Anya (1965)

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 2:56pm

Can anyone tell me what this show was like? How was the music?

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 4:14pm

I have a copy, it's not terrible, but I don't remember anything sticking with me.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 10/24/06 at 5:10pm

Well, since it's adapted from Rachmaninoff, much of it is undoubtedly quite lovely as music.

I haven't heard the cast recording. I do wish they would issue it on CD. I have the CD of the revised version, now known as Anastasia: The Musical. This version is scored for two pianos and I do think the score could use a full orchestra but the music is all beautiful. Unfortunately, the lyrics are not as good.

There are some major differences in the scores of the two versions.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/4/06 at 5:04pm

Thanks for the responses. It's a score that I'd be interested to hear sometime.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 1:31am

Unfortunately, it's one of those flops that have not gotten transferred to CD.

The Rachmaninoff melodies are appropriately lush. Some of the lyrics sit awkwardly on the music. The show flopped after 16 performances but United Artists had recorded the cast album before opening night and released it anyhow. Copies were still floating around 10 years later. The Lp is not scarce. Note that the cover was printed twice. An earlier cover lists a couple of songs that aren't actually on the record!

THE ANASTASIA AFFAIRE is a revised version but without the full orchestra it doesn't really play.

[stonewall2]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 6:16pm

I was 11 when "Anya" opened and adored the show. Of course, anything by Rachmaninoff made my heart race, becasse I was being classically trained as a violinist/pianinst and although in retrospect the songs were trite and a bit contrived, it worked the way it was intended to. Constance Towers seemed to make her career as a replacement as opposed to an originator was lovely and touching as Anastasia and Michael Kermoyan (whose- I believe and please correct me if I'm wrong- biggest part up until this show has been in the chorus of "Camelot") had an enormous baritone and was a great leading man, but the evening really belonged to Lillian Gish as the Empress Marie Fedorovna. Her scenes with Anastasia had me in tears and her song "Little Hands" made me call my own grandmother as soon as I got home!
All in all, was it a great show? No. Was it even a good show? Probably not, but it WAS a novel concept and I wish that I still had a turntable so that I could listen to my OC record that I finally found the other day.......

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 6:56pm

Kermoyan had had what seem to have been fairly decent supporting roles in several shows, starting (as Kalem Kermoyan) with The Girl in Pink Tights, in which he was part of the delightful quartet "You've Got to Be a Little Crazy" with Brenda Lewis, and in Tovarich, where he has significant solo singing in a couple of numbers and I'm guessing had a role of some importance, though still relatively minor. And he'd been Jupiter in The Happiest Girl in the World, probably not that a big a role, but I'd guess bigger than what he did in Camelot. In both Tovarich and Happiest Girl, he also understudied leading roles. Has anyone else understudied Jean-Pierre Aumont and Bruce Yarnell?

I guess he'd developed a reputation for being a good understudy, which had led him to be hired to understudy George London in Anya. And then when London's vocal problems forced him to withdraw, Kermoyan got to take over.

Btw, after having been uncredited for many years, it's now known that he was the soloist in "I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet" on the Bernstein recording of On the Town. You probably knew that.

[stonewall2]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 7:05pm

It seemed like the whole cast was made up of "almost" stars. Constance Towers always reminds me of Rebacca Luker- great voice, just born at the wrong time! (And yes, I'm one of those who would have liked to see Luker play Mary Poppins instead of getting stuck in the "padded" role of Mrs. Banks- she has a lovely voice and could have played the part wonderfully.

PS- thanks for the information on Kermoyan! I always loved his voice and again, thought he was similar to Alfred Drake (wrong timing again!)

[allofmylife]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:28pm

I saw him replacing Brynner at The Uris back in the 70's in "The King and I". Great booming voice. I went back to see the show again - wanted to say I'd seen Yul and I did see him. Kermoyan was stronger but that time.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/5/06 at 11:51pm

I saw Kermoyan as the King opposite Lansbury. He was great, both as a singer and as an actor. When he was left alone onstage after he and Anna fight in front of the children, he seemed so vulnerable and alone that tears just started streaming down my face.

I always wondered what he might have been like as Judge Turpin in Sweeney. And I would think that he must have done Kismet in stock and would have been great.

I do envy you, stonewall2, having seen Anya, especially to have seen Lillian Gish onstage.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 11/6/06 at 9:59am

True trivia time:

The soprano solo (sung on "ah") in the overture was performed by the late Diane Tarleton who later was in the original Torch Song Trilogy.

[daredevil]

Posted: 11/6/06 at 12:54pm

I saw Anya in previews. It was a musical based on a play produced on Broadway about ten years earlier called Anastasia, by Guy Bolton, which had been a popular success at the time and was a few years later made into a movie with Ingrid Bergman and Helen Hayes (and Yul Brynner). It tried hard, but seemed forced. I remember the ending hedged around a trick line (that may have been what George Abbott wanted) and the music veered between overserious and silly (one lyric, in preparation for Anya's audience with the Queen mother, went "Dust the bust of Doestoyofsky") While not terrible, it simply didn't add anything to the play it was adapted from.

[stonewall2]

Posted: 11/7/06 at 4:45pm

I LOVE the idea of Kermoyan playing Judge Turpin- he could infuse just the right amount of "menacing" into the role (he actually could have kicked a** as Sweeney too, I think); and, unless I am very badly mistaken, he did do "Kismet" in summer stock. I come from the (very) old times of the heyday of the Bucks County Playhouse (my mother was the costume director) when EVERYONE who was ANYBODY performed there during the summer. The "strike" parties were always held at our house every other Saturday night so I have memories on top of memories to share. The greats, as in Julie Harris, and the ones that would be later, such as Liza and Tyne Daly as teenagers.... Oh my, what floodgates this has opened for me!

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/7/06 at 7:23pm

It must have been great to see all that stuff at Bucks County and get to socialize with all those people.

I think that with his slightly exotic looks and his bass voice, it must have been a little tough for Kermoyan to ever become a musical-theatre star name. Not many leading roles in musicals for true basses. But he clearly was a great talent. Maybe I'll google him to see if I can find what roles he did in stock.