When I saw that the musical of Anastasia was coming to the Kennedy Center, I was definitely interested; I have such fond memories of the cartoon movie. Unfortunately tickets were a little expensive, so I thought I'd just have to pass. But then I found a great deal for discounted tickets, and I got to sit right in the middle of the center orchestra for $35! I swear it was the best seat I have ever had in the Opera House. I was so excited that I didn't have to miss this show, because it was AMAZING!
The show starts out in wintertime in the palace of the Romanovs. It felt very much like the Nutcracker ballet: snow falling in the background, families dancing inside a beautiful, grandiose hall, a little girl dressed in pink who receives a gift... Nice parallels for two Russian stories!
I loved the costumes (designed by Linda Cho; lindacho.com), especially for the royal family in the beginning. They are so elegant and opulent! And the tsarina's tiara: I NEED that.
I love this blue dress. I actually dressed up as Anastasia for a sorority rush party once: beaded dress, white gloves, tiara, etc. Image found here
Along with the costumes, the set was also spectacular. The only permanent part of the set were two columns toward the sides of the stage. The majority of the backdrop was actually created with digital images/videos on a screen (designed by Aaron Rhyne; aaronrhyne.com). It was incredible! Of course a screen can show you a million things, and it also creates depth-perception in a way traditional sets can't. You could see snow falling, clouds rolling in, and twilight's arrival. But the screen wasn't just used to show the weather. You could...
See ghosts dancing along with Anya's memory of her music box (just like in the cartoon!):
Of course I didn't see the musical for the backdrop (as stunning as it all was). I was there for the music! These are some of my favorites from the cartoon movie:
I will say I was disappointed that the song "At the Beginning" was not featured in the musical. Even though this song plays during the credits of the cartoon version, it has always stuck with me:
Lila Coogan, Anastasia: While not traditionally beautiful with her masculine jaw and thick eyebrows (although those are all the rage these days), she really did a wonderful job, especially singing. She has such a powerful voice! I was blown away. And after listening to the videos from the cartoon, Coogan is definitely a stronger singer than that!
Stephen Brower, Dmitry: He is very cute and has good energy onstage, but his voice wasn't nearly as strong as Coogan's. Between the "couple," I was much more impressed by her.
Edward Staudenmayer, Vlad: I had totally forgotten about this character entirely! But he was so funny, with great stage presence, physical comedy, and singing. I think he may have been my favorite in the entire production!
Tari Kelly, Countess Lily: I don't really remember this character from the movie. But the way Countess Lily is played in the musical, she is a CHARACTER rather than a person. She is just SO over-the-top, like the comedy relief that you can't get relief from. Everything is too loud, too much, joke-after-joke... The other characters could indeed be real people, but Countess Lily was a clown. I can't blame Kelly for that: I guess it's how the character was written. And in that case, she did a great job: she was very funny, especially regarding her slapstick comedy.
Jason Michael Evans, Gleb: Gleb is the bad guy in the musical; this version actually has no Rasputin (or Bartok) at all! I was a bit disappointed by that, but then again, I figure the story is about Anya finding out who she really is, rather than about a good vs. evil storyline. BUT that meant that the Gleb character wasn't really all that important. He'd show up on stage every once in a while and threaten to hurt (or even kill) Anastasia, but he never does any of that. So again, Evans does a good job doing what he was hired to do; his character was just kinda lame.
Another major divergence from the movie is the story of how Anya and Dmitry meet. In the movie, it is revealed that Dmitry actually helped Anya escape during the attack on the Romanov palace. But in the musical, they met eyes during a parade. Hear the story in the song, "In a Crowd of Thousands" :
Sorry for the non-sequitur, but... There was also a ballet within the musical, so that was a little meta. There was a miniature dance ensemble, and when the ballet was "over," the crowd applauded as if they had just watched the real thing, not a mini-ballet inside of a musical. (PS: When Von Rothbart, the bad guy in the ballet, came onto the stage, Gleb also arrived for the show, which was clever symmetry).
Claire Rathbun was playing Odette from Swan Lake (another Russian ballet with music composed by Tchaikovsky). She is so beautiful, like a mix of Lacey Rogers from ANTM and The Tudors' Natalie Dormer. I actually think she has a Russian face! She LOOKS more like an Anastasia than Coogan, but while she can dance, I bet she can't sing like Coogan can!
The most touching part of the performance for me was when Anya reunited with her grandmother and they both realize she is indeed Anastasia. I was crying, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one!
Even if there were parts missing that I liked from the movie, or if some of the cast was not how I had imagined, I really can't say enough good things about this production. It is just THAT good. If you can, buy a ticket. You've still got about a month to see it, so buy your tickets and GO!
PPS: Before the show, I actually arrived in time to catch some of the performance at Millennium Stage (they have free shows there every night). I saw the Capitol Bones, a trombone big band group. The singer Christal Rheams also joined them, and they performed a few songs in honor of Aretha Franklin. I was glad I got to see them; it was like seeing two shows in one night but for one low price!
No comments:
Post a Comment