It’s innately dreary, and you can almost hear a big sigh of relief from McNally and songwriters Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens when the second act of “Anastasia” opens in ooh-la-la Paree! Anya has cashed in that big diamond, and she’s living it up in high style with a blond coif worthy of Ivanka. That the master composer never set one of his shows in the U.S.S.R.
More fake news.īack in the 1970s and ’80s, Stephen Sondheim taught Broadway that you could turn almost any subject into a musical. For a musical that’s all about the effects of the Bolshevik Revolution, maybe somebody involved ought to have Googled the Ballet Russes, which never performed in the U.S.S.R. No Disney princess ever did that before! As the two lovers, Christy Altomare and Derek Klena display pretty singing voices, and otherwise show as much depth as the animated-film characters their roles are based on.īut about that train ride: McNally’s book has Anya and Dmitry disguising themselves as members of the Ballet Russes on the trip from Leningrad to Paris. But then why does this Russian girl know so much about the Romanovs’ pet cat and why is there a diamond the size of the Ritz sewn into her rag of an overcoat?Īlso Read: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' Broadway Review: Christian Borle to the RescueĪlso unexplained is where Anya/Anastasia learned to jump from trains a la Tom Cruise and defend herself (and her boyfriend) by kicking men in the nuts. Terrence McNally’s book goes through so many contortions on the subject of Anastasia.
There’s also the fake news that this girl who calls herself Anya might actually be Anastasia, the sole surviving member of the Romanov family that ruled the country as czars until the Revolution. Later, the Ivanka Trump-like heroine shows her royal privilege by insisting that a fellow traveler ask her permission to smoke on the train ride from the U.S.S.R. How could our president not be thrilled?Įarly in the show, a Jared Kushner lookalike sings of the glories of his pre-Communist nation in the song “My Petersburg,” even though the place has been renamed Leningrad. “Anastasia” opened Monday at the Broadhurst Theatre, and it’s a show that pays homage to the kleptocracy that was the Romanovs of Russia. Trump already has his own Broadway musical. Obama had “Hamilton.” Only 100 days into his presidency, Donald J.
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