Though they come from opposite sides of the world, both seem trapped and confused. Both are searching for greater freedom and greater meaning in their lives.
And both tales that form the basis for the musicals about them are swiped from the movies. One story is loosely based on history, the other is fiction. One story is set amidst the grandeur of Moscow and Paris in the early part of the 20th century. The other is more modern and is set in small town America.
Let's start with the better of the two which is the new live adaptation of the 1997 animated film, Anastasia based on the tale of the lost child (Grand Duchess Anastasia) who presumably went missing after the royal Romanov family was killed off during the Russian revolution.
The producers of this musical faced a daunting challenge as many aficionados of the animated form regard the 1997 film as the best animated movie ever made. Also, the 1956 live action film with Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner and Helen Hayes wasn't exactly chopped liver. It garnered a best actress Oscar for Ingrid Bergman and won numerous other awards.
In this Broadway version a young woman who may or may not be the last surviving child of the Russian royal family joins two con men to reunite with her grandmother, the Dowager Empress, while the villain Gleb seeks her death, hoping to complete the assassination of the royal family.
We never saw the widely-heralded animated film so we really can't make a valid comparison. The new Broadway version keeps six songs from the movie but adds 16 new pieces, making this a very musical undertaking.
About midway through the first act, however, you may find yourself wondering why anybody thought that a musical set in Russia (and depicting the bloody revolution, no less) might be a good idea. Pretty much the whole first half of this show is very Russian, which is to say very grim, very sad, very gloomy. Communism ain't pretty, folks -- and there's just no way to make it colorful, glamorous, romantic or appealing. Still, when the would-be Anastasia (Anya/Christine Altomare) sings the beautiful and haunting In My Dreams, there's a sudden glimmer of hope amidst the grime. And the compelling Ramin Karimloo as Gleb has such stage presence and such a magnificent voice that he will captivate you as he alternately pursues and remains fascinated by Anya. Karimloo's delivery of a number simply called Still is particularly notable in the first half as is an inventive traveling sequence that moves pretty much the entire cast from Moscow to Paris.
And then as act two opens we get a rousing song about the ever-alluring city of lights. It's called Paris Holds The Key (To Your Heart) and now, everything is bright and vivid and beautiful and enchanting.
Well, it all comes none too soon as by this point we are literally starving for some reverie. And we get it when the vivacious Caroline O'Connor arrives as Countess Lily and she literally brings down the house with Land of Yesterday and follows that with The Countess and the Common Man in which she teams up with John Bolton as Vlad. Suddenly, we're witnessing a veritable tour de force.
Anastasia runs two hours and 25 minutes and at times it can try your patience. But the performances are first-rate, much of the music is noteworthy, the sets and costumes are inventive when they're not downright lavish and, finally, there are those five magic words: saved by the second act!
Now, here's an important postscript: The mass grave near Yekaterinburg, Russia which held the remains of the Tsar, his wife, and three of their daughters was revealed in 1991, and the bodies of Alexei Nikolaevich and the remaining daughter—either Anastasia or her older sister Maria—were discovered in 2007. Anastasia's possible survival has been conclusively disproved. Forensic analysis and DNA testing confirmed that the remains are those of the imperial family, showing that all four grand duchesses were killed in 1918. Several women falsely claimed to have been Anastasia; the best known impostor is Anna Anderson. Anderson's body was cremated upon her death in 1984, but DNA testing in 1994 on available pieces of Anderson's tissue and hair showed no relation to the DNA of the Romanov family.
But, back to Broadway and . . .
On to another show . . .
A few blocks away at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre we finally got around to seeing Waitress, the musical version of the 207 movie about Jenna, a poor white waitress and pie maker who toils away in a small southern town. Jenna is stuck in an unhappy marriage to Earl, who's a real jerk. And Jenna is hoping for a way out but she doesn't even seem to know where to begin.
Anyway, she starts squirreling away money, and hoping to win a pie-baking contest so, with the prize money, she'll have enough cash to leave Earl and start a new life elsewhere. Ya see, Earl can't seem to hold a job and he basically lives off Jenna.
But before Jenna even begins to develop an escape plan, right from the start, she finds herself pregnant. She doesn't really want to have the baby but she won't get an abortion, either.
It's hard to figure out how Jenna got into such a fix -- something that is never really explained. But there is ample evidence that Earl is abusive and there's the suggestion that Jenna's mother also suffered abuse at the hands of her father. Plus Earl claims that he was there for Jenna when he mother died and she had no one.
Well, there's no doubt that Jenna bakes phenomenal pies at Joe's diner. She also listens to old Joe's wisdom, tolerates her sour boss Cal and is friends with Dawn and Becky (her fellow waitresses). It's all rather dreary. But then Jenna begins an affair with the handsome new doctor in town -- her doctor, the one who will deliver her baby. As the pregnancy advances, life with Earl gets downright dangerous, a way out becomes less clear, and Jenna has to come to some sort of determination about her affair with the doctor, the pie contest, the new baby, her marriage, etc. Whew! What choices does a waitress really have, after all?
OK, so we didn't see the show with Tony Award winner Jessie Mueller who originated the role of Jenna. And we didn't see it with Sara Bareilles who stepped in to replace Mueller and who also wrote the music and lyrics. We suppose one has to account for that. But the show's current star, Betsy Wolfe came off as shrill.
We did enjoy Drew Gehling as the doctor, Joe Tippit as Earl (a very tough role and he nails it with surprising subtlety), Larry Marshall as Joe, Caitlin Houlihan as Dawn and, in a real standout performance, Christopher Fitzgerald as Dawn's suitor, Ogie. Fitzgerald stops the show and brings things back to life more than once. Thank you kindly, sir!
Still, Waitress strikes us as a tiny little musical trying to fill a big Broadway stage. It's what they sometimes call an "intimate musical"when they don't want to offend. It's a little bit Pump Boys and Dinettes and a little bit Little Shop of Horrors and a little bit The Last Five Years that adds up to not much of anything.
There's a small band on stage and the musicians sort of interact with the players from time to time. The music sounds cheap and the songs are over amped so it all comes across as tinny. Plus, the show itself has some really raunchy moments. Not very much to like, huh?
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