Anastasia on Broadway

[bigrab1018]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 10:51am

I was watching Anastasia yesterday and I really think it could make a great stage show.
Maybe Fox can venture into Broadway with this one. :)

[FranklinShepard-Inc.]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 10:52am

Any Flaherty/Ahrens showcase is welcome.

[Glebb]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 10:59am

Fun animated film. The music is great.
The history.... well.....

[Katurian2]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 11:20am

I loved this movie when I was little! I think the music is much more artistic than the now-opening Tarzan score. Once Upon a December is amazing. If another animated movie has to come to Broadway, let this be the one.

Posted: 4/2/06 at 11:24am

I agree. This would be a perfect show.

[Sant]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 11:45am

The story kind of lost its point when they found out that the remains of one of the children in the tomb of the royal family actually was the princess Anastacia...

But yes, it is time for Ahrens/Flaherty to have a show on B'way again.

[Glebb]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 11:58am

Actually the prominent American Scientist Dr. William Maples believes Grand Duchess Anastasia is not amongst the bodies buried in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He asserts that all of the vertebrates found are from mature bodies because of a ring that is fused to them. In a 17 year old body the ring between each vertebrate is not yet fused. He does believe that she and Alexei were most certainly burned and that the search should continue. It's the Russian, Dr. Abramov who says Anastasia's bones are amongst the nine bodies identified. He believes Maria and Alexei are missing.

"Have you heard, there's a rumor in Saint Petersburg"

Updated On: 4/2/06 at 11:58 AM

[bigrab1018]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 12:19pm

Well, all science aside, I still think that the story would make for a great book, and that the music is very fitting to the Broadway stage, given the fact that the genius team of Ahrens & Flaherty wrote it.

In a perfect world, it could beat out Disney's The Little Mermaid for the Best Musical Tony!

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 12:25pm

I don't think there is any way this is going to happen. The animated film didn't get very good reviews - mainly because the historical details were so completely absurd.

There has also already been a stage musical version of the ANASTASIA story - actually one musical rewritten endlessly and turning up in different versions as ANYA and the ANASTASIA GAME. It flopped every time.

I like some of the Ahrens/Flaherty music but it's just a dumb idea for a children's piece - like doing a musical version of GHANDI with talking monkeys.

[Glebb]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 12:26pm

LOL! I do love how the animated film includes Josephine Baker. :)

Updated On: 4/2/06 at 12:26 PM

[MaureenJ]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 1:03pm

Well, It has a little bit of scene stuff that might not work out exactly as planned. Adn the issue of Bartok...and the underowrld might look a little cheesy... but I mean, I guess...I don't know...

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 1:11pm

I would love to see this on Broadway! One of my fave scores from an animated movie! I do see peoples point about the story, but I'm still entranced by the mystery that surrounded the basic story. I think it would make a beautiful stage show, with amazing sets and costumes, and I think it's time someone besides disney did a musical that people can take kids too and also enjoy it themselfs! And about the bartak thing maybe the could change it so that it wouldn't be sooo cheesey on stage, because "In the Dark Of The Night" hase potential to be a great number if done right.
Also who would people cast it what roles if this did happen?

[withoutlovewithoutU]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 1:11pm

I would love to see this on Broadway! One of my fave scores from an animated movie! I do see peoples point about the story, but I'm still entranced by the mystery that surrounded the basic story. I think it would make a beautiful stage show, with amazing sets and costumes, and I think it's time someone besides disney did a musical that people can take kids too and also enjoy it themselfs! And about the bartak thing maybe the could change it so that it wouldn't be sooo cheesey on stage, because "In the Dark Of The Night" hase potential to be a great number if done right.
Also who would people cast it what roles if this did happen?

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 2:41pm

the reviews weren't that great, but the movie still has a lot of popularity. the score was nominated for an Academy Award. I think it would be amazing if this came to bway, it has a strong score and the romance story is wonderful i think.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 2:46pm

I thought the reviews for Anastasia were very postive. Rottentomatoes has it at a 93% freshness and Ebert gave it three and a half out of four stars. Anyway, I wish it would come to Broadway, it would have a lot of potential on the Great White Way.

