![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/3-Lila-Coogan-Anya-and-the-company-of-the-National-Tour-of-ANASTASIA.-Photo-by-Evan-Zimmerman-MurphyMade..jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by Evan Zimmerman, as is the one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n
Because of one thing or another, I had not made it to this venerable Hollywood theatre in about seven months so I had almost forgotten how happening their opening nights are. It was tons of fun.<\/p>\n
As was\u00a0Anastasia<\/em>\u00a0itself. From the attractive blue curtain projection that greeted us as we walked in, to the upbeat audience, to the beautiful show.<\/p>\n In case you don\u2019t<\/em> know, this musical is based on the 1997 animated movie which in turn is based on the 1956 black-and-white classic film starring Ingrid Bergman which itself is based on an even older play. And all<\/em> of them are based on the\u00a0life and legend of\u00a0Anastasia Romanova, the\u00a0Grand Duchess of Russia, who was killed with her family in 1917. Or was<\/em> she? For the next very many years, women pretended to be her, for the inheritance, since some people thought she had escaped the slaughter of her Romanov family by the Bolsheviks. (Look up that fascinating story for yourself if you\u2019re as interested in the subject as\u00a0I<\/em>\u00a0am.)<\/p>\n Edward Staudenmayer and Tari Kelly in the number that’s the hit of the show. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019ll laud the entirety of this musical in a minute, but first I must tell you about my absolute favorite aspect of the show\u2014Aaron Rhyne\u2019s stunning projections, which set the mood of each and every scene just beautifully! For the first time in awhile, I was sitting pretty up-close in this theatre, right smack dab in the center, so I got a perfect view of the \u201cscenery,\u201d but I can assure you that they make the very same impact on every<\/em> seat in the Pantages\u2014they are\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0spectacular! The friend I saw it with is a very-working singer and actress herself, so I expected her to concentrate solely on the performances, but she, too, was the most blown-away by the magnificent projections.<\/p>\n And the costumes really helped set all the different moods of this show, as well. Because of the twists and turns of the narrative, Costume Designer Linda Cho\u2019s wardrobe had to portray the gamut from depressingly drab to classy and opulent. My mouth literally watered over Anastasia\u2019s two gorgeous gowns in Act II and all<\/em> the attire in the opening Royal Ball scene. If I ever attend an awards show again, I know just whom I\u2019ll be calling to outfit me!<\/p>\n Look at that gorgeous blue gown on Lila Coogan! Photo by Evan Zimmerman.<\/p><\/div>\n And then there\u2019s the music, a lot<\/em> of it, some of it very famous. This stage show smartly uses the few songs from the cartoon film, but fleshed it out with about a dozen new tunes. There are so many styles that the music never gets boring.<\/p>\n I love the beautiful lilting Once Upon a December<\/em>, which opens the show, and then is reprised once more in each act. Lucky us! I haven\u2019t stopped hearing it in my head since then, (which is a good<\/em> thing.)<\/p>\n Lila Coogan. Photo by Evan Zimmerman.<\/p><\/div>\n Act I closes with the Oscar-nominated Journey to the Past<\/em>, which I first became familiar with when Tara Lipinski skated her short program to it when she won the 1998 Olympics. Even though, handled by the wrong singer, that song can sound like one sung by Miss America contestants, I\u2019m happy to report that Lila Coogan does it justice in this musical.<\/p>\n My favorite musical performance of the entire show was a surprise one to me. The characters kept mentioning that they were going to meet up at the ballet, (but they used higher class words than that, of course.) So I was yearning to see an actual ballet, and sort-of spaced-out a bit to try to figure which one I can attend in the not-so-distant future. And then, all of a sudden, there\u2019s a beautiful bit of Swan Lake<\/em> right in the middle of the second act! And it\u2019s stunningly performed by Ashlee Dupr\u00e9, Mark MacKillop, and Ronnie S. Bowman, Jr. along with three ensemble members. It took my breath away. What a lovely ballerina Ashlee is. And let me tell you\u2014most Broadway dancers are not ones who can perform so perfectly en pointe! Most dancers in musicals are just trained in jazz and contemporary. So extra kudos to the Anastasia<\/em> casting people for finding such extremely talented dancers for this show!<\/p>\n Actually, the cast as a whole<\/em> works well. Joy Franz as the Dowager Empress, (Anastasia\u2019s regal grandmother,) is perfect. Her graceful rendition of Once Upon a December<\/em>, (with delicate snowfall projections in the background,) set exactly the right tone from the get-go.<\/p>\n Victoria Bingham and Joy Franz. Photo by Evan Zimmerman.<\/p><\/div>\n Edward Staudenmayer and Tari Kelly, as a reunited older couple, deftly play-up the schtick, which works to great effect. They were definitely the crowd favorites on opening night! That pairing reminded me a bit of Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman on the former\u2019s old TV show.<\/p>\n Jake Levy. (He joined the cast so recently that there are no pix of him in character, and I didn’t want him to be left-out of my review.)<\/p><\/div>\n Jake Levy just took over the pivotal role of Dmitry; I\u2019m always happy to see a fellow UCLA theatre person succeed! After watching him work, I was shocked to learn that opening night was his very first performance of the part! He\u2019s a natural. (And so cute, too.)<\/p>\n I always find reading a show\u2019s program to be educational. I read every single word in it, (because that\u2019s the polite thing to do,) and in this one I noticed that Jason Michael Evans, who plays the meanie Gleb, gave \u201cendless love\u201d to Yadier Molina in his bio. I re-read it several times because I couldn\u2019t imagine that he\u2019s talking about the St. Louis Cardinals catcher in the middle of mentioning his family and friends; that\u2019s sort-of odd. But when I finally moved on, I saw that that he declared himself to be a \u201cProud St. Louisan,\u201d and I totally got it. And he wrote this before<\/em> the Cards amazing 13-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves to move on to the next round of the playoffs! He must have been jumping out of his skin over that win, which was happening as he was on stage on the opening night of Anastasia<\/em>! What a Wednesday night for him. As a diehard Yankees fan, I totally understand the sports love. (But if it comes down to both<\/em> our teams in the upcoming World Series, it\u2019s every man for himself!)<\/p>\n Lila Coogan. Photo by Matthew Murphy.<\/p><\/div>\n To sum-up the overall experience, I can honestly say that just about every presentation that the Pantages offers us is very worthwhile, and this one is no exception. While I\u2019m not exactly sure that the true life saga of Anastasia<\/em> makes for the best<\/em> of musicals, I still highly recommend that, for all of the above reasons, you check it out while you have this opportunity. I\u2019m confident that you will enjoy this journey to the past. (See what I did there?)<\/p>\n Anastasia<\/em>\u00a0running through October 27, 2019<\/strong> ANASTASIA I can\u2019t tell you how much I\u2019ve wanted to see this Broadway musical!\u00a0\u00a0I was planning on seeing it on my upcoming trip to New York, but then it closed earlier this year, and I was so disappointed. So I especially thank the Pantages Theatre for bringing the National Tour to us lucky Angelenos! Because<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
\n Pantages Theatre \u00a06233 Hollywood Blvd. \u00a0800-982-2727\u00a0www.hollywoodpantages.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"