By TR Robertson Photos by Karli Cadel
If you are lucky enough to see a performance of the third musical for the summer season of Moonlight’s 44th season you will see an amazing production featuring outstanding singing, acting, and dance routines, wonderful costuming, great humor, and an unbelievable use of the new LED wall on the Moonlight Stage that helps bring the myth of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna to life on stage. For the musical, the story of Anastasia begins in 1907 when she was a young girl; takes us to 1917 when the Russian Revolution began and Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children were killed; and finishes in 1927 with a plan by two friends to pass off a young amnesiac woman as Grand Duchess Anastasia, said to be a survivor of the murders of the Romanov Family, only to discover that this young woman might in fact be the real Anastasia. The musical, with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and book by Terrence McNally, was adapted from the 1997 20th Century Fox Animation film “Anastasia”. Both stories focus on the various myths that have risen over the years that the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was rumored to have escaped and survived the execution of the Russian Imperial Family. In actuality, Anastasia imposters began to surface as early as 1921. The musical kept six songs from the animation film and added sixteen additional songs.
“Anastasia the Musical” premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre in April 2017. The team of Flaherty and Ahrens also wrote lyrics and music for “Ragtime”, “Seussical” and “Once on This Island” and McNally also wrote the book for “Ragtime”. “Anastasia” was nominated for 2 Tony Awards, 9 Drama Desk Awards, 2 Drama League Awards and 12 Outer Critics Circle Awards.
The stellar cast is lead by Lena Ceja as Anya, the young woman suffering from amnesia who agrees to take on the role of pretending to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II or Russia, who was thought to have been killed along with her entire family by Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution of 1917 but is now rumored to have survived. Lena is making her Moonlight debut and delivers a superb performance with a voice that blends beautifully with all of the actors on stage. Whether singing songs by herself, like “In My Dreams”, “A Secret She Kept”, or “Crossing a Bridge” or with other performers on stage, like “The Neva Flows”, “Once Upon a December” or “In a Crowd of Thousands”, Lena’s voice blends with ease. Playing Dmitry, the young man who comes up with the plan to train Anya as the Grand Duchess in order to leave Russia for Paris, is Sittichai Chaiyahat. Sittichai is returning to the Moonlight Stage in a major role since his appearance on the stage in Moonlight Youth Theatre in 2016. He delivers a wonderful performance as a young man with a dream willing to do what it takes to find a better life. His strong singing voice was a perfect blend with Lena in numbers like “My Petersburg” and “In a Crowd of Thousands”.
Other standout performances came from Richard Bermudez as Gleb, the Bolshevik officer who is driven to track down the supposed Anastasia imposters and Anya in particular. Richard also has a strong voice and presents Gleb as a man torn between what he sees as his duty and a somewhat strange infatuation with the mysterious Anya. Playing the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, Anastasia’s grandmother, is Valerie Perri, who last appeared on the Moonlight Stage in 2017 in “Sunset Boulevard”. Perri presents the Dowager Empress with dignity and a regal aire and as a grandmother who is guarded against believing that her favorite grandchild might possibly be alive. Two performers brought out a rousing roar and applause for their unique comedic dance routine to “The Countess and the Common Man” as Moonlight veterans Bets Malone (Countess Lily Malevsky-Malevitch) and Michael Paternostro (Vlad Popov) wowed the audience. Vlad was a fallen aristocrat from the Imperial Court and Dimitry’s friend and Countess Lily was the Dowager Empress’s assistant. One extremely impressive scene involved a beautiful presentation of a ballet scene from “Swan Lake” with three dancers (Emma Park as Odette, Lester Gonzalez as Prince Siegfried and Ryan Perry Marks as Van Rothbart) and Anya, Dmitry, Dowager Empress, Gleb and the Ensemble in “Quartet at the Ballet”.
Director Larry Raben, who has directed numerous Moonlight productions, and an amazing creative staff clearly put together a wonderful selection of actors and dancers for this Moonlight musical. Bill Burns was the choreographer for entertaining dance routines, Stanley D. Cohen Stage Manager, Max Cadillac Costume Coordinator, Austin Dycus Video Coordinator, Jennifer Edwards Co-Lighting Designer, Andrew Hammer Set Designer, Peter Herman Wig and Hair Designer, Chris Luessmann Sound Designer, Ryan Marsh Co-Lighting Designer, Emily Mattson Assistant Stage Manager, Aaron Rhyne Original Projection Designer, and Joseph Prete Assistant Stage Manager & Properties Designer. The audience enjoyed the speedy prop and set changes and how quickly the set and props turned into scenes from the streets of Leningrad to the streets of Paris or a ballroom and more. The LED projections added another wow factor as the background could project the beginnings of a revolution to grand palaces to a train traveling through Russian countryside to majestic scenes from all of the sites in Paris and a spirited fireworks display. The 700-panel video screen and the team running the projections are to be congratulated. Along with all of this, the thirteen members of the “Anastasia” Orchestra, led by veteran Musical Director & Conductor Dr. Randi Rudolph and Assistant Musical Director Sadie Holdaway, provided an amazing presentation of the thirty-four musical numbers from this musical.
Performances of “Anastasia the Musical” will be on the Moonlight Stage Wednesdays through Sundays until July 26. It should be noted that there are some simulated scenes in Act 1 with sounds of gun fire and of the murder of the Romanov family which may be disturbing to smaller children. Tickets for the musical can be obtained by calling 760-724-2110 or go to www.moonlightstage.com. The fourth musical for Moonlight Stage Productions will be “Prince of Egypt the Musical” beginning on September 10th.
Several thoughtful lines from “Anastasia” are heard toward the end of Act 2 – “You never know which good-bye will be the last” and “It’s never too late to come home”. Keep these in mind and see this latest delightful Moonlight Stage Productions musical before it leaves the Moonlight Stage.