Sutton Foster as Anastasia would make my life. Gahhhh!

[greeneyed_one]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 2:48pm

Matt Morrison as Demetri (is that how you spell his name?)

[knows_too_much]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 3:10pm

I loved the movie, except for the big battle ot the end with Rasputin. It felt so tacked on, like they were affraid of doing somthing too different so they had the big battle that comes at the end of every animated movie.

Off topic, but I have the same complaint about the Gargoyals in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. They're thrown in there because all kid movies have the silly side kicks.

[misto625]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 3:37pm

I just began listening to this score again recently. I think it would be awesome as a Broadway musical. I wasn't much of a Broadway fan when it first came out, but I knew enough to appreciate the voice talents of Bernadette and Angela Lansbury. As far as casting, Rasputin is the role who intrigues me. Brian Stokes Mitchell is one name who pops up. I can't actually think of a good candidate.

[BrightEyedInNYC]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 4:03pm

I actually HAVE done this show. I don't know how, but the director of a local childrens theatre got the rights and i was "Anya." this was one of my favorite shows i've done.we had a train in the prologue as grand empress marie looses little anastasia and we beautiful dancers as ghosts for once upon a december. bartok was similar to the enchanted characters in disneys b'way version of beauty and the beast-he was life size and it really wasn't seen as corny. we had great combat choagraphy for the end battle that incorporated dancers as rasputin's minions and we even had a real dog play pooka.
the historical aspect isn't that incredibly absurd (besides, of course, the whole rasputin aspect with bartok). If you notice, she doesn't accept the role of grand duchess, she leaves before she is crowned to be with demitri, thus symbolising that perhaps she wasn't the real anastasia. Also, in the dream ballet/nightmare, she dies in her dream, also symbolizing that the real anastasia most likely did die. just some food for thought. :)
BrightEyedInNYC

[WickedMuzzy422]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:20pm

hey! I watched Anastasia yesterday too. I would love to see this on stage.

[The1ThatGotAway2]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:42pm

Wow, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who wants this as a broadway play. My friend had to actually create a play for a project last semseter. She had to design costumes and stage directions and sets. It was pretty cool how she figured the Bartok character going into the underworld. He was suspended in air and a screen behind him moved giving the illusion he was falling through the air, down a hole.

I don't think it would be an more cheesier than beauty and the beast is. However, I'm sure there could be a way to make Bartok like the characters in the Lion King.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:42pm

Wait a minute....go right back to Ghandi with talking monkeys. Now THAT I would like to see!

Actually, I agree that the story as told in the film is just too dubious historically. It wasn't the first film to twist the legend, though. The Ingrid Bergman film took all kinds of historical liberties in 1956.

There would have to be some remaining mystery or possibility that there was (or could be) a happy ending for the public to buy this, in my opinion. Even if you believe Anastasia survived, however, the story of Anna Anderson, the woman who claimed to be Anastasia, was not pretty in the end. She and her husband became weird shut-ins who lived with literally dozens of cats in squalid, filthy conditions. Periodically, the local authorities would have to raid the house and remove the cats for health reasons. The cats were in-bred, deformed, sick, and malnourished and most would have to be euthanized. I mean it is really a pitiful story.

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:44pm

wow brighteyed...i can't believe you got to do Anastasia! That's crazy! agh so jealous!!! I want to play Sophie so bad...of course I would LOVE to play Anya but too bad I am no ingenue. (Sigh) I always thought Sutton would make a great Anya.

[KJisgroovy]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:49pm

Um. Does anyone think for one second that the ANIMATED MUSICAL version of Anastasia is supposed to be historically accurate? REALLY? What was the part that threw you off? The fact that the starving Russian citizens break into song? The talking bat? The whole musical number in THE UNDERWORLD? Or perhaps a character COMING BACK TO LIFE and having his limbs fall off? Oh no. This peice is spot on historically. The musical version of Anastasia is CLEARLY a fantasy.

kmc

[Bwaybaby109]

Posted: 4/2/06 at 6:57pm

haha....well played.