A Disney-style animated flick for the kiddies gets transformed into an epic romantic musical for grown-ups in Anastasia, now evoking oohs and aahs at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts for its gorgeous costumes and spectacular projection designs as well as abundant applause for its trio of thrilling lead performances, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s lush musical score, and Peggy Hickey’s eclectic choreography.

Both movie and musical tell the highly fictionalized tale of amnesia victim Anya (Lila Coogan), whose looks and age (17 in 1917) make her the ideal candidate to flee Leningrad and present herself to Paris-residing Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Joy Franz) as her granddaughter Anastasia, the executed Tsar and Tsarina’s supposedly sole surviving child.

Enlisted by handsome young con man Dmitry (Jake Levy) and his more seasoned accomplice Vlad Popov (Edward Staudenmayer), once a member of the Imperial Court, Anya soon finds herself recalling events that only the real Anastasia could possibly remember.

Might it be that Anya and Anastasia are one and the same?

Book writer Terrence McNally wisely jettisons the 1997 animated film’s living-dead villain Rasputin, his albino bat sidekick Bartok, and the movie’s silly central conceit (that the scarcely mentioned Russian Revolution was just one of Rasputin’s evil schemes) for a more historically accurate approach, introducing us to die-hard revolutionary Gleb Vaganov (Jason Michael Evans), a man with a Javert-like mission to locate and kill the sole possible survivor.

What he hasn’t counted on is finding Anya so darned adorable.

Six songs from the movie (“Journey To The Past” and “Once Upon A December” the most famous among them) and over a dozen new additions showcase Ahrens and Flaherty’s talent for bridging genres, from Broadway pop to Russian folk to Paris ooh-la-la, and with L.A. favorite Hickey providing dance steps that range from traditional Russian moves to waltz to ballet to Charleston, there’s plenty to cheer where song and dance are concerned.

A subplot involving Vlad and the Dowager Empress’s lady in waiting Countess Lily Malevsky-Malevitch (Tari Kelly) provides some Act Two comic relief, though the middle-aged couple’s hammed-up “The Countess And The Common Man” feels as out of place in Anastasia as a scene from Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman’s over-the-top “Went With The Wind” would be if it were inserted in the middle of the MGM Civil War classic.

Fortunately, Darko Tresnjak’s direction is otherwise spot-on, particularly for those of a romantic bent, and with Coogan making for the most exquisite of Anyas, Levy the most irresistible of Dmitrys, and Evans the most compelling of Glebs, National Tour lovers could not ask for three more sensational, charismatic, vocally blessed leads.

Staudenmayer gives Hollywood hoofers a run for their money the second Vlad realizes that Paree holds a key to his heart, Franz does quite moving work as the Dowager Empress, and Delilah Rose Pellow makes for an enchanting Young Anastasia and a winsome Alexei Romanoff.

Ensemble members Ronnie S. Bowman, Jr., Kylie Victoria Edwards, Alison Ewing, Peter Garza, Brad Greer, Tamra Hayden, Lucy Horton, Fred Inkley, Kourtney Keitt, Ryan Mac, Mark MacKillop, Daniel Z. Miller, Taylor Quick, and Lyrica Woodruff display triple-threat gifts throughout as suitors, soldiers, comrades, ghosts, Parisians, White Russians, waiters, reporters, and Swan Lake cygnets, with special mention due Bowman, MacKillop, and Woodruff’s balletic grace and Greer’s haunting tenor in “Stay, I Pray You.”

Linda Cho’s costumes (from pre-Revolution elegance to post-Revolution rags to Paris flair) earned her a deserved Tony nomination, and Alexander Dodge’s scenic design, Donald Holder’s lighting, Peter Hylenski’s sound design, Charles G. LaPointe’s hair and wigs, and Joe Dulude III’s makeup are all top-notch as well.

Still, it’s Aaron Rhyne’s breathtaking projection designs (winner of both the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle awards) that make this Broadway National Tour a must see, if only to marvel at a succession of stunningly realized animated 3-D backdrops that make you feel as if you’re watching a Hollywood blockbuster (think Dr. Zhivago meets An American In Paris) live on stage.

Last but not least, musical director Lawrence Goldberg conducts Anastasia’s terrific pit orchestra to finely-tuned perfection.

Hannah Florence, Jeremiah Ginn, dance captain Kenneth Michael Murray, and Sareen Tchekmedyian are swings. Eloise Vaynshtok plays Little Anastasia and Alexei Romanov at Saturday matinee and Sunday evening performances.

Richard A. Leigh is production stage manager. Denny Daniello is company manager.

Unlike Broadway’s Beauty And The Beast, The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, and Aladdin, stage adaptations that remained as kids-targeted as the animated films that inspired them, Anastasia The Musical is one best appreciated by the fully grown. As sumptuous as it is romantic, and gorgeously sung to boot, Anastasia will tug at your heartstrings and thrills your senses in equal measure.

Segerstrom Center For The Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scfta.org

–Steven Stanley
November 5, 2019
Photos: Matthew Murphy, MurphyMade and Evan Zimmerman, MurphyMade.

Tags: Lynn Ahrens, Orange County Theater Review, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, Stephen Flaherty, Terrence McNally