going into intermission will be that Dimitri, at least, realizes Anya really is Anastasia. Unless they've changed it- which is entirely possible, of course- there's a verse in "Paris" in which Dmitry sings "Yes Princess we've found you at last/ No more pretend/ You'll be gone, that's the end." So that suggests that most of Act 2, he knows who she really is- maybe that's part of how they'll work on building his character, as a selfish man who finally learns to be selfless (by giving up his dream for hers).

And from a more cynical POV, putting that song as the Act 2 production number opening should help avoid the trap of an irrelevant but splashy act opener; it's one of the iconic movie songs so everyone will be excited to hear it no matter what :)

I could see the context of "Once Upon A December" not having to change too much- still could be Anya having these flashbacks/dreams she can't quite understand, just maybe not in the actual palace. Looks like "Learn To Do It" and "I Never Should Have Let Them Dance" are in approximately the same contexts as the movie. As far as new songs, I'm most interested to hear about "In a Crowd of Thousands" (I've always wanted a Dmitry/Anya duet) and "Quartet at the Ballet." I'm guessing the two version of "Everything To Win" are Dmitry and Anya's 11-o'clock-esque numbers and should be interesting to hear.

JBroadway said: "There's one moment in particular I hope they keep...





"

Seconded They HAVE to keep that, right? It's become a meme in its own right over the past 20 years, everyone knows that joke!

Regarding a cast recording, I don't think there's been any announcement, and we probably wouldn't expect one until the Broadway production, but there was this tweet a few weeks back: "...@vandeanproducer of Broadway Records is producing, so let him know you want a cast recording!" So that's a good sign, hopefully.

https://twitter.com/AnastasiaStage/status/717056903080062976