Anastasia (musical)

Anastasia
Artwork from the Broadway Production
Music	Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics	Lynn Ahrens
Book	Terrence McNally
Setting	Russia & France
Basis	1997 film Anastasia
Premiere	May 27, 2016: Hartford Stage, Hartford, Connecticut
Productions	2016 Hartford 2017 Broadway
Awards	2016 Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Musical

Anastasia is a musical with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and a book by Terrence McNally. Based on the 1997 film of the same name, the musical tells the story of the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, which claims that she in fact escaped the execution of her family. Anastasia, who appears in the plot as an amnesiac orphan named Anya, hopes to find some trace of her family and sides with conmen who wish to take advantage of her likeness to the Grand Duchess.

A reading was held in 2012, featuring Kelli Barret as Anya (Anastasia), Patrick Page as Vladimir, Angela Lansbury as the Empress Maria and Aaron Tveit as Dimitri. A workshop was held on June 12, 2015 in New York City workshop, and included Elena Shaddow as Anna, Ramin Karimloo as Gleb Vaganov, a new role, and Douglas Sills as Vlad.

The original stage production of Anastasia premiered at Hartford Stage in Hartford, Connecticut on May 13, 2016 (previews), with direction by Darko Tresnjak and choreography by Peggy Hickey, and starring Christy Altomare and Derek Klena as Anya and Dmitry, respectively.

The musical will open on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre on March 23, 2017 in previews, officially on April 24, 2017, featuring the original Hartford principal cast.

Director Tresnjak explained: "We’ve kept, I think, six songs from the movie, but there are 16 new numbers. We’ve kept the best parts of the animated movie, but it really is a new musical." The musical also adds characters not in the film. Additionally, Act 1 is set in Russia and Act 2 in Paris, “which was everything modern Soviet Russia was not: free, expressive, creative, no barriers,” according to McNally.