For nearly a century after the Russian Imperial Family was brutally executed at the hands of Bolsheviks, rumors persisted that some members of the family were able to escape. This was especially true of the family’s youngest daughter, Anastasia.
While, unfortunately, the remains of the entire family have now been found and successfully identified using DNA evidence, Plainview is asking ‘what if Anastasia made it out?’ in their newest production, “Anastasia: The Musical.”
If you’ve seen the animated Fox film from 1997, this play follows more or less the same beats. It includes some of the same songs and adds in a few new ones. Where it really differs is in the removal of the supernatural elements. Gone is the ghost of Rasputin and his talking bat friend, replaced by General Gleb Vaganov, a Communist trying to track Anastasia down.
After a brief prologue set before the Russian Revolution, the story begins in 1927 in St. Petersburg, which has been renamed Leningrad. As it turns out, things are not going so well in the newly formed Communist Utopia, and the people are poor and miserable.
That’s when two wanted conmen, Dmitry and Vlad, cook up a plan to bring “Anastasia” to Paris to meet her grandmother, thus earning for themselves a substantial reward. The pair audition a number of girls to play the part of Anastasia, but to no avail. Then they meet a young street sweeper named Anya who is suffering from amnesia. Turning her into Anastasia proves to be incredibly easy…so easy, she just might be the real thing.
I was invited to dress rehearsal on Monday evening and really enjoyed this play. All the leads are incredibly strong performers. I also enjoyed the use of a high tech scrim, which functions as a large digital screen. This allows for an easy change of backgrounds, and even moving backgrounds!
Standout performances are Kailyn Smith as Anya and Ethan Savage as Dmitry. Both have incredible voices, and I’m honestly not sure that either one missed so much as one note during the performance I watched. They are also great actors who really sell the emotion in their performances.
The show opened last night but additional performances are set for this Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Plainview Auditorium. Tickets are $10 a piece and can be purchased at the door. And I promise you, it’s $10 well spent!
