It looks like Fox Animation Studios’ 1997 animated hit Anastasia is heading to Broadway as a new musical. Broadway World broke the exclusive after learning that casting has started for a 29-hour reading for Anastasia – A New Musical.
The musical is still in the early stages of development, but Anastasia’s songwriters—Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty—have written fifteen new songs for the stage, in addition the film’s five orginal songs. The film’s music was nominated for two Oscars: Best Original Song for “Journey to the Past” and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score.
Casting is still underway for reading set for late July, but Angela Landsbury will reprise her role as the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna. Aaron Lazar is the only other person known to be cast, though his role is currently unknown. Broadway actors Liz Callaway and Jonathan Dokuchitz provided the singing voices for the leads, Anastasia and Dimitri, respectively; it will be interesting to see if they are even considered to reprise their roles.
In Episode 12, we just talked about about how great we thought the music in Anastasia was. It will be interesting to see how they broaden the songs to include more characters such as the Dowager Empress. Also, it’s exciting to see an animated musical by someone other than Disney adapted into musicals for the Broadway stage.
What are your thoughts on an Anastasia musical? Would you go see it?