Russian to the Theater

Although it's now more than 20 years old, I've never seen the animated movie Anastasia. But I have now seen the touring production of the Broadway musical it inspired, as it has stopped here in Denver to run for a few weeks. It's the story of a woman who may or may not be a lost member of a Russian royal family, coached by a pair of con men to take part in a scheme that will take them all the way to Paris.

My husband and I have seen a lot of shows at the Buell Theater over the last year, but Anastasia is far and away the most show we've seen. It's an over-the-top spectacle that's using the latest technology to come as close to presenting a live movie on a stage as they can manage. A huge projection backdrop combines with a few strategic set pieces and plenty of lighting effects to completely transform the stage in scene after scene. The musical moves from castle interiors (in their prime and years later in decay), city streets, a moving train, a green forest, the inside of a raucous dance hall, and more. The action moves from Leningrad to Paris. And at every step, the set is completely transformed.

Frankly, it's more interesting to watch the scenery than what's happening in front of it. Anastasia isn't a bad story -- but it's the most rote, dutiful musical I've seen in a long while. Each beat of the story rigidly follows the framework for the Platonic ideal of a Broadway musical: here's the moment where the protagonist sings a song about this, and it sounds kind of like this. Here's a song where the lovers come together; it happens right when it's supposed to, and it sounds like this. On and on.

There are only a few departures from this slavish formula -- and not surprisingly, they're the moments that drew the most enthusiastic response from the audience: a brazen, comedic number early in Act Two (performed by two heretofore minor characters), and an elaborate ballet number in the second act (presented as the main characters stand near the wings, singing a song you won't remember).

The music manages the neat trick of being utterly forgettable while burrowing deep into your brain. That's because a lot of it sounds quite a lot like other music. One of the show's most prominent recurring melodies is a waltz that sounds an awful lot like John William's main theme for the Harry Potter movies. So yes, you'll walk out of Anastasia absent-mindedly humming a tune -- Hedwig's Theme. Other music so dutifully fills the role of "the song in the musical that does this" that the next morning, I can only think of "The Song That Goes Like This" from Monty Python's Spamalot.

Anastasia is certainly a feast for the eyes. Even though you know that 90% of what you're seeing is projected, you constantly forget that. The visuals are crafted with enough care, and supported with enough other (and more conventional) theatrical lighting that you're instantly swept up in each new setting. But it's a run-of-the-mill tale of "journeying for one thing only to find the thing you're really looking for," ordered into expected scenes that are built to hold forgettable songs.

All told, I'd give Anastasia a B-. Don't see it for the story; see it only if you're interested in the spectacle a big Broadway production can deliver.